Some nine years ago, Betty Arevalo and her husband went to the animal shelter near her Rowland Heights home. They wanted to take home a small dog that their grandchildren could love.
They found half that. Skip was a beautiful black and white puppy. “I told the people there that we wanted a small dog. They said Skip was going to be like 25 or 30 pounds. But he outgrew that in no time. He had the biggest tail and the biggest ears. He was really cute and he really loved the grandchildren.”
But Skip was not going to be a small dog. After passing 30 pounds, he kept on growing until he reached 135 pounds. (Betty calls him a “St. Bernard-shepherd.”) But he was great with the grandchildren – and the neighbors and anyone else who came around. Skip looked like a horse, Betty said, and some of the neighbors refer to him as “the cow” because of his black and white spots.
In the summer of 2011, Betty noticed that Skip was bleeding from a toe on one of his feet. She thought he had cut himself as he dashed around the yard chasing grandchildren or squirrels and she dabbed peroxide on the wound to clean it. But it wouldn’t stop bleeding so she took Skip to Macy & Thomas Veterinary Hospital in nearby Whittier.
Dr. Sean Kay examined the foot and told the Arevalos that Skip had cancer and needed surgery to amputate the cancerous toe. Reynaldo Arevalo is a retired worker for the City of Los Angeles. He has emphysema. Betty had worked on and off and also is retired.
“We didn’t know how we were going to afford this. We were looking for help because it was going to be so much money,” Betty said. There was help – from an Angel Fund grant and from the hospital, which discounted the bill.
“They really helped us out a lot. We only had to pay a third or something like that.
Dr. Kay was a very good doctor. He really took good care of Skip. The people at the hospital were wonderful – just wonderful.”
Today, Skip is having problems with his hind legs. He has arthritis and is taking medication. He cannot chase the grandchildren around the yard now but he loves their visits – and they love him as much as they ever did.
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