Mercy's Story
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On July 2nd, my brother came home from work to tell me about a dog he had seen on his way home, he said she could barely walk and you could see every bone in her body. I had received a few calls about a dog on the same road but nobody was able to catch her. I jumped in his truck, and we went to where he last saw her. When we got there, she was by the road, looking for food. She tried to run away, but barely able to walk. I walked slowing behind her to see where she was heading, it appeared she had many litter of puppies. She started getting in to taller grass and she fell and could not get back up. I started tossing some food at her to try to get her to trust me. I couldn't help the tears now streaming down my face. She let me touch her but was still trying to get away. We had to run back home to get a crate, I was afraid picking her up would hurt her. When we came back she was still laying in the tall grass. She struggled but was finally able to get up, she walked into our crate all on her own! I was so amazed and wished I had videoed it. She had to eat small amounts of chicken and rice every few hours. The jerkys I was giving her to trust me, had made her sick. She was covered in fleas and ticks! After an hour of good food and love, she wagged her tail and licked my fingers!!!
Mercy's first vet visit, July 3rd.Mercy's vet visit went well, better than expected! Her skin scrapes came up negative, and the vet believes the hair loss is just from poor nutrition. She is full of parasites as we expected, and is anemic, she got an iron shot to boost her. It is hard to tell her age with her condition and her teeth are filed down. She weighs 29lbs, and we think she should be around 60lbs. The great news is that she tested NEGATIVE for heartworms!!! This is big considering that she has been living outside on her own for probably her whole life! The vet said she was even amazed that she was negative. So we are deworming her and starting her on some antibiotics for a few weeks, and slowing adding kibble to her food. We were so afraid that other things would be wrong.
July 10th, Mercy had been with us for a whole week. She really came out of her shell! Here she is at a family cookout.
Mercy had to visit the vet as she lost a few pounds of the 10 she gained and she is still loosing hair. It turns out she had a tumor in her spleen, and she had to have it removed and a skin punch biopsy.
It took a few weeks to get her biopsy results back and it appears she has a yeast infection in her skin.
Spleen came back cancer-free!!!
December 12th, 2012
I don't know how to say this. So, I'll start with the best way I know how. I'd like to start off with thanking each and every one for your support and for caring about Mercy. I am heartbroken to tell you all that Mercy passed away tonight. She had been doing so good until the past few days when each day got a little worse, but I never expected this. It has been like a roller coaster with Mercy, doing great one week, and then the next few days would go downhill. But I just couldn't give up on her, and I am still in shock. Thank you all again so much. It means more than you will ever know. This week, we were suppose to get the results of Mercy's last skin biopsy. I called Monday, and they said it hadn't came in yet so was told to call back later in the week. I will still let you all know the results. I am hoping to get some answers. My heart is breaking, but I know she is free from pain and she left this world very loved. Thank you all. She will forever be in my heart </3 Run free baby girl...until we meet again.
December 14th, 2012
I apologize for not writing yesterday as promised and for this being such a long post. We laid Mercy to rest yesterday, and a little of my heart went with her. I have been feeling terrible, because I wasn't there to hold her as she left this world behind. And I wanted so badly to see Mercy happy and healthy, and running care-free for the first time, and to be able to watch her become a part of someone's family that would love and care for her for the rest of her days. But now it will never happen…not on this earth anyways. Mercy always loved going places and meeting new people and her tail wagged constantly. She loved the vet, I guess because she was surrounded by people. After talking with Mercy's vet, she believes Mercy may have had Leukemia. On Wednesday, the day she passed away, I was going to take her to work with me but decided against it as it was so cold and left her home in her warm bed. I was so heartbroken and beating myself up, knowing that if she was with me all day, surely I'd notice something was wrong and rush her to the vet. Fate is a crazy thing, and now I see that it was meant to happen this way. If she was with me, I would have saved her when she was ready to let go. While I wasn't able to kiss her goodbye and tell her everything would be alright, she wasn't starving, she had a warm bed, and she was loved for possibly the first time in her life. If not for that day on July 2nd, she would have more than likely died within that week, starving and alone on that river bank. Never knowing what it was like to be loved. It just isn't fair. A dog so deserving and that had been through so much and lived through it for so long. It hurts just as much today as it did when I got the call that night. As most of you know, it is my dream to have a rescue of my own. I basically have already started, but have never had a name for it. Those who are close to me already know as I asked their advice and they all loved it. I have decided to name my rescue after Mercy. I wasn’t ready to release it yet, but I feel that in her memory, it is time.
MERCY: An event to be grateful for, because it’s occurrence prevents something unpleasant or provides relief from suffering.
RESCUE: Save from a dangerous or distressing situation.
HAVEN: A place of safety or refuge.