Posts in Category: AHF Grant Recipients

In June, 2011, Kathy Mullins’ dog Skipper had a problem.  “We’d take him out in the yard and we’d notice immediately that he couldn’t urinate. He was trying very hard and he was straining and he just couldn’t. And that went on a day or so. Eventually little drops of blood started coming out.

“And you can imagine, I started panicking.” Mullins took her dog, a five-year-old Pomeranian-Toy Poodle mix, to Irvine Boulevard Animal Hospital in Irvine where Dr. David Driscoll examined him.  “I’m thinking he has some kind of blockage,” the veterinarian told Mullins, “probably some stones. But I won’t know for sure until we do x-rays. I might be able to do this without surgery. But I can’t guarantee that. It could be that he has to have surgery.’”

Mullins said: “So I’m thinking ‘Oh, Lord!’  First of all, you don’t want your pet to suffer and you don’t want to lose your pet but you’re also certainly thinking about the financial end of it. At the time, I didn’t have a job.  I was working at some temporary jobs.  That was the only thing I was able to get at the time. And I was between temporary jobs.  It was a really difficult time.

“So Dr. Driscoll did the x-ray and I was able to scrounge up a few dollars for that so that he could determine exactly what was going on.” The x-ray showed that Skipper had bladder stones – “quite a few of them.” Mullins recalled, and the doctor said that surgery would be needed to save Skipper’s life.

“Dr. Driscoll was able do a procedure to alleviate the problem that seemed to buy us a little time. It was getting to the point where the bladder could have ruptured.  And he told me about Angel Fund. It took us a day or two to arrange for them to help us.

“The people at Angel Fund were very nice. And we were able to get Skipper back in there and schedule the surgery.  I couldn’t sleep and I was crying the whole time and my three daughters were very upset.

“But everyone was very kind. We still talk about it to this day. How Angel Fund and the doctor and the other people at the hospital – people cared.  And that was so touching for our family, that they cared about our pet and they cared about us. And so we still get to enjoy our Skipper. They saved our dog.”

Angel Fund contributed $500 to help pay for Skipper’s surgery and Irvine Boulevard Hospital slashed its bill by $700.

Kathy and David Mullins, who lived in Irvine when Skipper was sick, have since moved with their three daughters to Ashland, Ky. “We feel very blessed. It was such a hard time then and there were some caring people who helped us and saved our dog and we are very grateful.”

By Jim Bell

Thirteen years ago, a young man gave a Golden Retriever puppy to his uncle, who was ill with a heart condition.

“My nephew Danny . . . thought this dog would be the best thing for my husband,” recalled Nellie Reyes of Ranch Cucamonga.  “It was true.  Comet was heaven sent. He was a miracle dog. He helped my husband so much. When he got angina attacks, Comet would bark and look for me. And he would run to him and he would point with his nose toward his heart for me to give him his medication.”

Her husband died seven years ago.  “When he died, Comet went into a depression.  I’ve never seen a dog like this before. He didn’t want to eat or anything. He was mourning a lot.”

Today, Mrs. Reyes lives with her daughter, Lucy, her son, Larry, and a grandson Robert. “He [Comet] follows my daughter around. He thinks she’s his mama.”

But at 13 Comet has had his own physical problems. When he was 10 years old, Mrs. Reyes noticed a growth on one of his hind legs. She took him to a veterinarian who told her that the growth should be removed and that it might be cancerous.

But with income only from a Social Security pension and government payments because her husband was a disabled veteran, she could not afford the fee. Desperate to help Comet, she consulted other veterinarians and several foundations, hoping that she might find someone who could help.  “They all said it’s going to take quite a bit of money [about $1,800] and, ‘No, we can’t help.’ I just said there has to be somebody out there. So one day I looked in the Yellow Pages and I called Western University [College of Veterinary Medicine] in Pomona and they gave me a phone number in San Diego. And I called them and they gave me a phone number for the Angel Fund. Meanwhile, the tumor was getting bigger and bigger.”

Nearly a year had gone by since Mrs. Reyes first was told that Comet needed surgery.  At Angel Fund, “they were very nice. They were so wonderful.  And they said you have to find out which veterinarian will take this because we would pay so much and the veterinarian would pay the other half. . . . And they sent me a sheet that told me which hospitals would be in this program.”

She chose Pomona Valley Veterinary Hospital.  “And the first time I took Comet there, they said, ‘Oh, yes, we can help.’” Dr. Tahir Khan performed the surgery. “He is exceptional. He is so great,” Mrs. Reyes said. Angel Fund and the hospital each contributed $500 to help pay her bill.

After the surgery, Mrs. Reyes learned that the growth was cancerous.  Today, Comet has arthritis in his rear legs and needs help getting up. He can no longer go for walks. “But he’s still going strong.  He is still eating well and is very alert when he goes outside.”

Mrs. Reyes knows that Comet is not likely to live much longer.  But she and her family are grateful for the additional time they will have with him.

“If it hadn’t been for the Angel Fund, I don’t know where I would have been. If it wasn’t for them, my dog wouldn’t be here with me,” she said.

David Alvarez has a real love for his minpins.  He got his first dog Coco about four years ago and loved her personality so much that he didn’t hesitate when his cousin called offering to give him another one.  She had two little, active girls and having an active minpin in the house just wasn’t a good fit for her.  So, last summer David brought home his second minpin and promptly named her Kiki.

