Mabel

Mabel entered my life purely by accident. She was a stray that showed up on the porch the day after Fourth of July in 2014. She plopped down and hung out on the porch all day with us. I fed her and provided a place for her sleep while trying to find her owner. She had been spayed and was house broken so she had to be someone’s pet, but she didn’t have a tag or a chip. After a week of advertising, walking the neighbor, and zero inquires, she officially became Mabel Irene and part of the family.
About two weeks later we moved into our new house and that is when the first episode happened. By this time, I had taken her to a vet for a check-up and shots. The vet had determined that she was between 9-12 months, and other than being a little underweight, she seemed perfectly healthy. I had let her out in the backyard and while she was walking around she became very disoriented and started walking like “a drunken sailor” before eventually collapsing onto the grass. I ran out and helped her to her feet, and as quickly as the episode started, it was over. I called the vet and since she was “normal” by the time I got her there, it was determined everything was fine.

These episodes continued very sporadically over the next couple of years. At one of her yearly check-ups, the vet found an irregular heartbeat and referred her to a cardiologist. I wasn’t connecting the episodes with the irregular heartbeat and never brought these up to the vet. Since the cost of seeing a cardiologist for a dog is so expensive and she seemed to recover from these episodes every time, I didn’t seek a consult.

In January 2017, she had another episode. However, this episode was worse than any previous one. When she collapsed she didn’t recover and couldn’t walk on her own. I called the vet and she told me I needed to see the cardiologist, who didn’t have an appointment until the next day. I’ve never owned a pet before and didn’t even realize there was such a thing as an animal ER. Mabel laid on the couch with a very rapid heart rate for 3 hours that day; you could actually see her heart racing through her chest.

Luckily, I found the right person to diagnose her problem, but she would require a costly surgery. I basically had to decide whether to put her down or pay for the surgery. I asked if I could have time to think about it and before I could even put the phone down, Dr. Wright called me back with a way to help finance the surgery. She was instrumental in connecting me with Ellie’s Rainy Day Fund, which paid for the surgery. Mabel is a happy, healthy, almost 5-year old now and I can’t imagine life without her. I am so grateful to both Dr. Wright and Ellie’s Rainy Day Fund for saving Mabel!