SMITH'S JOURNEY

MARCH 27 2020 (post from Angels of Hope Rescue's Facebook Page)

This is Tarr. He was saved and went to the vet yesterday. Due to the efforts of his advocates, temp foster, transporters, fuel donation and The Pack Project and Angels of Hope he has a second chance. Severely dehydrated, weak, wobbly, starving - he still wagged his tail ! He has stained teeth which I have never seen in an animal
Before -
Not like tooth tarter but like coffee stained teeth. Turns out that may have been a result of surviving distemper. I can’t even imagine how the softness of his blankets he would
Now forever sleep on, felt against his protruding bones. His access
Now to basic needs - food, water, shelter and the feeling of being safe. I hope he feels safe now anyway. Sometimes it does take a while for them to realize they are safe and don’t have to live in fear and survival mode. Rescue comments ‘ Ok , vaccinated , dewormed , shards of bone in his rectum . Vet removed some , the rest hopefully will pass . Seems healthy enough for how skinny he is . She thinks between 4-6 for age . Very sweet boy . Ate his lunch all up . Doing 4 small meals to start . Heart worm negative’. Thank you to all involved who still fight for these animals, from the bottom of my heart. Sherryl Ann Stomp Laurie A Norman. Donations for his care graciously accepted

MARCH 29, 2020

Sometimes you just need something good to happen... Well, it happened yesterday (March 28).
As rescue workers with The Pack Project, awareness has it’s price and sometimes it takes a little piece of your soul.....but not yesterday.
Not everyone knows the number of people it takes to help ‘just one dog’ move into a life ‘of privilege’ that many of us expect every dog to have.
A few days ago our intake coordinator got a message about an emaciated dog from one of the many front-liners we work with, she was contacted by a concerned community member who recognized this dog needed help.
As she posted on our Rescue Page looking for a Foster to take him, she got a call from another rescue partner at Angels of Hope Animal Rescue Inc. out of Esterhazy, who said they could take this emergent case, vet him and house him in their local kennel until we could find a foster. Our coordinator agreed with the faith that one of our fosters would be able to help (fingers crossed)
The dog was surrendered, moved for the night to a temporary foster, then a volunteer transported the dog to meet AOH volunteer, who took the dog directly to the Veterinarian. The intake coordinator got approval from our Director of Rescue to start him on his shots etc and that The Pack Project could pay the initial vet bill. Then once we knew his health issues and a little bit about him, we had a foster come forward (actually 3 🙏)
Now to organize transport. The call went out to our volunteer FB page and we had a volunteer step up right away to meet 1/2 way, to bring this skinny dog to his foster. While this was going on the foster met with their team lead to get supplies from our Outreach Program.
Transport happened the following day with one of our volunteers driving 2.5 hours to meet our friends from AOH and bring this emaciated boy into The Pack Project family.
In the meantime, AOH had a request to help another dog and we had a foster waiting for her next dog. Okay, we now needed another volunteer to transfer, due to vehicle size, size of the dogs and potential health risks to both the dogs and our volunteers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we could not transport them together.
So after the involvement of 9 people for the first emaciated boy and 5 people for the second boy we welcomed two new rescue dogs into The Pack Project Family.
It was a good day for these dogs, (a good day for our rescue) and all those who helped along the way. Thanks to everyone involved; much gratitude, our hearts are full🙏

April 3, 2020
​
Remember Smith (formerly Tarr) whom we brought into our care last weekend with the help of Angels of Hope Animal Rescue Inc. after being rescued from an awful situation?
When he was first brought into care, we knew he was going to need some vetting to help him gain weight as he was extremely emaciated. His first night in care, he was so happy to have a warm bed and a loving person to look after him. He was eating regular small meals and followed his foster mom everywhere, always greeting her with a tail wag.
Unfortunately, as the days went on he started showing signs that something bigger than hunger was the problem. He stopped eating, was having toileting trouble and quit following his foster mom around.
Smith was taken to the veterinarian where he underwent a variety of tests. It's been determined that he has anemia and a series of infections that are making him very weak.
Smith has spent a few days at the vets office, and returned to his foster mom's tonight for some much needed cuddles and care. Even though he is weak, he's wagging his tail and happy to cuddle his foster mom.

April 3, 2020

​We got the best possible news we could have asked for today. His ultrasound came back great, his kidney and prostate look normal. He will have to go back in a few weeks to have more blood work and tests done to see if everything is where it should be. And if they are (fingers crossed) we should be in the clear. If not we will take it from there.
Everyday he is a little more trusting and energetic, just like he should be !
He is also impossible to get good pictures of because he insists on being right by your side all the time

April 5, 2020
Smith spent the weekend resting and getting love 💕
He was strong enough to try and steal a snack today and he was able to jump on the bed so that’s a good sign!