Sure enough, Kiki has a spectacular personality of her own.  Quiet during the day when she and Coco are home alone, Kiki becomes energetic and up for anything when David arrives home.  As soon as Kiki sees the leash, she goes bonkers with anticipation for the walk to come.  Usually David takes his two dogs for a long walk down to a cove near where he lives and lets them run around.  The favorite part of his day is seeing Coco and Kiki tearing off after each other.

About a week after David brought Kiki home, Kiki began vomiting and stopped eating and drinking.  Concerned, David brought her to his vet at Santa Margarita Animal Care to see if they could discover what was wrong with her.  Dr. Amy Parker was the attending veterinarian on this case and remembers it well.

When I felt her belly, I could feel a little mass effect in her abdomen associated with her GI track,” recalls Dr. Parker. “David had told me that she had torn apart a peepee pad and we worried that perhaps she had eaten some of that.  We wanted to do x-rays, at which point David informed us that he was financially constrained and probably wouldn’t be able to afford much.  Since Kiki was just a four month old puppy, we wanted to find a way to work with her and David, so we went ahead and ordered the x-rays which ended up indicating that she had a foreign contaminant in her body.”

The cost of the surgery was far beyond anything David could afford on his own. Although he just started working at the time he first got Coco, David’s finances were still in a bind.  David didn’t know what to do and couldn’t bear the thought of letting Kiki go.

“I told Dr. Parker I didn’t have any money, says David.  “When they told me that they would help me and that there were some foundations that might be able to help, too, I just couldn’t believe it.  They asked me to fill out paperwork, which I did right away, and I worked out a plan with them to get Kiki the help she needed”.

Between Santa Margarita Animal Care, the Angel Fund, and David, enough funds were collected to enable the surgery that Kiki so desperately needed.  Thankfully, the operation was a success and Kiki is back to running around the cove with David and Coco.

“We were very grateful to be able to help David,” says Dr. Parker.  “We just couldn’t euthanize this four month old baby, and this owner is working and trying to make a great life with his pets.  We wanted to help him in any way possible and we’re thankful the Angel Fund was part of that.”

David echoes the feeling of gratitude and has a message for Santa Margarita Animal Care and the Angel Fund. “I want to say thank you for helping me keep my pet around.”  He says, “She’s my companion, and it means the world to me that there are people out there who are actually willing to help other people with their difficult situations.”

Leslie has always had a special place in her heart for guinea pigs. “I’ve been loving guinea pigs since I was a little girl,” she said. “They are the most affectionate, most grateful, cuddly, little animals in the world. I especially love watching them move around when they’re happy, they hop straight up and down and it’s called popping corn. These animals are just so much fun.”

She got her first guinea pig, Nibbles, when she was ten years old. “When I was young, guinea pigs didn’t live very long,” she reminisced. “They never seemed to make it past six months. I know a lot about them now and am much more educated on what they need. I probably give them much better care now than I did when I was young.”

Leslie lavishes a lot of love on her companions. They get fed every morning at 5:00am, in the afternoon, and then later in the evening. Not only does she have them on a regular diet of timothy hay, romaine and endive, and timothy pellets, but she also gives them treats of strawberries, tomatoes, and carrots. She cleans their cages every single day with white vinegar and she puts down fresh fleece for them to enjoy. “I hear there are people who clean their guinea pig cages only once every week, and I think that must be awful for the guinea pigs. They get so excited when they get to go back to their clean cages, so I think they must really appreciate that.” Leslie is also dedicated to administering all necessary health measures. She has to give her oldest guinea pig, Herbert, medicine every four hours around the clock, and her guinea pigs visit the veterinarian on a regular basis. Her animals obviously thrive under her care, Hebert has reached the venerable age of 8, Lucy is 6, and Seven is at least 4 years old.

Leslie’s vigilance in watching out for her animals’ health led her to take Seven to the vet when one morning she discovered that Seven’s bottom teeth were gone and his top teeth appeared to be overgrown. “I took him to see Dr. William Ridgeway at the Long Beach Animal Hospital, but we couldn’t figure out why he lost his bottom teeth,” she said. “I was taking him in to have his top teeth trimmed every four weeks, but one day I looked at his face and it was swollen. He had a huge abscess on the left side of his jaw that needed surgery. He also had to have another surgery when we found that he had a tooth coming out of his neck.”

Unemployed and without the funds to pay for the care Seven needed, Leslie turned to the internet to see if she could find any resources that might be able to provide her with some help. “That’s where I found out about the Angel Fund. I called and spoke with someone very helpful there. They told me to tell my vet about the program and they listed everything he needed to do so I could get the help. I am very, very grateful, because even though I love all three of my guinea pigs, it can be expensive with their health problems.”

But the joy and companionship Leslie receives from her pets is absolutely invaluable to her. “My animals mean the world to me,” she said. “I’m a serious lover of all kinds of animals, but my guinea pigs do genuinely funny things that just always make me laugh. Lucy is a very sweet girl who’s a lot of fun. Herbert is a very feisty pig even though he’s eight, and the bond he and Seven have brings tears to my eyes. I can tell my guinea pigs are grateful for the care I give them, and I’m thankful that the Angel Fund helped me take care of them.”