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In the summer of 2013, Tess – Rochelle Bates’ beautiful black and white cat – was no longer easy to be around. “When she opened her mouth across the room from you, the odor could just about knock you down,” she said. “It was intense. And it had developed very quickly over a couple of months.”

Rochelle and husband Ed had taken in Tess when she was a feral kitten. She soon became a loved member of their household. So Rochelle took the cat, just four years old, to a dental cleaning clinic at a pet store. The veterinarian who examined Tess “took one look inside her mouth and he told me what was wrong. He said: ‘All her teeth are rotting. You’re going to need to take her to a veterinary dentist.’ It’s a congenital condition.”

Rochelle, a former writer and producer in Hollywood, is disabled and her husband Ed was unemployed at the time so she immediately began to search for a dental specialist who could give Tess the treatment she needed – surgery for tooth resorption and stomatitis – at an affordable cost. “It was a rough time for this to happen,” she said.

“I called around to lots of veterinary clinics and found that the treatment was just too expensive. It was thousands of dollars to have all her teeth removed – or some of her teeth removed. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. So I looked on line for different grants and explored every one that was available – every single one.” Finally, she found Angel Fund. “It was the only one left. And it was the one that helped us.” Angel Fund provided a list of hospitals that could do the surgery. She chose the Dog and Cat Dentist in Culver City not far from her home.

She took Tess to the clinic and met Dr. Anson Tsugawa, VMD, DAVDC, and Jody Janes, RVT. “They were just the most wonderful people,” she said. “Jody is so kind. She shepherded all the paper work through and it was processed very quickly. There was a small balance that I had to pay. But they [Angel Fund and the hospital] covered almost everything. It was so amazingly generous of them!” Angel Fund and the hospital each contributed $500.

Dr. Tsugawa at first thought that he could save four of Tess’s teeth. But he called Rochelle after her cat was under anesthesia and said that all her teeth should be extracted. “Otherwise,” he told her, “she’ll have to come back and have the others removed later. We might as well do all of them when she’s young and healthy.”

The surgery “made a world of difference,” Rochelle said. “Tess had a very quick recovery and you would never know now that she doesn’t have any teeth. Dr. Tsugawa told us what would happen and that’s exactly what happened.”

Tess needed pain medication and antibiotics for a few days. Rochelle said that she gave the patient and her other two cats soft food at first, then switched to dry food. “Tess ate it with them [the other cats]. Now she eats a mixture of wet and dry food, like she always did before. She doesn’t care.”

The surgery has made a “world of difference” for Tess, she said. “Her personality has really blossomed since she doesn’t have that pain. I can only imagine what it was like for her.

“And I will always he so grateful to them [Dr. Tsugawa and Angel Fund] for this because, honestly, I don’t know what we would have done.”

It is with great sadness that AHF grant recipient The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee announced the passing of Frieda.

The much loved 49-year-old Asian elephant came to The Sanctuary after a lifetime of performing. Frieda resided at The Sanctuary’s Quarantine Barn & Habitat with her longtime companions, elephants Billie and Liz –known as “the threesome”– and their ‘herd’ mates, Minnie, Ronnie and Debbie.

Frieda arrived in sanctuary in 2006 underweight and suffering from arthritis, osteomyelitis (a terminal bone disease caused by standing for too long on cement), and exposure to tuberculosis. Over the last few weeks, the progression of these chronic conditions and the associated pain worsened. Frieda was humanely euthanized on Monday afternoon. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by those who cared for and loved her. Billie and Liz were nearby.

She will be missed.

To read Frieda’s whole story go here:  https://www.elephants.com/frieda/friedaBio.php

Cassie is a Chocolate Havanese and her birthday is November 26, 2012.

Cassie came into Deborah’s life when she needed a pet to help her through some difficult times.  Right away she brought so much joy, Deborah knew she had to find a way to share this gift with others.  That’s when Deborah discovered the Animal Health Foundation. I found the joy Therapy Pets brought to those in need and couldn’t wait to have Cassie bring that same joy to someone in need.

