Last summer, Sue Beem – a retiree who lives in Orange – lost her dog. On July 1, she and her god daughter decided to find another one.
“We went to all the shelters in this area and we found this little girl [a poodle] at the Santa Ana shelter. She was so cute and they told me she was between six and eight years old. That was a little older than I wanted but that was all right. So I took her and I went right to my vet – I call her Doctor Laura and I’ve been going to her for years.” (Dr. Laura Weatherford works at Tustin Santa Ana Veterinary Hospital.)
“Doctor Laura said that the dog was closer to eight to ten years old than six to eight. But that was all right. If she had stayed at the shelter, they would have put her down. Doctor Laura examined her and she removed some teeth . . . and I took her home.”
Sue decided to name the dog Lucy. Not long after she acquired Lucy, the dog “just stopped using one of her legs. She would play ball and everything else and then all of a sudden she would just not use that leg. She was walking on three legs. So I took her back to Doctor Laura and she examined her and she said that cartilage had slipped off the knee joint as well as the hip joint and that she would need surgery. And when she quoted me the price, I said: ‘No way can I afford it.’ And she said, ‘Well, we’ll see if we can get some help from Angel Fund.’ And we did.”
Most of Sue’s income is from a monthly Social Security check. Angel Fund contributed $400 to Lucy’s medical bill and so did the hospital. Sue is grateful for that assistance.
Lucy is doing fine now, Sue says, although the dog is a little overweight. “She’s going to go in for liposuction, I think.”
Sue is Lucy’s biggest fan. “She’s the greatest dog! She is by far the sweetest dog I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a lot of poodles since 1960. And she is so loyal. She never, ever leaves my side. If I’m there and somebody else tries to take her, she won’t go. She simply won’t go unless I say it’s OK. She is a wonderful, wonderful little girl.”
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