Dalton the Wonder Dog

This is an incredible story about the healing power of the body and the healing power of love. Jade's Mission received a call from Jennifer from Unleashed about a puppy that had been hit by a car. Unleashed does amazing outreach work like Jade's Mission does. They had been helping a family for a long time with their beagle named Patches that is chained outside. They had also recently gotten a puppy. The puppy was always outside in the boiling hot weather every time Unleashed volunteers would go by. The puppy was skinny and the family was not taking care of him like they should. Unleashed couldn't get them to relinquish the puppy, so they did what we all have to do sometimes and try our best to educate. The family lived out on a busy street and the puppy was never supervised, so of course you know where this is heading. The puppy was hit by a car and drug. The family didn't have any money to get the puppy to the vet, so they called Unleashed. All the volunteers were tied up at the time of the call, so they called us. We were happy to help, so Kendra jumped in her car and went to get the pup. It sounded bad and we were sure he would have to be euthanized. Kendra took him to the Humane Society since it was close to the family's house. They evaluated him and said he wasn't paralyzed, despite him not wanting to move. We transferred the puppy to our vet in Raytown where he had every bone in his body radio-graphed and there wasn't a broken bone in his body!!! We started calling him Dalton. Besides being a little banged up, Dalton suffered a major degloving wound on his front leg. It was so bad, there was a chance he may lose some of his toes. I apologize for the graphic pictures, I just want everyone to see how fast and how well he healed over time.

Kendra, one of our amazing volunteers, offered to foster Dalton. Kendra brought Dalton up to the vet every day for his bandage change for three weeks! Every couple days, when we removed the bandage, you could tell how fast his leg was healing. Dalton went on several antibiotics and pain medications and slowly started to become a puppy again. It was about two weeks after we rescued him that he started to play and explore. He was such a patient and good boy. He would just lay on the exam table at the vet and let them do their work, he didn't even flinch! He was house trained and crate trained in less than a week too. He was just the best puppy despite everything he had been through.

After 4 weeks of bandage changes, the day finally came where Dalton's leg was free to breath! Of course he had to wear the cone of shame, but he was a champ about it. Although the skin wound had mostly healed up, Dalton has suffered some permanent tendon damage and will never be able to use that leg normally. He is not in any pain and gets around just fine. The vet thinks there is a possibility that as he gets older and grows, his leg may correct itself over time. Dalton is still looking for the perfect forever home! If you think that's you, please contact us at jadesmission@yahoo.com or call at 816-737-8574.

Thank you everyone who donated so we were able to save Dalton's leg! Good luck Dalton!!!

Eeyore

It's been a while since I have written a post or told one of our stories on here. All us volunteers have been so busy lately, there hasn't been time, but I thought I would stop and tell Eeyore's story. We  had so many people come together and help us save Eeyore, it was amazing! I'll start from the beginning. This boy has been through a whirl wind of change, he's not even the same dog anymore.

We got a call late one night from a woman named Sharon who does amazing work in the inner city with trapping, spaying/neutering, and releasing cats. She also rescues cat and kittens, helps people take care of colonies, and takes care of many colonies herself. She is an amazing woman! She was helping a man with his cats and she knew he also had a dog. One night, she stopped by the bring him food for his cats when she noticed he had another dog. When she got near the dog, she could smell a horrible smell, and that's when she noticed the poor dog's neck wound. She asked the man about it and he was very frank about what had happened to the dog. He told Sharon that the dog is very bad and when he does bad things, he tightens the panty hose that are wrapped around the dog's neck. He said that he also tried to hit him with hot pans too, but that's didn't work. Sharon was in shock, but knew she had to get this dog out of there. She told the man the dog needed serious medical help and she took the dog with her. She didn't know what to do with him, so she called us. I met Sharon and picked up the dog from her. She said his name was Ears... He smelt like rotting flesh.

 I took him to the vet first thing the next morning. At the vet, we decided to rename him Eeyore. Eeyore had suffered a deep, long flesh wound from the panty hose being wrapped around his neck so tight. Eeyore went straight to surgery that morning. His surgery took almost two hours. The doctor has to cut a half an inch of dead flesh on the top and bottom of his neck, then stitch it all back together. Luckily Eeyore is a hound mix, so he has extra neck skin to spare! While Eeyore was at the vet having surgery, our outreach volunteers headed out to meet with Eeyore's owner and find out what exactly was going on and what action we needed to take. When the volunteers arrived at Eeyore's house, they found an older man that was clearly going through some mental issues. He didn't understand what he had done to Eeyore and wanted him back. The volunteers thoroughly explained the condition Eeyore was in and it was because of this man. He would not have it, he really thought he hadn't done anything wrong. The volunteers finally were able to get the man to sign Eeyore over to us. This man has many cats, but he also has another dog. What we really wanted to do was turn this man in for animal abuse and get justice for Eeyore. But the moment we do that, we lose contact with this man. We all know that there isn't a whole lot of justice for animals in our system, so we knew we probably wouldn't get far, at best, this man would walk away with some fines. So we had to make 'friends' with this man so we are able to check in on his other dog at least every couple weeks. We do not want what happened to Eeyore to happen to his other dog.

Eeyore made it through his surgery like a champ! He acted like nothing had happened. A few days after his surgery, Eeyore went to his foster home with Carolyn. Eeyore was introduced to Carolyn's other foster, Lexi and it was love at first sight! Eeyore got himself a girlfriend. As weeks went by, Carolyn updated us on Eeyore's progress, he was doing so well! Ten days after his surgery, Eeyore went in to have his stitches removed and he looked great, everything was healing really well. We finally decided Eeyore was ready to start looking for his forever home. We had a family that was really interested in him, but Carolyn couldn't let him go. She had fallen in love with this dog, who despite everything he had been through, still loved and trusted people. Eeyore loves Carolyn too, he 'talks' to her and brings her so much happiness. I went over to see Eeyore and give Carolyn his vet records and I couldn't believe what I saw. Eeyore was a totally different dog. He is confident, he looks healthy, and you can tell by the smile on his face he has finally found happiness. Eeyore has the run of the house and has a doggie door he can use to go outside anytime he likes. He even still gets to hang out with his girlfriend Lexi, who Carolyn is still fostering.

Thank you so much to everyone who donated to help us save Eeyore. We can't help animals like him without your help. Every animal deserves a second chance and a happy life like Eeyore.