~~~Cleo's Story~~~

When Cleo came to us through rescue she was just under 20 kilo's, roughly 2 years of age and a very sick dog.  Her owner had to give her up due to unemployment leading to lack of finances to keep her going in medication.

When our area co-ordinator was watching out for her arrival a car pulled up with what appeared to be a greyhound in it, this turned out to be Cleo, a white GSD who was just skin and bone as well as being very unsteady on her legs.  After a quick check up at the vets the future was bleak as she was seriously Epi and we were warned that the chances of her stabilizing were very slim due to her condition.
She stayed with Laura for a while before going into a foster home in the lake district whilst we decided what to do about her.

Being a new rescue we were very naive, we didn't know what Epi was let alone the costs involved, all we knew was we were her last chance as other larger, well known rescue groups didn't want to know.

Through time we found an excellent home for her with real animal lovers who were willing to take her in and look after her for however long she'd survive as we weren't convinced she'd be with us for long.  In return it was agreed that the rescue would continue to finance her medication and treatment although this same rescue have now removed her from their books, the reason being the fact that her owners can now afford to pay for the treatment themselves.  It remains unknown what will happen should one of her parents become unemployed again.

Cleo continued to be ill for many many months to come, indeed her parents were never by cleaning up after her as she was impossible to stabilize but they didn't complain and kept going.
It was very daunting for them to begin with as everything had to be weighed, her food, medication etc and she was back and forward to the vets to monitor her progress.

Now Cleo must be approaching 10 years old & weighs 45 kilo's.  She's a big strong healthy girl who is unconditionally loved.  She can eat virtually anything within reason and is on the lowest dose of medication possible.  She's had a lot of bad times, far too many to list but she rallies round being cared for by her parents without the help of the rescue organization!

I have been told on numerous occasions that Cleo is "our" success as we were so determined to help her after all, it's not fair she should be destroyed because of her illness.  However, I prefer to think of her as "Gwen & Sandy's" success as they were the ones whose home was a disaster area due to her condition, they sat up night after night nursing her and if it wasn't for them she wouldn't be here today as the rescue organization who were meant to be looking after her interests would have undoubtedly had her destroyed years ago.

I always maintained that so long as we rehoused a dog, just one dog every couple of weeks then we'd have enough to cover Cleo's costs but unfortunately, like a lot of other organizations, they prefer to see the money in the bank and not use it for what it was intented....to help the dogs.

Cleo isn't the most beautiful dog, hasn't got the nicest nature and certainly doesn't come close to the breed standard but she loves and is loved, has a good quality of life, is happy and healthy and that to us is enough.

Congratulations to Gwen & Sandy on a job well done.
 

Cleo left us on the 8th Nov 2005 for the rainbow bridge due to rear end weakness.
She will be sadly missed by all who knew her.
Sleep easy Cleo.

 
 

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