This little girl has luckily beat the odds thanks to the amazing medical care she’s received around the clock 24/7 by the vet team at VCA’s Boston Road hospital in Springfield MA. Meet Miss Maggie May!

Maggie came to our shelter from Puerto Rico – rescued by the wonderful volunteers from All Sato Rescue after being rescued off the streets she was cared for until she was able to be flown to our shelter…. And at only 14 weeks old Maggie has been through quite a lot. Shortly after her spay Maggie developed a severe surgical complication that progressed to kidney failure. On deaths door Maggie was admitted to our partner hospital at VCA Boston Road on June 2nd and has been in their care ever since. As of today – Friday June 10th – The incredible staff – doctors and hospital managers at Boston Road VCA has continued caring for little Maggie around the clock and kept us posted multiple times throughout the day…. WE KNOW Maggie could NOT be in better hands than where she is hospitalized – as Maggie is being cared for by a team of doctors – One of which is Dr. Costello and Dr Atwood and there are a small number of doctors in the country (less than 100 if not much less) who are as skilled, experienced or talented as Dr. Costello who is caring for Miss Maggie – in handling acute kidney injury/failure cases. Dr. Costello has trained with two of the original leaders of veterinary hemodialysis and has treated many patient pre and post dialysis and this affords her unique perspective on the management of cases with kidney injury and their recovery needs.

Though Maggie is STILL hospitalized 8 days after being admitted – we are hopeful that she will be discharged in the next few days and will be able to continue important out-patient medical care. Fortunately, Maggie’s prognosis is much better since she was admitted in such critical care. Maggie’s kidney functions are slowly returning to normal but she’s not out of the woods. We didn’t expect Maggie to be hospitalized for since an extended amount of time but being hospitalized since June 2nd her mounting vet care and bills are over $10,000 and growing….but our shelter simply couldn’t give up on her. Maggie deserves to receive the urgent emergency care she could not live without. Generally when we have a pet that needs additional or specific medical care (outside of what our clinic can provide ) – we have enough time to put the pet/s in to a foster home until we can raise enough money to pay for whatever care the pet/s need. Sadly Maggie’s case was critical and we only had a few minutes to make a life or death decision…. Either have little Maggie May euthanized due to the high cost of veterinary care she required or treat her and hope that our adopters/donors and supporters would help us raise enough money to pay for her extensive round the clock medical care 24/7. For us, it was an easy decision to make….how could WE let this amazing beautiful little girl suffer the pain of complications and kidney failure???? She beat the odds living on the streets in Puerto Rico so she certainly deserved to receive the care she couldn’t live without. We did NOT want our decision about saving Maggie’s life to be based on money…..so we hoped and believed that our incredibly supportive shelter friends – supporters – donors and pet lovers – would help us help Maggie

so many of you have been so amazingly kind, generous and thoughtful when helping us raise money to cover medical costs in our attempt to help other animals with special needs and those pets that required special surgeries over the past 2 decades… animals that would be euthanized at most other shelters. And though the costs are far more than our shelter can even afford – we had Maggie admitted for the emergency care she would die without receiving – there was NO time to think about or debate what to do for Maggie and the decision was immediately made to go ahead and have her treated despite not having the funds to pay for her care – since our shelter runs 100% through surrender / adoption fees, and donations when we have a “special needs case” we can only do a fundraising campaign to help the pet/s that requires the care we can’t offer her in our own clinic. Though Maggie’s recovery process is long and has required her to remain in the hospital for a lengthy stay which all of our paws are crossed, and we remain positive that the specialist intervened at the right time and were able to help our little Maggie May. We are hopeful her stay should be coming to an end very soon, and as of right now the bill for her treatment and recovery is over $10,000. Even though she’s been in our care for a short time, she has definitely left her mark on our hearts. We want to give her every opportunity at a healthy and happy life!

Our shelter staff and volunteers and especially Maggie May would be eternally grateful for any amount donated. 100% of the money we raise will go towards her hospital costs. So we are in great need to reach out to our shelter supports/donors/adopters and others we’ve helped over the years with the hopes we can raise the money we need to pay her bills – share her Maggie’s story and help us raise the $ to pay for her care…. As of this morning Friday June 10, 2016 there is still No word yet on when she’ll finally be released. Today the hospital removed her catheter, and put in her feeding tube last night and are starting her on solid foods today. Hopefully this will help to get her fluid intake regulated so she can be discharged. Since we never expected poor little Maggie to have the incredibly overwhelming cost and expensive care for such an extended time….. We certainly couldn’t look at this sweet soul who’d already been through so much to get to safety from the streets of Puerto Rico we knew we just couldn’t give up on her…. so we could really use all the help we can get and your support would mean a lot to Maggie…..

Any of our amazing donors who contribute to Maggie’s care and donate $100+ – we WOULD LOVE TO send you one of the optional STERLING SHELTER SUPPORTER SWAG ITEMS – AS A WAY OF SAYING THANK YOU …..Chose from a t-shirt – keychain – travel mug – or shelter supporter decal. From all your friends at the shelter with 2 legs and 4…. We thank you….. Maggie pictured above – and before we discovered she was in kidney failure – also thanks you for learning about her story and thanks you for any amount of biscuits you could donate to her medical care… With love, Miss Maggie May