Jake the Foster Dog - help him pay for knee surgery!

NEW UPDATE: Jake's neutering went fine. He had two teeth removed in one area but the rest cleaned up well. And since then his appetite has become, well, normal for a beagle! He'll now eat whatever we put in his bowl, morning and evening, dry food, veggies, etc. He still isn't a real fast gobbler, but at least he's eating well.

So far there are 4 parties interested in adopting him! He has an appointment for his knee on October 21, and once that's healing well he'll be available to one lucky family.


UPDATE: Jake will be neutered (they call it "castrated" at the vet office but I hate the sound of that!) and have his teeth cleaned (we're paying for that part ourselves) this Wednesday. Luckily his liver enzymes went down to a more normal level which means he can go under anesthesia.


His teeth look pretty bad and we expect he'll have some pulled. But that should also help reduce bacteria which will be better for when he has his knee ligament fixed - as soon as we find a veterinary surgeon who will do it at a reduced rate that the rescue can afford.


In the meantime, he is becoming even cuddlier and more of a curl-up-on-you and follow-you-around-the-house type of cutie pie. He'll make an excellent pet for someone - old, young, anything in between - once he's all fixed up!

Well, we got 9-year-old Jake, our latest foster beagle, a few days ago. He is a low-key but occasionally playful, sweet, friendly, mellow boy. Totally house trained, can be left loose, good with dogs (as long as they don't challenge his food bowl), not a marker even though intact, just a good all-around dog.

His story is a common one: he and his "brother" were turned in to animal control in Terra Haute, IN, due to "cannot afford." They had eaten only bread for 4 days prior. I don't know what happened to his brother Roscoe, or if he was a beagle or not. But Jake came with his breeder papers and AKC form so he's a purebred beagle.

And he looks the part. He's well formed and is a lovely combination of black and deep, deep reddish brown on top, with the requisite 4 white paws and belly, and just the tiniest tuft of white on the tip of his tail! He's really tiny and actually a few pounds underweight, probably because he had not been fed well of late.

Luckily he was heartworm negative which is TRULY lucky because he had not been kept up to date on shots either, so we know they wouldn't have been able to afford HW preventive. Close call for Jake.

His liver enzymes are elevated so he has to get that cleared up (with a supplement and a specific med for one month) before he can go in to be neutered and have his teeth cleaned, which is needed.

We noticed he didn't want to jump up on anything, although he loves being on the bed, chair, couch, etc. He just didn't want to push off, and that included getting into the car, which, once in he loves. He also was a bit uncertain about stairs, especially the ones we have that go down (Fiddler on the Roof song reference, anybody get it?).

He's very mellow and low key in general so we thought maybe he's just not a jumpin' kind of guy. But then the other night he was using the Down staircase (repeated reference as above!) and must have slid or twisted a bit and was yelping (in his very oddly low-pitched voice, it's truly unusual coming out of a tiny body!). Turns out he has a torn ACL and needs surgery for that too. We figure, based on his original hesitance to push off,  that it was at least partially torn already, and the stair slip just make the final rip. In other words, we did NOT break our 15th foster dog in the first week!

So now he hops around on three legs and it's pathetic but also pretty cute, I am embarrassed to admit. He actually goes up and down the stairs when he really needs to, hopping along each step. He tried to scratch himself with his bad leg and couldn't make it work. He wanted to stretch, you know, that cute body stretch thing dogs do, but that was a flop as well. Otherwise he's doing the best he can until he can be put back together.

So, as soon as his liver enzymes are in an appropriate range to allow surgery, he will have his knee repaired, his teeth cleaned and his manhood removed, and once recovered from all of that trauma, he'll be ready for adoption to a loving, lucky home. Even with discounts the rescue receives, they'll end up spending WELL over $1,000 for this sweet dog who will command the extreme price of...$165.

You can see the problem here.  Young At Heart is a nonprofit organization that operates wholly on donations to save senior dogs and cats who otherwise would be at the front of the euthanasia line at overcrowded shelters that have to put animals down regularly for no other reason than space. Because the shelter Jake was in happens to have staff who do a good job of assessing older dogs they think are worth saving, he is in rescue now, awaiting a new forever home. But Young At Heart will get $165 in revenue for this $1,000++++ expense, not a tenable business model.

So, please, if you are able, donate to Young At Heart to help support Jake's surgery. Lacking opposable thumbs, it's unlikely he'll be able to come up with the funds on his own by working, or even begging for them.

 http://yahpetrescue.com/; click on "donate."

Here he is resting his hurt leg...AWWWWW...