Isa

Isa is a sweet girl that holds a soft spot in my heart. We were notified about a white Boxer that was in really bad shape by a woman that we helped get her dog spayed. She said the dog was very skinny and looked sick. The next time we were on outreach we headed over to see what was going on with this dog. As we drove down the alley we saw one of the saddest sights we have seen so far on outreach. There looking at us behind a chain link fence was this very sad face attached to a skeleton of a dog. She looked at us like 'please help me!' We drove around to the front to see if the owner was home and find out what was happening with this dog. The woman would not talk to us and told us the dog was fine, then slammed the door in our face. We immediately called KCMO animal control and called in the address and situation. About two hours later we received a call from one of the officers saying they had impounded the dog due to cruelty and neglect.

When an animal is impounded on these charges, there is a five day hold on the animal before it can be pulled by a rescue group. This poor white skeleton had to wait five long days at the shelter before we could go and get her. We had no idea what she was like or what kind of health issues she had. After day five I finally got to go to the KCMO shelter and get this poor girl. They said she had gained some weight since she had been there, but she was so emaciated, you couldn't tell. I took her to our vet at Raytown-Gregory Animal Health Center to have her checked out. Thankfully this girl was heartworm negative! She had a mass on her chest that would need to be removed when she was in better health. She also appeared to have had many, many litters. The vet could find no reason for this girl to be so skinny than simply not being fed. Well, we changed that! This girl went into foster care with a volunteer and was eating up to 8 cups a day! We named her Isa, which means icing in another language for her beautiful white fur. At first Isa was aggressive towards other dogs, but quickly warmed up to the other dogs in her foster home. Within two weeks she looked like a totally different dog.

In a month's time Isa packed on 20 pounds! She was finally healthy enough to have her mass on her chest removed and be spayed at the same time. Dr. Chirpich at Raytown-Gregory Animal Health Center did a wonderful job on her surgery and Isa made it through with flying colors despite her old age. After Isa recovered from surgery, we decided it was time to start looking for a forever home for her. Within a couple weeks of listing Isa, the perfect family came along. They had another Boxer and loved the breed. They drove all the way from Jefferson City just to meet her. I think it was love at first sight! They spent some time with her, but I think the decision was made the moment Laci saw her. Isa went home with them that day and never looked back on her horrible, starved life. She is now constantly surrounded by love and spoiled rotten.

 

Sometimes our volunteers get so depressed from doing outreach every week and just want to quit. But it's stories like this that keep our fire fueled and keep us going. If we hadn't been there to save Isa, who knows what would have happened to her. We saved her from starving to death and now she is part of a very loving family. Thank you so much to the Greer family for taking this old lady into your home and giving her everything she deserves!

June

I have been wanting to get June's story out there for a while, so here it is! Marilyn and I found June the day after Christmas while on outreach. It was late in the day and we had a couple more stops before we were going to call in quits. We went driving by a house and I saw a smaller black dog huddled up next to a crappy wooden dog house. Something in me said go back and check on her. So we stopped and knocked at the door and asked if we could put some straw in the dog's house? The lady that answered said yes, so we went back to see the situation. I bent down next to the dog and went to pet her. She jerked away and let out a horrible cry. That's when I noticed she was tied to a pole with just a shoe string. I looked down at her neck and that's when the odor of rotting flesh hit me. I got a closer look and the shoe string was also wrapped around her neck and completely embedded in her skin. I felt the blood boiling in me, I was so angry and so sad for this girl. I went back to the door and confronted the lady about the dog's condition. Apparently the dog is her father's and he wasn't home at the time. I asked when the last time someone checked on this dog, and she said the kids did this morning. I explained that a wound like that doesn't just happen in one day. We gave the lady two options, she could either sign over the dog to Jade's Mission or we would call animal control and wait for them to get there. The woman reluctantly signed the dog over. We went back and cut her free from the 2 foot radius that was this dog's living hell. I noticed that she had no water and all that was in her food bowl was onions and some rotten lettuce.

