On August 14, 2014, Life for sweet Lamb Chop would change forever. That was the day I was contacted by a Volunteer late into the night about an adorable tiny six-week-old puppy that was found abandoned on the side of the road in Waycross, GA. Lamb Chop was the name they gave her since she looked just like a tiny baby Lamb. She could not walk and could only raise her head for a brief second. She did not have the ability to move from one place to another. She could roll over, but that was it. It was a desperate plea to save a little puppy that was going to be Put To Sleep. I agreed to take on the case and so began the long hard Journey to give this adorable puppy the ONLY chance she would ever have of having any Quality of Life.
Lamb Chop was born with a condition called Hydrocephalus, which is fluid on the Brain. Where brain matter should be, it was fluid. Major Surgery was done to put in a shunt that would slowly drain the fluid off her brain into her stomach. The first year was uplifting and also devastating all at the same time. We would take two steps forward only to end up three steps back months later in her recovery. Every day gave me ten reasons to stop treatment and say Good-Bye to this adorable puppy and eleven reasons to keep going. The Eleventh Reason was the most important one; Lamb Chop refused to give up or give in.
She would go to the bathroom all over herself, and she would get baths all throughout the day. We used diapers and changed her regularly along with all of her bedding. She wasn't incontinent; she just didn't have the brain function to put it all together yet. What she lacked in brain function she made up for in Spunk and Tenaciousness. She was not going to allow her condition to define who she was and what she could do. She was so much more than that, and she wanted everyone to know it.
Everyone loved her to pieces, but no one wanted to Adopt her or take her on. We were it, and I refused to give up on her. I have cried for days for Lamb Chop to make the right decision on her behalf. Her Quality of Life wasn't great, but it was enough for Lamb Chop to keep fighting. All she had to do was give up, and I would have let her go. She would not give up. She was not going to let me off the hook. I had to figure this out, or we were both going to die trying. I have hounded her Neurologists, Dr. Jason King to death. He was so tired of me saying but "What If" that I think sometimes, he wished I would Give Up.
In January 2016, we decided to do another drastic procedure and totally reset Lamb Chop's Shunt values by doing an MRI. The MRI uses magnets that would reset the device. We have only been able to do Cat Scans since the procedure was done. Dr. King bought the machine that would enable him to reset the device right after the procedure. He took his best assessment of the pressures she had been functioning with and made a slight adjustment to allow a tiny bit more fluid to be drained. Lamb Chop has shown remarkable progress since the procedure. She was becoming very lethargic before the procedure which prompted us to do the MRI. Whatever was causing her lethargy has corrected itself, and she is better than ever.
Our sweet little Angel has grown up since we have had her. She will be two years old in a couple of months. We have added weekly Underwater Treadmill Therapy to her Rehab three days a week which she loves. She gets laser treatment and manual stimulation on the other days. We see amazing progress with this wonderful pup. She has a new cart that is enabling her to get out of corners better. Seeing this little girl scoot around and greet people is one of the greatest gifts we could have ever asked for. She has fought hard, and she is WINNING.
Lamb Chops bills are so out of control that I just quit counting. I have done my best to stay on top of them but every day, they keep getting higher and higher. Please, do whatever you can so we can get on top of this. She is alive today and thriving because we never gave up on her and always made sure she had what she needed to improve medically and emotionally. We haven't posted for this sweet girl in a very long time because I knew people were tired of me putting money into an animal where the outcome was up in the air. Personally, I have made sure she has never gone without. If she needed it, she got it, no matter what. Given her new status, I am hoping everyone will get back on board and help us with her mounting bills. We need your help with this little girl so she can keep improving. She is doing the hard work. All we have to do is pay for it and love her unconditionally through the process, so she does not give up.
