I wanted to start by saying thank you to everyone who reblogged and donated to Hintza’s care. I can’t tell you how much it means to me and to her adopters. Unfortunately, Hintza didn’t make it through Sunday. I’ve been dealing with the next steps, as well as a huge pet expo I was an exhibitor at all weekend, and haven’t had time to update. Her body just couldn’t take the strain anymore. She started to go at home, and her family saw it best to take her in to be euthanised so she wouldn’t have to suffer any longer. She went with love from her mom and brother. She couldn’t have had it any better. This family dedicated so much of their lives to our little girl. I mean really, who do you know that would spend $20 a day just on dog food for one dog alone to keep their dog going? As much as I would love to be able to do that, I financially could not have given her the care they dedicated the last 9 months to giving her. Hintza’s best friend was a 15 year old boy named Colton who loved her with all of his heart. Their mom is a wonderful woman named Christina who put her needs behind Hintza’s. Due to whatever Hintza’s disease was, she didn’t sleep much. She would wake up sporadically and pace and whimper and cry. She needed to be let out to go to the bathroom every hour or so, even though she was a year old. Christina deprived herself of sleep to give Hintza what she needed. She did this without so much as a bat of they eye or a second thought. Hintza was loved beyond belief. She still is. I know without a doubt her family will never replace her in their hearts or forget about her. 

Myself and the rest of the staff with my rescue are heartbroken. We feel like we’ve let Hintza and her family down. When I rescue a dog, I do it for life. I saved her from the hell hole she was living in with the intent of giving her a long fulfilled loving life. I let her down. She was only a year old and had been through so much. I keep trying to remind myself she received more love and care than so many other dogs do. 4 million or so dogs die in shelters each year. Without love. Without a family. Without warm hands comforting them as they go. Hintza didn’t have much time, but she did have all of that. I hate that we didn’t have the money to just hand over to the vet to treat her and take care of everything right away. The vet still says she probably wouldn’t have made it, but I would’ve liked to try anyway. My rescue animals are family. Their adopters are family. You don’t give up on family. The fact that $5000 is what stopped us from being able to try harder, breaks my fucking heart. The fact that we couldn’t find a single emergency vet that would proceed with care if we set  up a payment plan is disgusting. 

This experience has made me want two things. The first is to participate more in A Loving Goodbye (https://www.facebook.com/alovinggoodbye?fref=ts). A Loving Goodbye is a movement founded by David Hendrickson of Hendrick Boards (a wonderful apparel company that features gorgeous rescue related super comfy clothes AND gives back to rescues) that gives shelter animals one final loving goodbye before they’re euthanised. This project is one of the most important new things I can think of in rescue right now. The second thing I would like to do is start a fund to have backup funds ready for our dogs that have already been adopted, but may have an emergency come up. I want to be able to help our ICARE dogs that are in permanent homes as much as we help them before they get adopted. In the coming weeks I will be working on this. If you’d like to donate now, send me a note, and I’ll get you the info on where and how you can donate. I’ll be setting up a separate paypal from the current rescue one to keep these funds separate. I just need to find a way to keep them connected so it can still be tax deductible. I guess technically there’s a third thing. I want to start a collective list of vets and clinics that will actually assist in emergencies like this. Places that will care for your animal no matter what, and will work with you to pay for it after the fact. As I do more research I’ll be posting about that. 

Again thank you all so much for your help. It really means the world to me. Even if all we were able to do was buy Hintza enough time to spend one more day with her family, she had a chance to go home and say goodbye to her doggy brother and spend some quality time out of a hospital with her human family. 

tl;dr Hintza didn’t make it. Vets blow. Not having money blows, but you guys are awesome.

-thetobes

Hey a while ago I submitted my dog on here (Buddha) and he was posted (thank you!). I just recently am doing a very short term foster for an amazing little pittie girl and I was wondering if you could help give her a signal boost? She is AWESOME. Literally loves every single human being on the planet (especially guys apparently) and is super ready and willing to do WHATEVER you say. I taught her to sit, lie down and take a bath like a sane puppy within the first two hours of hanging out with her. I’m also currently teaching her to walk like a perfect lady on a leash with the help of a gentle leader and she is taking to it like a champion. Currently she has to live out on a rescue property by the everglades and has been sleeping out on concrete in a pen for over a year. I cannot stand the idea of this dog not being able to devote herself to a person, because that is literally her single mission. She is not unfriendly with dogs, but she definitely did not have any social skills and I think would be better as an only dog, just for her own sake, but walking by them and going to the dog park with them seems to be totally fine (she just ignores them really). 

This dog has an incredible heart and I really would LOVE to see her find a forever home. If ANYONE OUT THERE IS IN FLORIDA AND LOOKING FOR A LITTLE BULLY SIDEKICK I FOUND HER! I’m willing to drive her wherever in this state as long as her rescue approves the adoption, etc. Please message me if you want any more details or look her up on Born Free’s website www.bornfreeshelter.org. 

Anyway THANK YOU SO MUCH! And a huge thank you to anyone who reblogs her! 

(Source: rh2d2)

Don’t know if you guys know about these yet but they created Collars and Leashes for dogs that say:

Caution, No Dogs, Friendly Etc. these leashes come in different colors like A red leash/collar for caution, and Green for Friendly. these leashes can come in handy for your dogs because they can let people know about your dog and whether or not he/she is approachable. They also have leashes/collars for Blind Dogs and Dogs in training and are always coming out with new ones. So just thought you’d want to check out their site: http://www.friendlydogcollars.com.au/ I believe they also sell on Amazon as well.