8/22/22 – On August 18, 2022 we posted about Lady and asked for prayers for her pending surgery which was August 19. Lady was found by a very caring Detroit EMS worker who found Lady rummaging through the garbage. In the past week, Lady started showing signs of distress and was losing weight. Lady was taken to a veterinary clinic where an obstruction in her stomach was found. Although we tried to get Lady into a clinic the same day the original vet would perform the surgery, we weren’t able to get her in until the following day. The appointment was made with our amazing doctors at Orion Animal Hospital (which anyone who has tried to get a pet into a clinic over the past two years would agree, was amazing). And, very sincerely, this says everything about Dr. Zalac and her staff who are always placing an animal in need above all else.

On Friday morning I received a personal message from Dr. Zalac:

“Lady was 22 lb. and should weigh at least 40 lb. The previous vet didn’t send the x rays so I did my own and confirmed foreign material within her intestine. We explored and found multiple foreign objects from the stomach to the small intestine with a string connecting them all together. This is called a linear foreign body. Along the line of the string there were numerous bowel ruptures with leaking intestinal contents (i.e. bacteria) into the abdomen. One area of rupture was particularly challenging as it was a deep rupture between the stomach, small intestine and pancreas. I made the difficult decision to contact the rescuer and recommend euthanasia as her prognosis was guarded to poor. As the rescuer was considering this decision, Lady started having even more trouble with blood pressure and anesthesia, so I called again and told her there was really nothing to be done. We let her go while she was anesthetized.”

Chelsea, Lady’s rescuer, contacted me the following morning. She had been exhausted from crying over Lady and contacted me after receiving my e mail the next day advising we would cover Lady’s private cremation. I was thankfully able to contact Dr. Zalac at home on Saturday afternoon and asked if we could have Lady privately cremated. The vet office had been closed already and the doctor called the crematory who advised that Lady had not yet been cremated and they would be able to cremate her privately.

Lastly, through several contacts with Chelsea, Chelsea said: “Thank you for everything. I can’t say enough how grateful I am that you and your organization exist. If we weren’t able to get her into surgery to find out the problem I’m sure she would have passed in pain, although she never cried or showed complaint in anyway, I did notice in the short time I had her that if she hurt herself or I accidentally stepped on her foot she didn’t yelp or anything which I found odd but idk if a prior owner abused her if she made noise or that was just her own choice….Thank you so much!! She wouldn’t be coming home without you. I am forever grateful. I’m so glad she saw your message. I will feel a lot better I think having her ashes here. It has already been quite an adjustment as Lady was literally glued to my side no matter where I went for the last 2 months. I think I would just feel more at ease if she were at home.”

May you rest in peace sweet Lady. Just know that you were very loved in your final days in this life. – diana

4paws1heart.org/donations P.O. Box 84, St. Clair Shores, MI. 48080