While United Hope for Animals finds rescue placements and adoptive homes for over one hundred healthy, adoptable, homeless dogs each month through our Shelter Support Program, we continue to seek options for the broken and neglected.
At our last shelter “Glamour Shot” day, we discovered a tiny Maltese mix, clearly unloved and forgotten by her former owners, in the back of the shelter clinic.
This is the condition Willow was in when her prior owners left her at the shelter.
Weighing just two pounds, her tiny body was riddled with fleas and her eyes were sealed shut from an infection that had gone untreated for a long time. Since her emaciated body and eye infection eliminated her opportunity for adoption, rescue was the only way this little girl, whom we named Willow, stood a chance at knowing comfort and love.
The day we arrived was the day she was scheduled for euthanasia, so we made the decision to take her to our vet hospital (the Southern California Animal Hospital in La Puente), where Dr Anil Kumar gave her the medical attention she had been deprived of all her life.
This is little Willow being carried from the shelter to the vet hospital.
United Hope for Animals is grateful to the donors who made this rescue possible. We were able to act on Willow’s behalf when we first met her because of recent donations to our Angel Fund, which is dedicated to providing medical care for shelter animals who need a little extra help finding their way to their new homes.
Willow is now comfortable and healing in foster care. She is very responsive to humans and, as her Life4Paws foster mom, Debbie, reports, “is happy to lick your nose to let you know she’s okay… I don’t think this little bundle has ever been held, but she’s getting used to it and starting to trust.”
As a result of her long-term eye infections, she is completely blind in one eye and has only limited vision in the other. She loves the other dogs, big and small, in her foster home, and takes comfort in knowing they are there.
Willow needs to gain back at least one-third of her body weight since the neglect she has suffered has left her so thin. Right now, she is quite frail, but she is eating, drinking and settling in beautifully.
It took many hours to clean the years of neglect out of her eyes. Here she is sitting in the car on her way to her foster home after being treated at the hospital.
With time, medical care, proper nutrition and lots of love, she will be stronger, furrier and very happy. She is already bringing much joy to Debbie, who will continue to send us updates as we work to find Willow a permanent home.
Although little Willow is now safe and without question loved, further tests will determine if she needs additional medical treatment. United Hope is in need of funding so that more special dogs like Willow can be rescued, treated, and live out the rest of their lives knowing love, comfort and human kindness.
To donate to our Angel Rescue Fund, please click on the Chipin in the top of the left column on this page.
Update: It is with a heavy heart that we have to report that sweet little Willow passed away. This adorable senior had a hard life, but we are comforted to know that her last eight months were probably her best, filled with love and tender care. Willow’s foster mom, Debbie, and her son loved and adored Willow. In the time she was with them she gained weight, her eyes were kept clean and clear, and she enjoyed the company of humans and other dogs. She passed away peacefully overnight in her bed. We wish they could all have this at the end. With your donations, more animals in dire need can be rescued and given the gift of love in their final months and years.
Willow in her loving foster home.