Two San Felipe dogs, a mother and her puppy were living on the streets when found by a VIVA Volunteer, Panama Morris, Adoption Coordinator. She took food to them when she could to try and help. Subsequently, two American women found them and took them to the Vet. Then the task of finding a foster for them had to happen so they could be accepted by VIVA. The puppy had a bad infection in the eyes and the Vet felt one of them would have to eventually be removed.
Panama approached a longtime Foster Volunteer (Linda Shelton) to plead for her to take the mom and puppy, as they could not be accepted into the VIVA shelter until all were well and all shots given. Some pleading had to be done to get our President, Terry Smith to okay their acceptance into VIVA. As much as we would like, we do not have the financial means or foster volunteers to take in every indigent animal needing help.
Because of the eye situation, Linda was up every 6 hours to put drops in the puppies eyes. This turned out to be key, as the “bad” eye got better and would not have to be removed after the infection was gone. There were still issues with his respiratory system due to the infection and seizures started to occur because the infection had traveled to his brain.
Five vet visits later and little Cooper being a fighter and showing improvement, we believed he would get better. Our Vet’s assistant Carolanne, took Cooper for the weekend to watch him closely and to give him shots so the infection and seizures would subside and to give Linda a needed break from her long days and nights. But, over the weekend the puppy could not fight anymore and the seizures continued. He died at the Vet’s office on Monday morning. Cooper would have been 7 weeks tomorrow.
We tell you this story as many worked long and hard to give this animal a chance at life. It takes a BIG financial commitment and many BIG hearts to support the animals of San Felipe in need.
Thanks go out to Panama Morris, Linda Shelton, Carolanne and Dr. Solis for giving this little guy (Cooper) a chance.