April 18, 2020

Smith saw the vet today.  Unfortunately Smith still has a ways to go before being 100% healthy. His blood tests came back better but not where they should be. The next step is going to be to get a urine culture which will happen on Monday. That will help us figure out what medication would be best for him, to get him back on track. It was also noted he will need some dental work before he is adopted. He has a broken front tooth that will need to be extracted and a few that need some serious TLC.

April 27, 2020

Unfortunately, it feels like when we take one step forward we take two steps back with Smith. On Saturday, we got some more not so great news. His urine culture came back and most of the infection that we were first concerned about are gone but the results aren’t matching up with his blood results. We are going to have look further into other diseases like Lypto which could be the reason behind most of Smiths issues. However it is rare for dogs in Saskatchewan so the vets here aren’t super familiar with it. We will also be looking at permanent kidney damage which leaves us with a lot more unanswered questions about his life/life span going forward.
We know Smith has a lot of fans out there so I wanted to keep everyone updated with his Journey even as hard as it is. We are very lucky to have such great vets over at Albert North and we can’t say enough great things about how they have treated Smith and his foster mom during this all. 

April 29, 2020

To date, Smith's vet bills have totaled $3,281.77. We are thankful for the donations that have come in from our followers to help with his veterinary bills.
We are so thankful to Albert North Veterinary Clinic who has recently donated $1500 from their Paw It Forward fund and from Animals In Need who donated $500.
Smith is making progress every day and we are hopeful he will be on the road to recovery very soon. 
We are so grateful to each and every person who supports our organization so that we're able to continue helping dogs like Smith find a happily ever after.

May 1, 2020
​Smith has tested negative for Lepto ! Yay ! Finally some good news. The vets have ran every possible test for anything curable and he has nothing. So now we are just looking at permanent kidney damage. We will have more answers in a couple of weeks when he goes back for another round of blood tests. We still have lots of unanswered questions about what life will mean going forward for Smith. But we are definitely on the right track.
Yay for happy news Saturdays !!!

May 24, 2020
After 58 days in care we finally got the news we always hoped for. The vet said Smith looks amazing. He has gained almost 20 lbs since he came into care, he’s no longer anemic, his kidney and penis infection have cleared up. We are still waiting for one test to come back from Saskatoon but we're hopeful it will came back clear as well. He does have kidney disease and he always will. But at this point it is manageable and it looks like he will have a great quality of life going forward. 
​
Now the next step is going to be getting him fixed and all caught up on his vaccinations.
His foster mom actually never thought she would hear the vet say those words, its an amazing feeling to know he’s going to to finally get the chance he deserves.

We added some recent pictures of him vs. the first pictures we ever saw of him.

June 15, 2020

Hey everyone, It’s Smith here! I just wanted to give everyone an update on how I’m doing. My medical condition has improved immensely in the last few months. All of my infections have cleared up and I’m no longer anemic (yay!).
Unfortunately, I do have permanent kidney damage and that’s something I will always live with. It shouldn’t affect my quality of life at this point but something my humans will have to keep an eye on.
I was healthy enough to get neutered this week along with getting my broken tooth extracted and microchipped. So I’ve been rocking the super fashionable cone for the last few days. During my recovery I have been taking lots of naps on the couch and getting belly rubs from my foster mom all day. Life couldn’t be better for me right now.
Maybe soon it will be time for me to find my forever family? Stay tuned!
Thank you to everyone who has followed Smith and supported him on his journey to good health.

Well it finally happened !
Smith went to his forever home this week! He will be spoiled rotten by his new parents and has 2 cat siblings to keep him busy.

His foster home feels pretty empty without him here, but we couldn’t be happier that he’s finally found the perfect home 💕

Thank you to everyone who has followed Smith and supported him on his journey to good health!

Happy tails Smith!


​

Please check back for updates of smith's progress.  thank you for your support.

Smith's journey is going to be a long one. His medical bills have already exceeded $3000 and will continue to grow as we work on treating his infections and other potential illnesses that are currently being investigated.
As a volunteer-run, non-profit organization medical bills can put a large strain on our operations. We believe Smith deserves a life of love and will do our best to ensure that is a possibility.
If you'd like to donate to his medical expenses please consider donating today. As a registered charity, tax receipts can be issued for monetary donations of $50 or more(please provide your mailing information at time of donation, receipts available upon request for donations under $50).
For more information about donating please visit:
http://www.thepackproject.ca/donations.html
#tpprescue #yqr #adoptdontshop #smithsjourney