Every dog has their own journey. Some are lucky enough to have easy ones; that are those who are adopted as puppies and kept in the same family their entire lives, loved and cared for. Others have journeys that include pain, suffering and abandonment. If they could talk, the stories they could tell would shock us and break our hearts.
Sheba was left abandoned at a vet’s clinic in Louisiana. Her owners brought her in with a severely broken leg. The staff were aghast at its severity, but hoped it could be healed, and hoped Sheba would make a full recovery. Sadly, she was not given a chance to be treated or healed. The family that dropped her off never came for her or contacted the vet clinic to assure she was being cared for. They were never heard from again.
The clinic wrapped the badly broken leg and called the local animal shelter to come and pick her up. Poor Sheba was terrified and in much pain. The only family she had known left her when she needed them the most. Her injury could easily have resulted in her being lame or a severe infection with gangrene setting in.
The shelter did their best to care for her but did not have the resources to handle such a serious medical need. The shelter staff knew time was of the essence as infection would set in and kill Sheba and she would end up being euthanized. They reached out to many rescue groups hoping someone would step up to help her.
Finally, a rescue group said they would take her. The shelter staff waited patiently for the rescue to send all the necessary information. As they waited, Sheba continued to be in pain. And to further add to her suffering the constant scraping of her inverted eyelashes on her cornea became so painful, she rarely opened her eyes.There she sat with her leg healing improperly, unable to walk or see. The rescue never came, nor did they send the needed information.
Sheba was failed again. The shelter then made the unorthodox decision to allow a foster to take her in. This was not their usual practice, but Sheba’s case was not common. By placing her with a foster, she could receive outside veterinary care. The foster came quickly, and it seemed Sheba would finally get the care she desperately needed, but this stroke of luck was short-lived.
The foster brought Sheba back to the kill shelter. She knew what Sheba’s options were, yet she offered no explanation as to why she gave up on her and didn’t help her as promised. Everyone was bailing out on Sheba. Meanwhile, her leg was getting worse. The joint was spread and would never heal without care, and she was out of time at the shelter. She really needed someone to commit to saving her and stick to that promise.
The word went out to many Shar Pei rescues in Florida. This raised some concerns for the Florida rescues since Sheba was in Louisiana. How would they get her to Florida? Would she even survive the journey? What if they couldn’t find a willing foster?
But help came in the form of Shar Pei Nation Rescue Teamsters. Despite all the unanswered questions and possible risks involved, they were ready to step up for Sheba when no one else would. Shar Pei Nation partnered with the shelter, and things finally started moving for Sheba. She was rushed to a local vet immediately. But, after assessing the leg, the prognosis was not good. The only choice at this time was to have her leg amputated. She would lose the leg, but she would recover.
She was immediately scheduled for the amputation and the entropic surgery on both eyes. When she came out of surgery, she was finally able to see without pain. This gave Shar Pei nation hope for Sheba’s future. Sheba arrived in Florida on April 11, 2019 and is enjoying life with her foster family in Sarasota. Her leg is healing nicely, and she is learning to walk and run on three legs.
Sheba’s journey could have ended badly if it weren’t for the shelter going the extra steps to try to get help for her and if Shar Pei Nation hadn’t decided to take her on even though she would require a lot of costly medical care. They would not turn their back on her like others had done. To them, her life was important.
Sheba will go on to live her best life.
They say it takes a village to save a life. If you would like to be part of Sheba’s village and help Shar Pei Nation pay for her medical care, please donate to her GoFundMe
https://www.gofundme.com/help-for-rescue-dog-with-broken-leg
Or paypal them directly [email protected]
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