Emotional Rollercoaster of Rescue

Unfortunately rescue is not all about playing with puppies.  There are the highs of finalizing an adoption, seeing a sad dog become happy, and getting a clean bill of health from the vet.  Then there are the lows...

Crossroads has experienced a few lows lately in the midst of all the wonderful puppy adoptions.  In the age of social media, it is difficult to not be almost completely transparent, so we have some news to share with our fans, friends, and amazing supporters.

First: Beautiful Hershey

In a horrible sequence of events, Hershey is no longer with us.  Since she came to us, she bit two children. My hope was by moving her here, I could help rehabilitate her. I kept her away from my children from some time and slowly started socializing her with our family. She did beautifully.
However in the back of my mind, I kept thinking "where is her personality?"  It did come out some and I was getting excited that our investments were working.  Until her relationship with my yellow lab went downhill... Something snapped and we had to keep them separate.
Then she met our new cat, Jessie. For four days she sniffed around the cat and would then go lay down and ignore her. One morning, I took my daughter to school, and when I came home Hershey was in Jessie's bedroom (that I know I shut tight) and poor Jessie was in severe distress.  Jessie died before I could get her to our vet.  Prey drive... I explained it away because of a dog's prey drive.
The next evening when someone came to the door, the sweet, quiet Hershey that never barked went barreling for the front door barking. As my husband reached to stop her, she tried to bite him.
That was the last straw. After extensive talks with everyone on the Crossroads' board and our vets, it was decided that Hershey needed to be put to sleep.  Our liability would just be too great so we could not adopt her out.  Plus, our energies could be used focusing on adoptable dogs.
Hershey brought us 12 beautiful babies that will be loved and spoiled in their furrever homes.  While to a rescuer it feels like we let Hershey down, for the community we know we did the right thing.
RIP Hershey - 4/23/2011

Oh dear Sammie...  This adorable little girl came to us very sick.  Our board member, Abby, has a special place in her heart for Jack Russells, so we truly wanted to fight for this girl.  We knew she had just been diagnosed with diabetes at the tender age of six years old.  This could be manageable.
We got her to the vet the morning after she came in, and the doctor took one look at her blood work from the previous vet and said, "She is REALLY sick."  Diabetes AND pancreatitis.  He believed we could try to save her, but also laid out how difficult it might be due to the pancreatitis.  Abby and I wanted to fight. My daughter had bonded with her too, and she quickly became a special little girl to us.
As updates came in through the weekend, we gained hope that maybe she would make it.  Monday morning the vet re-ran blood work - not good.  Her white blood cell count was still through the roof after two and a half days on IV fluids and antibiotics.  She was vomiting again, but again... Dr. Shain was willing to fight.
Today I took our newest momma dog in to be checked out.  One of the other doctors laid it on the line for me regarding Sammie - plain and simple: There is no way we could ever take her home.  She would die a painful death within a couple days.  Her blood sugar this morning was 480 (normal is between 80-120). White blood cell count was 28,000 and amylase was 18,000 (high end of normal is 950!).
We needed to let her go.
Again, after talking with my incredible rescue team, we let Sammie go where she would be pain free and able to run and play again.  Dear Sammie-girl, you will not be forgotten.
RIP Sammie - 5/3/2011

Finally there is a sweet Callie - our newest momma.  No she is not dying.  However at her vet check-up today we found that she has an old break in her back, left leg that didn't heal right.  She does not seem in too much pain, but does not put much weight on it.  We will do an x-ray during her spay to see if there is anything we can do.  Then there was the heartworm test... Positive.  Ugh. Crossroads has never had a heartworm positive dog yet... our luck ran out.  This is treatable, but it is a long, expensive road.
For now there is nothing we can do while Callie is nursing. She will start on antibiotics once the puppies are weaned.  A month later she will be hospitalized for 3 days for injections. Then she will have to be kept very calm and quiet -  no running, jumping, or excitement for more than SIX weeks. She won't be very happy with us, but it will be necessary as the worms leave her heart/lungs and are absorbed by the body.
Lesson to be learned? PLEASE keep your dogs on heartworm prevention!!!

In the midst of all these challenges, we have seen 17 puppies go to their furrever homes!!! Congratulations to our babies and their wonderful adoptive families!  One more little girl will probably go home Thursday, leaving three of Hershey's babies left - 2 boys and a girl.

Thank you to every single one of our adopters, supporters, friends and fans. We cannot do this difficult, yet extremely rewarding business without you.