How do you do? I am Vanessa. Pleased to meet you. I'm a sweet, gentle, gorgeous little Siberian Husky. No, I'm not vain. I'm just repeating other people's descriptive adjectives for me.
For a while my life was hanging by a thread. Please allow me to tell you my story. In May of 2003, I was proclaimed what they termed "running at large," which means I could not find my way home. So I ended up going to an overwhelmingly large building that housed lots of barking dogs inside. They called this place a shelter. It was a very sad place. Because I'm such a polite, gentle little soul, I was scared.
One lady, who was really nice to me, kept telling me that I did not belong there because I was too sweet and too special. "Your family will come for you," she kept telling me, but even she lost hope after I spent 14 days locked in the shelter. A four-month-old purebred Siberian Husky who was an absolute doll, she said, she could not understand. So she called Pet Harbor Rescue. My shelter friend told me Pet Harbor Rescue is the Siberian Husky rescue for that area and that they would help me find a good home.
Early on the morning of June 13, one of Pet Harbor's fabulous volunteers, Amy, sprung me from jail and took me to foster care. Boy, was I glad to see her. She, too, said I'm a special & sweet little lady, even though I made a mess in her car. They called it tossing my cookies, but I neither remember having any yummy cookies nor tossing anything.
Over the weekend I kept tossing more cookies, which made no sense to me, but who was I to argue? Monday morning bright and early, my foster mom took me to the doggie doctor. Pet Harbor is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit rescue run by volunteers and donation. As such, they struggle for funds to carry out their mission. Because they have a very tight budget, they cannot afford special needs animals who require high-cost care. But I was so special! Since I was only four months old, so good, so polite, so loving, and so sweet, they gulped and made the decision to save my life, hoping to beg for funding afterwards.
I was initially diagnosed with parvovirus because the test came back positive. Later, because of my responses to which medications and my symptoms, my two veterinarians decided that my test showed a false positive and I had, rather, distemper. They also did a chest X-ray and found I secondarily had pneumonia. I was one sick puppy.
After spending quite a lot of time in the hospital, where I had to be fed intravenously and subsequently force-fed and where everybody fell madly in love with me, I finally started getting better. Through most of the hospital stay, everyone held their breath and scratched their heads (and fleas!) trying to decide if I would pull through. In addition to all the rest of the yuckies, I had a terribly high fever that would not go away.
At last, with a lot of TLC and well wishes, I came through. Now I am in foster care. I need a home to call my own, one that is forever.
Pet Harbor, however, is left with my veterinary bill, which is far greater than they are able to spend on one animal. It will for quite a while prevent them from caring for any other animals who need help. They understand most people struggle from paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to help with my bills, but if you are someone who has a few extra dollars and can help, Pet Harbor and I would be extremely grateful. If you ever meet me, I will shower you with gentle kisses. My total bill was $869.44, but my wonderful veterinarian, Dr. Sharon Kensek at Pet Care Centre in Fredericksburg, Virginia, gives Pet Harbor a discount. So my bill now is $652.08. If you would like to contribute, please send tax-deductible donations to
Click to see my angels.
Please indicate your payment is for the Vanessa Fund. You will see your name here in my list of angels, and Pet Harbor would be delighted to send you a receipt. As contributions are received, the new balance will be posted here.
Current balance as of November 23, 2003 is $0 - PAID IN FULL!
ANNIE ROINA, LADYBUG, & OBI-WANDAVID E. LOHSERICK EPSTEIN, PEACHES, JUNEAU, & KERMITKEVIN & TRISHA GARLOW, JUDGE & WENDYKIKI KAWASUMIAN ANONYMOUS DONORPATRICIA JACOBSANA CAINELLI, in Memory of LOLACHIP & BRENDA McCONNELL
