Goal Reached

     I am so happy to tell everyone that last night we met our goal to fully fund Gigi's heartworm treatment.  Thank you so much to everyone who donated money to help. 
     I am preparing to leave to drive Gigi to the rescue affiliated vet on the other side of town....or should I say about 5 towns over.  She is going to spend the night there tonight and I will pick her up tomorrow.  Over the course of the night Gigi will receive 2 arsenic based injections to kill the heartworms.  The medication is very strong and potentially painful.  It breaks my heart, but it must be done to save hers.   
   

The Final Sprint to Treatment

     We have 24 hours left until Gigi goes to the vet for her heart worm treatment.  We have raised over half the money in just a couple of days! Thank you so much everyone who has donated money to help Gigi get well.
     Now we are in the final sprint to collect the last $201 in the next 24 hours. It's Memorial Day so lots of people are out celebrating the sacrifices of our amazing military heroes.  It's going to be a wonderful day!
     Gigi is going to bar-b-que with us later as we celebrate.  I'm sure she'll manage a few tasty scraps before the end of the day.  She is meshing so well with our existing pets I know she will be great with any family once she is well.
     Tomorrow is the big day....treatment.  Gigi will have to stay over night and receive highly toxic injections to kill the heart worms.  The worms will start to die off immediately!!! But she will have to continue on medication to finish the death blows to the parasitic life suckers.
     If you have it in your heart and in your wallet to help us get treatment for Gigi, just click on the donate or the support button in the right column of this blog.  We would really appreciate your support.  Thank you!  

Off to a Running Start

     Today was a busy day at the rescue house.  First, I spoke with the vets office and found out that I can get Gigi's treatment started on Tuesday...as in the day after Memorial Day.  That was huge!  But they said if I go through the lab rescue club for the treatment I may have to wait until July.  This is because they have a limited number of appointments available to rescue groups at the extremely discounted rate.  That was not so huge.
     However, the vet would extend a special rate to us for rescuing Gigi....just not quite as special as the rescue club receives from them.  I can understand, I am bringing 1 dog they bring dogs over and over again.  So, in an effort to provide the fastest, best care for Gigi (not wait until July) I opted to go it alone.  The rate the vet quoted was only $86 higher than with the rescue club and we are getting in on Tuesday.  Which means I need to raise $486 for Heartworm treatments for Gigi.  It breaks down like this:

Rescue Step 1: The Facts

     Gigi has heartworms.  I've never cared for a dog with heartworms before. I have seen the horrible images of tiny worms packed into a heart at the vets office.  They look scary.  I have to educate myself on heartworms... in laymen terms please.

My First Rescue

     Yesterday I decided to rescue my first animal.  It all started with a sad story.  A family down on their luck, lost their job in the recession, being foreclosed on that day needed emergency rescue of their 2 Labrador Retrievers.  The dogs have been raised in the home and even sleep with their 3 year old daughter.  The devastated family must give them up. When it comes to feeding your family or feeding the dogs the choice is pretty clear. Especially when you are headed for a shelter....for humans.