GYPSY'S HAPPY ENDING

The call was like so many calls.  A very ill old dog was going to be surrendered to the pound/"shelter" where she would almost certainly spend her last days in a prison cell before being put down.  She had been seen for many years plodding along farm roads, her coat soaked and matted, her ears, filled with lumps of hardened bloody pus, so badly infected that the surface of her tongue was scored, her anus so surrounded with sores that she couldn't life her tail. It was that pound/shelter that she had been in many times, picked-up as a stray wandering in traffic.  And each time that pound/"shelter" returned Gypsy to her owners, in the condition we describe here. Believing that the pound/"shelter" would kill her, a compassionate neighbour begged to be given her.  Someone told the neighbour that AAS may take her and we did.  And that was the beginning of Gypsy's happy ending.

Photos below show Gypsy's condition when we got her. Unrelenting ear infections (caused by the almost complete closure of the ear canal due to calcification), persisted in spite of constant deep cleaning by vets and many different antibiotics, which spread to her mouth and some organs, gave us no choice but to have complete ear ablations (the removal of the ear canal), performed.  Gypsy was already completely deaf from the years of infections so hearing was not a consideration.  Nor was money a consideration; animal welfare societies which kill sick animals because they can't or won't spend the money to save them, are not real animal welfare societies. The only consideration for AAS was Gypsy's health and happiness. The money must be raised. No longer can multi-million dollar kill organizations credibly claim that they "don't have the resources". Not when the public now knows about all the little organizations which have managed, for many decades, while the big kill organization paid its employees outrageous salaries and wages, with garage sales, bake sales and other fundraisers, to raise the money to be no-kill, so that they can do all the free spay/neuter, so that they can pay for the health needs of their rescued animals, and so that they can help to pay the vet expenses of  low-income pet owners. 

   
Poor sick Gypsy... AAS's vet said Gypsy's was the worst case of chronic ear infections she had seen in twenty years of practice.  For six weeks Gypsy had to be sedated repeatedly to have her painful ears cleaned of pus and blood. Infections had gone on for so long that calcification had narrowed the ear canals so much that instead of ear-drops getting down where the infection was, it flew out at the first head-shake. 
   
Happiness... But in spite of her pain she soon became full of joy, tail up, jumping over logs on trails, splashing in creeks, and sleeping beside her foster Mum's bed.  Like all dear dogs, Gypsy managed to be happy in spite of  intermittent pain and illness.  Here she is with her family pack up the mountain.
 
Love... And with the child of the family who adopted her.  They took Gypsy out many times, into their home and on walks, so she could come to love them and they could come to know all her needs and ways. They all fell in love with Gypsy instantly, even sharing her after-surgery care.
   
Surgery... Then the decision was made to have the surgery.
   
   
Healing...Then home to her foster Mum who took such amazing care of her, taking her to vets so many times, cleaning and medicating her ears, taking her up the mountain with her pack, and having Gypsy sleep by her bed so that she could know when Gypsy needed her.
   
Not the end - the beginning...  Stepping out high, wide, and happy at last. Gypsy goes everywhere with her foster family, free of pain and free of suffering.   Look at the confident look on her face!  No wonder she feels so good about life with so much love lavished on her by so many caring people. See video of Gypsy jumping into the car to go for a run and running her her foster mom.
Gypsy is still awaiting that special family who will keep her company, keep her healthy, and take her out for fun runs.