1/17/20 – I know this story is a little long but this journey just needed to be shared. Thank God for the rescuers. I just can’t (and don’t want to) imagine what this dog has gone through in her life and what would have happened to her if these young women wouldn’t have been so dedicated. After hearing this story and seeing this beautiful face, I couldn’t say ‘no’. Please say a little prayer for a positive outcome and hug your fur baby just a little longer, and be thankful that your pet is warm and loved during what appears to be another tough weekend of cold and snow in our area. ~ diana
4paws1heart.org/donations/

“Good afternoon my name is Emily Schaff. I have recently taken in a stray dog who now goes by the name Piper. I am currently a nursing student and not working so I can focus on my studies. I was seeing if I could receive any assistance for vet bills for this poor pup. First let me tell you the story of this poor girl. July is when I first saw her. She is a polish hound or hound mix we believe. I would see her on my game cameras every once in awhile. I live in China,MI in the country. I kept seeing this dog and it broke my heart. The first photos from the game cameras showed how emaciated she was. Eventually neighbors in about a 5 square mile radius were seeing her. Another woman and myself posted pictures on Facebook and eventually we had a woman (Sharon Hansen) from macomb come out to help capture this girl. Just before my semester ended, the first week of December is when Sharon came out with a big live trap. During the week of my finals I would get up every morning and night to refresh the trap. We were close but unfortunately she never went in. The trap moved to various houses. We tried it at my house but still no luck. We made fliers and printed them off and handed them out. We were in touch with animal control the whole time. I gave up every single day of my break in between semesters trying to get her to safety. We wrote down all her sightings over the 5 week period to get an idea of her daily routes. We had feeding stations set up at my house in hopes we could get a different type of trap. It took her 3 weeks before she would even touch the food us humans left out for her. Last Tuesday was my last day I could devote to trying to capture her. So Sharon and I set up the collarum snare trap at 12pm. We said we would give it until 9pm since this trap had to be monitored the whole entire time it was set. At 8:40pm, 20 minutes before we were going to give up the trap went off!! I can’t even explain what I felt at that moment! I ran so fast to the back of the woods to that trap. I was so scared! Scared I’d didn’t work, scared she got out.. but when I walked up I saw this beautiful pup that stole my heart 7 months ago when I first saw her! I cried!! I couldn’t even believe that we finally got her on my last day! I was just in shock. She just stood there almost like she was relieved. It was a good thing we got her that night. It was so cold and windy that night. For 7 months at least this poor dog was all alone fighting to survive. There are so many coyotes in our area. I am grateful she survived. The next day we took her to animal control for vaccinations and then straight to the vet because we noticed her leg was injured. We got xrays done and the vet assumed she was hit by a car. She had a lot of scar tissue built up around her left hip and it was permanently dislocated. Riverview veterinary (Dr. Robyn) said she needed an FOH surgery. We did some research and decided to take her to see an orthopedic surgeon in Flint. His name is Dr. Degner. We see him February 7th at 11am. That was the soonest he could see her. That is her surgery consultation. Piper is estimated to only be a year to a year and a half old. Due to me being in school I am unable to pay for all of her vet bills. I started a little fundraiser on Facebook and have raised about $1,500 so far. I was hoping I could maybe receive some assistance for her. I just know that she deserves the surgery. She deserves to be in no pain. This poor girl has zero human contact, was outside her whole life, and was never shown love! I officially adopted her yesterday when her stray hold was up. I did her stray hold because I knew going to animal control for that would be too scary for her. It will take months for her to heal. Decompression for her will take a long time but I have so much time to devote to her. I love this girl with my entire heart. I want to give her a great life. I’ve already gotten to see her wag her tail for the first time (I cried) and she even tried to play. Right now she is taking pain meds to keep her comfortable until we see her surgeon. Thank you so incredibly much for considering us!
Emily Schaff and Piper”