Jonah, healing well from surgery!

One morning, a two-month old pit bull puppy was brought to me in the clinic. The front desk staff indicated that the owners claimed he was hit by a car and had a broken leg. The owners surrendered him to the shelter for euthanasia.

As if that wasn’t sad enough, I was also told that while the owners were waiting, they were on the phone with a dog breeder, arranging to get another puppy.

My heart sank.

I must give the owners credit for at least taking the dog to a veterinarian before bringing it to the shelter. However, paying a large sum of money for a pure-bred “special” breed of pit bull only to not be able to afford the care that it requires is irresponsible.

I understand that this puppy was new to the family and perhaps they weren’t yet attached to him. However, when a person brings an animal or child into the family, he/she needs to be willing to take on the responsibilities that are involved in caring for that being.

Fortunately, Jonah was doing well overall. We started him on pain medications to make him comfortable, and we started reaching out to our rescue groups to see if any of them would be interested in taking on Jonah’s care.

Unfortunately, no rescue group expressed interest in Jonah.

The shelter didn’t give up. A staff member stepped up and was willing to foster Jonah until he was healed and ready for adoption so long as the shelter could provide him with the surgery he needed to fix his leg.

We contacted the surgeons at the SAGE Centers for Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Care in Campbell, and together, we were able to agree on a discounted price to fix Jonah’s leg.  Everyone was thrilled!

Jonah headed over to SAGE immediately and had his fractured femur repaired.

While he was at SAGE, one of the staff members fell in love with him and contacted us about adopting him. Knowing that the staff member would be able to ensure that Jonah would get the care he needed while he healed, we gladly said yes!

Jonah is now named Otto and is healing well from his surgery, happy in his forever home!