Meet Ziggy Stardust (that's what his Guardian Angel named him, after David Bowie). We are going to call him Bowie because the resemblance is strikingly similar. Bowie had a very cruel start to life. Even being 4 years old, his life has been horrible.
We don't know much about his life before he was surrendered to one of the local animal shelters but what follows afterwards would be much worse than anything he's already experienced.
The shelter was full so they ran a $5 special to clear the shelter and get animals adopted.
A young adult who was a fresh college student decided to get a dog. She had never own a pet before. So they got Bowie for $5 at the local animal shelter. I mean how could you look at Bowie and not want to take him home? A rare breed, exotic looking, and small. She also decided to get a cat at the same time. Luckily this woman had a roommate, who will be very important to this story later.
This dog hadn't even been in the house for 2 weeks and the horror this dog has endured is enough to make you physically sick.
This woman lifted Bowie into the air infront of the roommate and her boyfriend like "Simba" from the lion king above her head. She's also close to being 6 feet tall.
She DROPPED HIM. A 7 pound dog plummets to the ground. His entire wrist was fractured into pieces. Bowie screamed and cried in agony.
After the roommate convinced the owner to take the dog to a ER vet, she did. They determined he had a severe fracture. They set it back in place, and told her he needs to come back in 72 hours to be rechecked. She never brought him back. For a month, Bowie was stuck inside a unsanitary cast with NO pain relief. He couldn't lift his leg to pee so he would urinate on his cast. On top of that neglect, this woman did not take him outside to use the bathroom or even smell the grass. Bowie was forced to use the bathroom in this woman's bedroom. So on top of being in deplorable conditions, he was living and breathing in his own feces and urine.
When the roommate saw noticed the woman was not coming to the house frequently (not enough to care for a dog) she checked the room and was devastated by what she saw. She notified her own mother for help. This mother is a saint. She immediately intervened and told the woman that she could not treat a dog like that and she needed to find a new home for him.
Shortly after that, the AC broke. It was too hot to live there while waiting for the landlord to fix it so both girls stayed with their boyfriends. The roommate assumed the owner would take her pets with her. Surely she can't be that cruel and uneducated. Nope. The final straw that broke the camels back was the girl went back to get a few things from the apartment and found the cat and Bowie barely surviving from heat exhaustion and starvation. This "owner" left these animals to die with no care whatsoever. Was she just going to let them die and let the roommate come home that? They called the "owner" furious. The ultimatum was given by the Mother of the roommate. She said she needs to hand the dog over to a rescue or she will be reported for animal cruelty.
She chose to surrender the dog but wanted the mother of the roommate to take it because she didn't feel like bothering finding an ethical rescue. The owner also said "I don't think this is a good time for me to have a dog right now and I want him to have the best home ever." That's laughable. The Mother of the roommate whose name is Janelle took the dog and cat. The cat is with a different rescue. She said "rescue first, figure out all the other stuff later." WE LOVE YOU JANELLE! Janelle kindly invested what she could in Bowie healthcare, but because of the negligence the previous owner inflicted on Bowie, there is much more permanent damage as a result. Janelle reached out to us for help and of course we couldn't say no. Bowie deserves a happy ending. Unfortunately, due to the extensive damage caused from the negligence of prolonging vet care from the previous owner, Bowies whole leg will most likely have to be amputated.
This will not be a cheap surgery. But Bowie DESERVES the chance to be pain free and loved.
Janelle cannot keep Bowie where she lives and understandably cannot invest more money into him than she already has. The money was kindly given to her by a generous friend to cover his initial expenses.
So what's next? We have scheduled an appointment immediately with Helping Hands Vet. We don't have an itemized receipt of what the estimated cost of surgery will be because we haven't had the appointment yet but from my calculations it will be a minimum of $1,000. We don't have that. We need YOUR HELP! Bowie needs YOUR help! If we had 1,000 people donate $1, We would reach our goal! Please share or consider donating to help give Bowie a second chance at the life he deserves.
Zelle- Tabatha@cuddlesandcuts.com
Zeffy- www.charliescornersanctuary.com/donate
We are a registered 501c3 nonprofit and donations are tax deductible.
Now I know some are going to question why this "owner" wasn't arrested. First of all, the priority was to get Bowie out safely and as fast as possible so he could get care.
Second, this woman left the state to go back where she originally lived so I don't think there is much we can do. She is on our do not adopt list and we will be making other rescues aware.
Janelle did bring Bowie back to the local shelter to see if they could assist with his injuries since he originally was adopted from there. They said "we don't do that kind of stuff. We just offer spay and neutering services. He will most likely be euthanized." So Janelle obviously wasn't going to leave Bowie in their hands.
In conclusion, dogs are living creatures with feelings and souls. If you cannot provide basic care such as love, food, water, and shelter, do not own an animal. This could have all been prevented. Bowie didn't deserve this. I will never understand how humans can treat such defenseless creatures so horribly. All that matters is Bowie finally has a second shot to achieve his happy ending that he deserved to have in the first place. Let's get him healed. Thank you for reading all of this.
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