A Tragic Story

This is the true story of two brave momma dogs named Skylar and Snowy. Skylar had 10 puppies and Snowy had 9 puppies.

Both mommies and their babies were imprisoned at the Devore shelter and were slated to die. A nice lady named Kym couldn't bear to see this happen, so she rescued them and took them in.

Both mommies took such good care of their babies ... feeding them, cleaning them and giving them lots of love.

Suddenly, distemper reared its ugly head.

Now both Skylar and Snowy are dead. Tragically, all of Snowy's puppies are dead and only two of Skylar's puppies are still alive.

One of Skylar's puppies, Batman, is at the vet right now, fighting to survive. (Hope is the only puppy who is doing well.)

Vet bills are now up to $9,200! We need your help to continue in the fight to save Batman. (See his photo at left. The second photo shows him with his sister, Fozzy Bear, who died this week because her trachea was too small and she couldn't breathe. (Watch her video.)

You can help by donating to Critters in Need Pet Rescue via Paypal

Traditional veterinary treatment for distemper was tried, as well as a cutting edge distemper serum. Nothing helped.

The puppies kept dying. Two died on Christmas Day. It seemed that a day didn't go by when there wasn't bad news.

It all started when suddenly, one of Skylar's puppies, Galileo, stopped eating. (Watch the video of Skylar and Galileo.)

Galileo died, despite blood transfusions and being in an incubator. And his mommy, Skylar, died on the operating table while undergoing an emergency hysterectomy.

The other puppies began to get sick ... and one of them tested positive for distemper.

Snowy got pneumonia. We discovered that she had been shot with a BB gun and had over 20 pellets in her soft tissue! (You can see some of the pellets in the x-ray.)

Snowy was hospitalized but sadly, never responded to treatment. Her condition continued to deteriorate.

I visited her at the vet and took her on a little walk to see if that would help her feel better. I was shocked to see how thin she was. You can compare the photos for yourself and you'll see the change in poor Snowy.

I petted her and gave her kisses. And it hurt to see her walk so slowly ... but at least Snowy got to stand in the sun and feel the dirt beneath her paws one last time. (Watch her video.)

Poor Snowy collapsed the next day. The vets tried to revive her, but she died.

And then more and more of Skylar's and Snowy's puppies died.

This has been a tragedy. Please help in this fight to save Batman. Please donate to Critters in Need Pet Rescue. You can donate via Paypal.

Yippee!! All Four Puppies Are Out Of Cages!

The good news is that all the Devore Four puppies are in foster homes! YEAH!! And we couldn't have done it without all of your help. The power of networking is not to be underestimated!

Here's a picture of Bean at his new foster home ... isn't he a cutie?
Bean's new best friend is a kitten, Oreo is getting to know the foster's other dogs (Oreo never got sick, so it's OK for him to be around other dogs) and today, Mandy and Candy are back together again at the home of one of our Critters' volunteers.

I picked Mandy up first at the vet. She was a little hesitant but so glad to be out of ISO! Then I drove to the other vet to pick up Candy. Well, you should have seen Mandy perk up with she saw Candy! She became her old self almost immediately, which was my goal in putting them back together. She wanted out of her crate NOW, but the poor kid had to wait until we got to the foster home.

This first video was shot immediately after they were let loose--and boy, did they have a blast. Soon afterwards, Mandy and Candy discovered the bags of dog food I had brought, and they were digging at them, trying to open them. Mandy chowed down as if she hadn't eaten in days! I think she didn't eat much while at the vet, so it'll be gratifying to see her put on much needed weight!

Mandy & Candy, free at last!

Mandy & Candy at their foster home.

Compare these videos to this one of a very sad Mandy taken a few days ago.

And here's a photo and video of little Oreo at his foster home. Is he cute, or what?
Again, thank you all for networking for fosters for these four puppies. Without your help, we couldn't have done gotten these sweethearts out of their cages at the vet and into loving foster homes.

But the battle isn't over yet. The not-so-good news concerns the vet bills. We've gotten in some donations (and again, thank you to all of you who donated), but we still owe the two vets approximately $2,700 (down from $3,700). We need to pay them off quickly; the vets have been so kind to us and the little puppies.

Please donate via Paypal.

We're so grateful that all three puppies survived--and that little Oreo never got sick! Again, we couldn't have done it without all of you!

The Devore Four Have Names!

Here are the two boys: Bean and Oreo. The two girls are Candy and Mandy. So far, so good.

But we're still in dire need of fosters for Bean and Oreo! We're racking up vet bills at $43/day and the puppies have to be quarantineed until August. 1.

Please contact us right away! Debra@CrittersRescue.com

Critters in Need Pet Rescue--what we do.

Critters in Need Pet Rescue is a non-profit volunteer organization based in Orange County, Calif. We are dedicated to saving the lives of abandoned dogs and finding them loving homes.

We have over 30 dogs available for adoption right now. We have both purebred and mixed breed dogs, small and large.

The photo is of our dog of the week, Jasper, a lovely cocker spaniel mix that we rescued from a high-kill shelter on the day he was due to be euthanized.

We also have dogs that need fosters, such as Gunner and Roxy, Star and Rusty. Please take a look at them on our website:

CrittersRescueOnline.org

Critters in Need Pet Rescue is always in need of volunteers and donations. Please contact us at Dogs@CrittersRescue.com if you wish to help.

One of our recent fosters wrote up a very lovely account of how fostering (and later adopting) Kona from us changed her life. In fact, she is currently fostering Jasper in the hopes that he will be added to their family.

Please click here to read her story.

Come visit our dogs at PetSmart, located on the northwest corner of Jamboree and Barranca in Tustin, on Saturday afternoons. Please click here for details.