Our Hearts are Broken Again

French Bulldog Peanut Butter and Lurcher Jelly came into our care on Wednesday from one of the local pounds we work with. Found together, these lovely girls won the hearts of the team immediately. Peanut Butter has obvious health issues, with large amounts of pus in her ears and an eye infection caused by dry eye. Her ear issues are chronic and have been left untreated for some time which must have been causing her extreme discomfort. Her ears are too inflamed to begin topical treatment so currently she is having medication to bring the swelling down so that they can then be flushed under anaesthetic. She is then likely to need long term ongoing treatment. Peanut Butter is also on eye drops 4 times a day. We were very disturbed to also find she had a c-section scar, meaning despite her medical issues, she had still been used for breeding. Peanut Butter also has dental disease and will need extractions when she is well enough.

10 year old Lurcher Jelly looked in better condition on first glance. However, she was very quiet in herself and whilst we know this can be due to being in a new environment, she also had a pot belly which was a cause from concern. Jelly had a scan yesterday evening and we were devastated that it revealed her liver was riddled with tumours. The vets advised there was no viable treatment options, and it as it was impacting her welfare her quality of life, sadly she was peacefully put to sleep.

Sadly, such shocking levels of neglect are now a regular occurrence, but it still hurts. It’s hard for any dog lover to comprehend abandoning your dog when they need you the most, and this week has been such an especially tough one for our team. We can honestly say that we have never been under as much pressure as we are now. The perfect storm of the pandemic, huge rise in dog ownership and the cost-of-living crisis has hit Hope Rescue hard and impacted every area of our charity. At the same time demand for services is at an all-time high.

Despite the challenges, we continue to do all we can to help dogs in need, but our resources are stretched to the limit. In this time of crisis, we are reaching out for urgent help to weather the storm. If you can give anything it will make a world of difference in our mission to keep giving our dogs hope.