This is The Pongo Fund at our best. Doing what needs to be done. Leading with Love. Following with Compassion. Honey has a baseball sized mammary mass, it’s leaking brown fluid. That’s not good. She also had a bad limp limiting her ability to walk, and she’s got an upset stomach. We saw her last week, I’ve got the photos of the leaking mass but did not post them because I struggled with the words. That’s happening a lot these days. Too many moments, not enough words.
But we saw what we needed to see and we slated Honey for surgery later this month. It’s a big surgery, the estimate they got from another vet put it over $2,500, an amount these financially strapped folks could never afford. So thanks to you and your contributions, we’ll do it for them. We also sent her home with some meds for the limp and upset stomach. She was such a sweet girl. Honey is the perfect name.
Yesterday her people called and said Honey was not eating. That’s not good. So we quickly interrupted schedules and met at PONGO ONE to do some checking. But no one told Honey she wasn’t feeling good. She came bounding into the hospital without any limp, a big smile on her face. Maybe she remembers the great treats we have?
PONGO ONE has two exam tables, easiest on the back to use them. But Honey likes the floor so that’s where we gathered. Five people inside PONGO ONE, and Sweet Honey. We spent a lot of time examining and talking.
To Honey, that is, we talked to Honey.
For example, she told us she does not like spray bottles, they scare her. Since we spray alcohol to clean before taking blood, that meant no spray bottle. But Honey was ok with an alcohol soaked cotton ball, so we used that instead. It’s there on Dr. Melissa’s leg. Because this moment, it’s all about Honey.
Look at her eyes. Even with the muzzle, with everything going on, her eyes were peaceful. She knew she was safe.
As for her loss of appetite, it was back quickly when she saw our treat bag. Heartrate good, temperature good, stomach soft, everything right on. And then Dr. Robin ran bloodwork, because PONGO ONE has a full laboratory onboard. Everything was where it should be. What was up with Honey? No one knows. Maybe she just wanted to come back and say hi.
But here’s the thing; Honey wasn’t quite so happy last week. A previous encounter left her suspect around vets and the muzzle didn’t bring out her best side. But we worked through it together and yesterday, it was a piece of cake.
Honey was the star of the show and she loved every minute, Maybe the rectal and the bloodwork were not her favorite moments, but I think she knew we were there to help. Of course she did.
This photo, this moment in time; this is everything. Two veterinarians on the floor doing all they can to make Honey feel good. And together we all celebrated that moment, especially seeing how well Honey was walking just a few days after we treated her limp. Because that limp was gone. Poof! Like it was never there.
And the good lab report means we’re on track for surgery. That means in a couple of weeks, we’ll all get together again to remove that nasty mammary mass.
My point with this post, well, I don’t really know what my point is. I just wanted to share this moment because this moment was pretty special. If you could have seen Honey as she left, a big smile on her face, walking so proud, bouncing this way and that, knowing how brave she was; well, you’d be smiling too.
It was a good day, a very good day.
Being there for Honey. And for thousands more.
And this is why we Pongo.
Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. thepongofund.org
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