The AHF couldn’t be more proud of Cassie and Deborah, who both look forward to visiting nursing homes/hospitals to brighten an individual’s day.

Welcome Cassie and Deborah!

In November, Mission Hospital’s Behavioral Health Unit (located in Laguna Beach, California) opened their doors to a Pet Therapy Program, which has been offered by the hospital as a Community Benefit service to patients for the past 8 years. Over a dozen dedicated Pet Teams have volunteered their time in an effort to support the healing journey for patients, and most recently, two teams have opened their hearts to the behavioral health patients. Recently, staff shared a story of a patient who was significantly changed due to a visit with Mia, who has been a canine volunteer with Mission Hospital for 7 years.

“We had a patient with a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder who experienced major loss and was having a very difficult time coping.  She suffered with thoughts of suicide, insomnia, and severe social isolation. She had these symptoms for days and had not attended any patient groups. While she initially declined pet therapy, further prompting encouraged her to participate. Initially, she simply sat next to Mia, but after a few minutes, she began gingerly petting her and her physical affect began to change. She walked out of the group room with a small smile on her face. From this day until discharge, she became more and more visible on the unit, began sleeping better, and no longer had thoughts of suicide. We are convinced that she would have been here far longer if she hadn’t been given the opportunity to make that initial step to spend some time with Mia.”

It is connections like this one that make our work at Mission a sacred experience and help to bring wholeness to our patients, our co-workers and our community. Many thanks to volunteers Pam and Daleen who take hours from their day to prepare their dogs and spend time at our ministry; without them, these sacred moments would not be possible.

Thanks to the doctors and staff of the Lomita Animal Hospital, Mickey’s family could afford the fracture surgery he needed because the hospital reached out to the Angel Fund for a grant.

And, now, he’s a happy boy!

Board Member Dr. Alice Villalobos Received the Southern California Veterinary Medical Associations’ Highest Honor – The Don Mahan Award.

Below is the article that appeared in the SCVMA monthly publication “Pulse”.

Dr. Alice Villalobos: From ‘Concrete  Society’ to Renowned Veterinarian

From the moment she graduated from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 1972, Dr. Alice Villalobos was a veterinarian with a special pedigree.

She was one of the profession’s first oncologists. She had, in fact, unofficially done a three-year residency in veterinary oncology while she was completing her studies at Davis. “When I went to my first lecture about the cancer cell, I was very inspired,” she recalled in an interview. “I felt it was something I could do [that was] worthy of devoting my entire career to. And that is to kill the biggest pest in the body, which is the cancer cell.”

Student Villalobos worked for Dr. Gordon Theilen, a cancer research specialist widely regarded as the father of veterinary clinical oncology, who designed a three-year residency program for Davis that she was the first to complete. That oncology training and mentorship have served her well. Today she is regarded as a pioneer in the field, has written a textbook on the subject and is in wide demand as a speaker.

After receiving her DVM degree, Dr. Villalobos returned to the Los Angeles area where she grew up and worked as an associate in Manhattan Beach. In 1974, she opened the Coast Pet Clinic/Animal Cancer Center in Hermosa Beach, which developed into the first multidisciplinary private oncology and radiation therapy referral service in the United States. She also worked 10 years as a research affiliate in radiation therapy at UCLA’s Rilger Center.

“When I got out of vet school, I never knew that I was going to be a leader in veterinary oncology. It became a rapidly growing specialty and board certification was established in the mid ’80s but we already had a radiation oncology practice with three oncologists, internists and a surgeon. Many people called us Davis south.”

In 1999, Dr. Villalobos sold her clinic to VCA. Today she operates a Tuesday clinic at VCA Coast in Hermosa Beach called Pawspice (it rhymes with hospice). It “embraces treating advanced disease using kinder, gentler approaches that do not compromise the patient, expert pain control and immuno-nutrition that helps patient well being,” she said. “We try to have pets at home with their families. The whole idea is that the patient feels comfortable at home and the family members have privacy. We prioritize pain control and quality of life big time.”

