Dear Arianna, February 27, 2013

Dear Arianna,

    Today  Mommy and Daddy are sad.  We have been helping with money and supplies a dog named Lucy.  She is a Cocker Spaniel who, when pregnant, was dumped by her owners at a high-kill shelter.  She was rescued by a foster rescue group by a wonderful person named Elina Kaufman.  Twice we have sent care packages of food and goat's milk and when Lucy had her puppies, all six puppies seemed healthy, as did Lucy, and all were getting stronger.  Rather suddenly, Lucy took a turn for the worse.  She was rushed to the emergency veterinarian with a condition called pyometra.  It is a disease of the uterus and urinary tracked that is found in pregnant dogs and cats who have not had proper care and feeding while pregnant   Lucy had a  temperature of 106 degrees and required a complete blood transfusion to keep her alive.
    Her white blood cell count had fallen to zero, so she had no ability to fight off infection.  After the transfusions, they did more blood tests on her to check her white blood cell count.  Hey noticed something unusual in her blood so they ordered more tests.  She was then diagnosed with distemper, which is caused by the rabies virus.  Adult dogs can survive distemper with intense antibiotics, but it does leave brain damage.  Even more tragic, she passed the virus on to four of her pups.  If the previous owner had ever been responsible  or the kill-factory shelter done the right thing when they took her in, they would have given her a rabies shot.  Even if she had had distemper at that time, her puppies would have passed immunity to it while still in the womb.  Instead, they did nothing.
   Elina today had to do what I could only imagine was the most terrible decision she had to make.  Four of the puppies started to have seizures and trouble walking.  The distemper had damaged their brains and was getting worse.  She had to put four of the puppies to sleep today.  There is still hope that mama Lucy will pull through and thus far, two of the pups shoe no signs of distemper, so we can pray for their good health.
    In many ways, this reminds me so much of Sterling, whose owners dumped him at the age of 10 at the shelter with terminal cancer.  It makes me so frustrated with humanity, that there is so much disregard for life and so much inhumanity.  Then, I have to remind myself that there are good people like Elina Kaufman and others in the rescue community who do everything they can to save and heal these wonderful animals.  From what I have read today on Facebook, I can see that she is in such a bad way mentally from what has happened that she may need to take a break from rescue.  I can understand that, and I also wish that everyone loved animals as much as she did so we wouldn't need rescue groups and we wouldn't have to deal with bad shelters.
    Your own boys, Ian and Turlough, are quarantined right now because they are getting spayed and micro-chipped tomorrow.  I wanted to finish this rather sad letter with a picture of you with your boys, whom you love so much.  It makes your Mommy and Daddy so happy that you are so loving and wonderful with animals.  I wish that more people had your immense heart.

Love,
Daddy