Sad stories abound at local animal rescue

Nathan Hansen The Farmington Independent
Published Thursday, November 16, 2006

Patricia Heller has only been a Last Hope volunteer a few months, but she’s already getting a good idea just how many ways people can mistreat animals.

Consider Ole and Lena, a pair of 8-year-old Maltese who Last Hope rescued from a breeder earlier this year. The dogs spent their lives in cages, let out only to mate. Neither is housebroken and both are missing all of their teeth.

Or, think about the 2-week-old kitten brought to Last Hope by someone who, on a whim, decided to stop and pick up a cardboard box that had been left on the side of Dodd Road. The kitten had been abandoned in the box in 90-degree temperatures. Nobody is sure how long it was there, but it was long enough the kitten was badly dehydrated.

“It had a little bit of brain damage because of that,” Heller said. “You wouldn’t notice it, but it tends to list to one side.”

Maybe worst of all, though, is Hope, a kitten who came to Last Hope when she was 3 months old after someone threw her from a moving car. She lost her tail and a hind leg, but she is otherwise doing fine.

For Heller, who got volunteered last April to create a web site and do public relations for Last Hope, stories like these can be hard to take.

“We see terrible things,” Heller said. “We see animals that have been abused so badly they have absolutely no trust in humans.

“Some days when I hear these things I say I hate people. I just hate people,” she said. “How could anybody do something so cruel and heartless? Then it hits you. It’s a reality. Because I have chosen to work with this rescue, I have to see it. Before, I could pretend it didn’t exist.”

There are plenty of sad stories at Last Hope, a locally-run no-kill animal shelter (rescue) that tries to find homes for abandoned animals. Not all of them involve the cruelty of owners.

Einstein is a 2-year-old Jack Russell terrier who broke both front legs when he jumped out of a small child’s arms. His owners planned to put him to sleep, but Last Hope took him in.

Then there’s Honey, which Heller calls her “hospice kitty.” The purebred Bengal cat came to Last Hope when her owners, a young couple, separated. She was an adult cat, but at just six pounds she was so thin she looked like a kitten, Heller said.

Heller started feeding the cat to get her weight up. Then, one day, her son noticed a lump on Honey’s neck. Honey was ultimately diagnosed with cancer. Vets in Farmington removed as much of the tumor as they could, but doctors at the University of Minnesota said 26 courses of radiation treatment would be necessary to fully treat the cancer, and even then they couldn’t guarantee more than two years of life for Honey. So Heller, who has experience caring for animals with cancer, decided to take the cat in and keep her comfortable for whatever remains of her life.

For now, at least, Honey is doing well. She’s in remission, and aside from a little bit of a cough she’s healthy. Still, Heller knows it won’t last. She knows Honey’s time is limited and she knows how hard it will be when she has to say good bye.

“It’s the hardest thing in the whole world to do, but I have experience with this,” she said. “I know what to do. I know what to watch for with Honey. I know when we’re going to have to make some choices. Every time she coughs I panic.

“I don’t know when Honey’s going to die and I know it’s going to break my heart, but I also know she’s going to have a very high quality of life.”

Bear’s story

Then there’s Bear, a 5-year-old poodle surrendered to Last Hope when his former owners decided they couldn’t deal with his medical problems. Bear, it seems has a heart murmur. A bad one. He was living on borrowed time.

Last week, Bear was in Iowa having surgery to correct the problem. With his heart fixed, Bear will likely live another seven or eight years.

But the surgery is expensive. Around the Twin Cities it would have cost $3,000. In Iowa, it was $2,500. But that’s still more than Last Hope can afford to pay out of its own pocket. That’s why the organization is collecting donations to help pay for the surgery.

“We know that if we don’t do something for this animal it’s going to die very young,” Heller said. “What we wanted to do is take care of this animal but we can’t do it without donations. We really depend upon our members and the general public.”

Last Hope is full of animals that need medical attention. Some just need to be spayed or neutered. Others, like Hope, need more serious medical care. Last Hope can’t afford to take in everyone’s sick or injured animals, but it helps where it can.

Tracie Johnson, who is caring for Bear while he recuperates, said her husband wonders why she is making so much fuss over a dog. Heller, though, sees Last Hope’s efforts differently.

“He’s going to get adopted into a wonderful home and he’s going to make someone happy for 10 years,” she said.