Her team also runs a busy Wednesday clinic at ACCESS in Woodland Hills called Animal Oncology Consultation Service & Pawspice. This schedule allows time for writing, speaking at national and international meetings and participation in organizations dear to her heart. Her textbook, “Canine and Feline Geriatric Oncology: Honoring the Human-Animal Bond,” was published in 2007. She has written two monthly columns for Veterinary Practice News and now writes occasional columns under the title, “Dr. Alice at Large.”

Dr. Villalobos comes from the “cement society.” She grew up in the Crenshaw District near the Forum in Inglewood. Her parents immigrated to Los Angeles from Mexico as children. “My parents considered education very important,” she said. “I was the first one [the fourth of five siblings] to go away to college.” Her father worked in a factory and her mother worked as a seamstress. “We got by just fine but we didn’t have a lot of money,” she said. “Jobs and student loans helped me pay for college.”

Young Alice went to St. Mary’s Academy and attended El Camino College and Long Beach State. She transferred to UC Davis as a senior, then won acceptance to veterinary school.

As a child, she said, “I always loved animals. I collected bugs in the back yard. I wanted to have a dog but we couldn’t have one. A stray came into our yard when I was in second grade and he was scratching all the time. I wanted to help him. We took him to the vet. He took a skin scraping and showed me a terrible creature under the microscope – a sarcoptic mange mite. I’ll never forget that ugly creature. I asked the doctor how much it would cost to fix the dog. The doctor took off his glasses and he looked at me and he said, ‘30 dollars.’ I knew right then that I was going to be a veterinarian and take care of my own pets.”

Today, she said, she likes to show clients cancer cells under the microscope. “I think it really means something to them.”

Her goal is to “create a movement throughout the United States and the world to increase the awareness of all practices, whether general or specialties, to the concept of hospice or Pawspice so that pets can spend their last days on comfort care at home with their families – and not in the hospital. We were trained to not send an animal home that can’t move. But now we’re asking emergency room doctors and clinicians to rethink and send patients home for hospice. People prefer a little more time at home to say goodbye to their pets with help from a house-call doctor or their local veterinarian.”

In 2004, Dr. Villalobos put together her Quality of Life Scale. In wide use today by veterinarians and pet owners, it “helps people make the decision to continue hospice to improve the patient’s quality of life or to make the final call for euthanasia so that we can assure a peaceful and painless passing.”

Dr. Villalobos has a protocol for euthanasia that is “very gentle and kind.” She wants family members to feel comfortable and unrushed and, she said, she never separates the pet from the family. She sedates the pet first so that the pet falls asleep with loved ones nearby. Family members who feel uncomfortable can leave the room before euthanasia. She wants it to “be a peaceful experience for all . . . and a memorable experience” even though it is a difficult time.

On January 31, Dr. Villalobos was presented the H. Don Mahan award at SCVMA’s annual Celebration and Installation of Officers. The association’s most prestigious award goes annually to a person who has served organized veterinary medicine in an extraordinary manner.

Dr. Villalobos and Ira Lifland, her husband of 32 years, are “the American mom and dad” to three Asian families. They are guardians and god parents of 16-year-old Cindy Zhou, who has lived in their home in Hermosa BeacherHHH eermosa BeachHfor two and a half years.

In 1977, Dr. Villalobos founded the Peter Zippi Fund, which has helped more than 14,700 homeless animals. The recipient of numerous honors, she was named Bustad Companion Animal Veterinarian of the Year in 1999, received a UC Davis Alumni Achievement Award in 1994 and won the CVMA’s Distinguished Service Award in 2014. She has held many leadership positions and has served as president of the Society for Veterinary Medical Ethics, the American Association of Human-Animal Bond Veterinarians and the Sierra Veterinary Medical Association. She is veterinary chair for the National Academies of Practice and is a director of the Animal Health Foundation.

She stays fit by jogging and skiing. She also loves dog walking, community work and travel.

–by Jim Bell

When Nancy McDade learned late in 2013, that Mocha – her four-year-old chocolate Labrador – needed surgery, she knew what she needed to do.

