by Elayne Gonzalez

Elayne Gonzalez is the founder of Mell’s Mutts, an animal rescue in Fresno, CA. They will be sharing their animal rescue stories with us each month.

This is Petunia, and this is her story…

About a month ago, we were told of a little bulldog sitting alone in a back room at our local city shelter. She was in the kennel all alone, possibly blind and hours away from being euthanized. See this sweet girl had such a bad infection in her eyes that we weren’t even sure she had eyeballs! Somehow she ended up at the shelter and was never claimed and was too sick to be placed for adoption, so she sat quietly waiting for her time to end.

Petunia

When we were told about her, we couldn’t turn away. We had only seen pictures, but we said we would gladly take her. One of our team members picked her up the next morning and said she looked much worse in person than in the picture, and she smelled of death. We were heartbroken for this little old lady.

We can only assume she was used her entire life for breeding, and once she was not healthy enough to have puppies, she was no longer needed or wanted. It was very obvious she was in bad shape!

We got Petunia to our vet, and despite how bad she appeared, we were told it was all things that with medicine and a little time would get better. Both of her eyes were still there just badly infected, one was probably too infected to save the sight in, but the other one would probably clear up. Both of her ears were terribly infected as well and her skin was very irritated and raw from what appeared to be bad allergies. All of these things were bad but “fixable,” but the next morning her bloodwork came back…she was heartworm positive.

Heartworms are deadly, and the treatment is intense and not guaranteed to save their life. We were devastated and faced with very difficult decisions for Petunia. We, as a board and a team, decided we had to fight for her! And here we are!

Petunia is one month into her heartworm treatment which will last approximately 5-6 months. She is in an amazing foster home! She is on 100% crate rest because any type of exertion can cause the heartworm to kill her. This crate rest is right up her alley, though, because she really just likes to chill. She is on very strong medicine, and it will continue to get stronger as the months go by. In addition to this, she gets 2-3 baths a week to improve her skin and eye and ear ointment 2 times a day! WOWZERS! RIGHT?!

Now let us tell you how sweet and appreciative this little lady is! She puts up with all of this and never complains, we know she is so grateful for the chance at having a real life and beyond grateful for everything her foster mom does for her. See, that’s a huge part of the puzzle! Foster families. If there wasn’t someone that cared enough to commit to six months of love and work, we wouldn’t have been able to help Petunia. With that said, the more responsible, loving people that foster, the more we can help doggies like Petunia.

We, as well as many other local rescues, are always in need of foster help. So, if this is something you are able to help with, please contact us or any reputable rescue because we need you, they need you, Petunia needs you!

Maybe you are not able to foster but can help in other ways, we would love to hear from you.

Mell’s Mutts is a non-profit 501c3 registered rescue based out of Fresno, California. Please follow our Facebook and/or Instagram @mellsmutts for future updates on Petunia.

Website: www.mellsmutts.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/search/top?q=mell%27s%20mutts
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mellsmutts

Check out more animal rescue stories in our Pet Perspective section here in KRL and on our sister website KRL News & Reviews. Advertise in KRL and 10% of your advertising fees can go to to Mell’s Mutts.