MILLER — The Humane Society of Northwest Indiana knows how important it is to save for a rainy day.
A few years ago, an adult dog with a serious medical condition was brought into the shelter needing immediate surgery.
“We had to help her, so we scrambled for donations,” shelter director Betty Clayton said. “We eventually did meet our goal and even had some money left over.”
The lesson learned was that it was difficult to get those donations. The lesson came with the added stress that surgery had to be performed in a timely manner.
“We didn’t want to have to go through that again, so we took the extra money and started Hope’s Fund, named after the dog we saved,” Clayton said. “This is a special fund that we have to help abused and neglected animals.”
The cash was to stay in reserve in case the humane society had another case similar to Hope’s.
One such case developed two weeks ago when a woman dropped off a sick English bulldog puppy that had been found next to a Dumpster.
The dog was diagnosed as having a severely prolapsed rectum. The problem apparently had been ignored by the owners and it was now life-threatening.
“In all my 26 years of being around animals, I have never seen anything like this,” Clayton said of the difficult condition 3-month-old Stella (as the staff named her) was experiencing. “We immediately took her to Munster Animal Hospital and were told that to survive she must have surgery, and that some of the tissue that was protruding from her was already dying.”
Munster Animal Hospital always has worked well with the shelter, Clayton said, but even this surgery was going to be very costly because of its seriousness. That equated to the tune of almost $700.
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“This is with surgery, blood work-up, medications, X-rays, etc. To a small not-for-profit organization … that is a lot of money,” Clayton said. “But we had to save little Stella.”
The Humane Society of Northwest Indiana did just that, thanks to Hope’s Fund and other donations.
The shelter did not want to completely deplete the rainy day fund, hence those extra donations paid for only half of Stella’s expenses.
Stella came through the surgery just fine, thanks to a doctor at the Munster Animal Hospital, according to Clayton.
“She came back to the shelter and then was taken home by Maggie Sorg, who is currently fostering the puppy,” Clayton said.
Sorg, of Portage, initially was at the shelter looking for a companion for her adult dog Smudge when she first saw Stella come in.
“When I heard her story, I asked if she was available,” Sorg said. “I was told of her condition and that she was having surgery the next day. I knew I wanted to take her home and would wait for her.”
Foster parents are allowed to take a shelter animal for three weeks and then must make the decision to adopt or not.
“There definitely is a lot of extra care involved with Stella and I haven’t decided if I will adopt her,” Sorg said. “But she is such a sweet puppy and I’m leaning toward it.”
For more information about the Humane Society of Northwest Indiana or to help replenish Hope’s Fund, call (219) 938-3339.