The former merchant teller at a bank was unemployed and living on disability payments and she immediately set to work to find ways to pay for an operation that was well beyond her means. “I wanted to do everything I could for my dog but money was definitely a factor because I didn’t have any for this. I contacted several agencies that help provide funding and the veterinarian [Dr. Sean Kay of Macy & Thomas Veterinary Hospital in Whittier] suggested Angel Fund.

“Dr. Kay is a generous and caring person,” she said. “He knew I didn’t have a lot of money and he discounted some of the services he had control over. But the surgeon who would come in expected full payment.”

The staff at Macy & Thomas helped Nancy with an Angel Fund application. And Dr. Kay, from the very beginning, told her: “We’ll just assume you’re going to get it.” She did. Angel Fund provided $500 and Macy & Thomas helped with $500 more. Her other efforts raised $700 to $900 from about half a dozen agencies.

Nancy had first noticed Mocha favoring her right rear leg and limping. So she took her to see Dr. Kay. An x-ray showed a torn anterior cruciate ligament. “It was torn but not fully detached and they tried doing laser treatments to see if it would heal. But it was torn too badly.” She was given the option of doing nothing. But that could have led eventually to amputation and it could have caused problems in the leg on the left side.

So, Nancy said, the choice was easy. “A bird should fly and a dog should run,” she said. “There was a beauty about Mocha, like a race horse, when she ran. She jumped over short little fences, like garden fences. There was beauty in the way she did it. And I wanted her to be able to do it again.”

So Mocha got the surgery. Depressed after five or six days in the hospital, she came home to recuperate. Under orders to keep her in a small space so she could heal, Nancy said she and son Jacob, who lives with her, “had barriers all over the front room. But at one point I took her back to the hospital because her leg was swollen and I was told that she was standing on it too much. She needed just enough space to stand up and turn around and we had been giving her too much.”

Mocha’s recovery took about four months. Today, she “is running around again like a crazy woman. She’s very happy. She’s a very well behaved dog and she is very protective of me. Nobody is allowed on my front porch – well, she thinks it’s her front porch. She follows me from room to room. Sometimes it’s like am I protecting you or are you protecting me? Because she’s always right next to me and fully alert.”

Nancy is grateful to Angel Fund, Macy & Thomas and the other donors. “They helped save my dog’s life – not that it was a life threatening condition. But this [surgery] gave her quality of life. . . . Wonderful!”

On May 5, 2012 – Cinco de Mayo, Jessie Carrillo recalled – her cat gave birth to a litter of kittens. The next day, the mother died and Jessie raised the kittens. One of them was special.

“Cosmo was my favorite cat in the whole world. He was my best friend,” Jessie said. But Cosmo, who was gray and white, found something to eat that he shouldn’t have one day when he was outside not long after his first birthday. It was a cork and it lodged in his intestines, obstructing the duodenum.

“He was acting really bizarre. After a day and a half, I realized that he wasn’t going to get better and I took him in [to the Cat Care Clinic in Orange]. They did an x-ray and they saw the blockage.”

The doctor told Jessie that Cosmo was very sick but that surgery might save him – although he might not survive it. The operation would cost $2,000 – an amount far beyond her means. Jessie wanted to do whatever she could to save her cat. The doctor suggested that Angel Fund could help. So Jessie submitted an application for assistance. She was grateful for the $250 contributed by both Angel Fund and the Cat Care Clinic.

“It was a blessing that [Angel Fund] was there because I couldn’t afford the surgery,” she said. She was working as a receptionist at the time “but my job was not affording me $2,000 for surgery.”

After the surgery, she took Cosmo home but he soon died. “He was OK for a couple of hours but then he died in my arms. I was lucky to share that last moment with him but it was really rough. He could have been euthanized but they gave me hope that he might make it. I think the surgery was just too much for his body.”

Jessie is grateful to Angel Fund and to the doctors and staff at the Cat Care Clinic. “They were really understanding and sympathetic. They were kind and they did their best.”

Today, Jessie misses Cosmo very much. Losing him, she said, was “just part of life.” But she has his sister, a beautiful black cat named Boo, now 2½.