We took this poor dog to the vet that night where she received antibiotics and a pain injection. We set her up in a warm cage with blankets, canned dog food, and fresh water. She seemed so relieved to be out of the cold and more comfortable. The next morning, the dog, now known as June, was prepped for surgery. It took over 30 minutes to clip and clean up her neck. And on closer look, as we were cutting away the first shoe string, another one was found even deeper in her neck. I knew what this meant, these people knew that one string was already embedded when they tied the second one around her neck. It made me sick and so mad. June's surgery lasted almost 2 hours. Her injury went all the way around her neck. Sections of scar tissue had to be cut away. It was a very tricky surgery too, because the injuries were very close to her trachea and jugular veins. Dr. Utz at Raytown-Gregory Animal Health Center did a wonderful job literally putting June's neck back together. When the surgery was complete, it looked like her head had been reattached! I want to warn you that the next set of pictures are somewhat graphic, I wanted people to see the extent of her injuries.

June recovered very well from surgery and actually woke up wagging her tail!

The next day June received all her vaccinations and was heartworm tested. Unfortunately June came up positive for heartworms. I knew this girl had an even longer road to recovery. I worried about her neck not healing as well as it should since heartworm disease can put a lot of stress on the immune system and body. That night, June went to a very special foster home with Sara and her family! June acted like nothing had ever happened to her, she has the best spirit! She has been getting along great with the other dogs in her foster home and she loves her foster mom and dad! June had her stitches removed a couple weeks ago and her neck looks so great! It just goes to show that a little love goes a long way! 

June will begin her heartworm treatment in a couple weeks, this will be another long recovery for her. Sometimes I think we are meant to find some of these animals in distress. I am so thankful that we stopped that day to help June, otherwise I'm sure she would have died in that backyard with no one loving her. Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to June's fund to cover her surgery costs! We can't save and help dogs like June without your help! We will keep everyone updated on June's recovery and when she is finally able to start looking for a forever home on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JadesMission

Nadia

When we started our outreach program back in May, we came across an address in KCK where four shepherds were chained up in a big yard. The owner was an older man and he did a pretty good job taking care of them all. They always had water and he keeps them all well fed. We would stop by occasionally to bring him fly gel, food, and treats for the dogs. Three of the shepherds were female and only one of them was spayed, he flat out refused to spay the other two. Well, we weren't at all surprised when we stopped by a couple weeks ago to find eight little puppies running around the yard. They all had wounds on their head and legs from fighting for food between each other and the adult dogs. The man wasn't home, so we went back the next day to see if we could get the puppies out of there. He was tired of all of them and all the fighting. When we went back, there were only 6 of the original 8 puppies, he said the other two were stolen. We loaded up the 6 puppies and headed over to the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City, who vetted them and nursed them back to health. We were just sick about the other two and what had happened to them. We had finally convinced this man to finally spay the other two females so he wouldn't have any more puppies. When we went back to pick the first dog up, Nadia, the other two puppies were back! So we took Nadia and the other two pups to the Humane Society. Nadia was spayed and stayed two nights at the HS to relax and heal. Meanwhile, all eight puppies were ready to go to Great Plains SPCA to find their forever homes!

Nadia's owner came to pick her up two days after she was spayed. He was suppose to keep her quiet and inside so she could relax and heal. Instead he put her right back out on her chain and didn't pay any attention to her incision and what was happening with her. We stopped by last Saturday to check in and see how Nadia was healing. As I approached her, I noticed she had lots of fresh blood all over her back legs and there was blood all over where she was chained. I bent down and looked at her incision...there were intestines coming out! She had chewed her stitches out and her insides were hanging out. I was horrified! I asked the man how long she had been like that and he said he noticed it this morning! He noticed it that morning and didn't call anyone or take her to a vet?!?! I told him this was an emergency and that Nadia needed to go to the emergency vet. He didn't seem to concerned. I asked how much money he had to save her and he said he didn't have any and to just kill her. We quickly had him sign Nadia over to us and rushed her to Mission MedVet. I must warn you that these pictures are pretty graphic and to not continue on if you are sensitive to blood.

When we arrived at Mission MedVet, they rushed Nadia to the back to assess her and see what needed to be done. After what seemed like forever, the doctor finally came out and said that Nadia had in fact chewed her stitches out, and not only that, but had chewed up some of her inner flesh and her intestines. The surgery, if she would even survive would cost over $3000. They weren't sure if she would then survive the secondary infection from all the debris that was in her abdomen. Nadia was an older dog and had been through so much pain already. We just couldn't bare the thought of her going through all this surgery, just to die anyway. We decided that she had had a rough enough life and needed to be released to the Rainbow Bridge in Heaven. We went back to a room and said our goodbyes to Nadia and told her we would see her again someday. And as she passed we told her to be with Jade and all the other Jade's Mission babies we had lost this year. She passed peacefully and is no longer in pain! Thank you so much for everyone's thoughts and prayers for Nadia, she will be waiting for all of us that loved her when we pass over. RIP Nadia.

Thank you for everyone's support so we can help dogs like Nadia!

Puppy Palooza!

In the past couple weeks we have come across and rescued over 13 puppies from 4 different litters. And thanks to Jen and the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City, we have been able to get them into different rescue groups to be adopted out! Our first litter we came across was in KCK where a man has four shepherd mixes chained up in his yard. We had been helping him with hay and fly repellent during the summer months and we knew one of the shepherds wasn't fixed, but he wasn't interested in getting her spayed. Last week we went by to check on everyone and drop off a bunch of straw when we counted 8 little puppies running around in his yard! He wasn't home, so we left supplies for him and left a note for him to call us. He did and told us to please come get the puppies because they were driving him crazy! All 8 of these puppies had wounds on their faces and legs from fighting over food with each other and the other adults in the yard. We went out the next day to get the puppies, which were scared to death of us. We had to scruff most of them and a few we had use our net to catch. We were only able to get 6 at this time, the man said 2 had been stolen. We were heartbroken for those 2, but we were happy we could rescue at least 6. We also signed the momma up for a spay at the Humane Society for the following Tuesday. These 6 puppies went straight the the Humane Society where they received the vetting they really needed and will be transferred to Great Plains SPCA for adoption soon!

We were so upset about the 2 that had supposedly been stolen. During outreach today, we went back by to check today and we were so happy we did! There in the yard were the other two puppies!!! We were able to scruff one and we had to corner and net the other. They were so scared, they just curled up and rode the whole day with us on outreach. They will be joining their brothers and sisters tomorrow at the Humane Society!

It must have been lucky puppy day or something because after picking up these two boys, we rescued three more pups today. We had a call from a KCMO police officer about a homeless woman that was carrying around a very tiny 6 week old puppy with her. We tracked the woman down today, who is also pregnant. We talked to her for along time about the responsibility of having a puppy especially when she needed to focus on taking care of herself right now. She agreed and wanted what was best for the puppy. Us volunteers pooled our money together and gave the woman some money to help her out and we took the little puppy with us. We decided to name this puppy Mandie, after the homeless woman who was doing everything she could for the puppy, but knew it needed a better home. It was a very tearful and sad goodbye, but we told her we would stop by her area and let her know how Mandie was doing.

Then on our way home from outreach we picked up two of the most adorable teddy bears you could ever imagine! A woman that works at our vet clinic found them as strays that showed up at her property and we were happy to take them in! These two girls, who we named Jenny and Josephine, joined Mandie at a volunteer's house for the night. All three of these girls will be available for adoption very soon!

Thank you so much for everyone's support! With out it we couldn't be out there rescuing little babies like these!