Thursday, October 8

Send Some Good Thoughts to Snow White today!

Snow White, a darling girl we found at a shelter, will be spayed today and her breeding days will be OVER!

She's going to be very happy to hear that, though it will be a tough few days post-surgery.

Here are the first pix we got of Snow White and the first report from her temporary foster mom, who kept her for just a few days until her long-term foster mom could come and fetch her.


"My husband H. graciously sprung Snow White from the Shelter before handing her over to [her foster mom]. If I hadn't been fostering Brock I would of fostered her. What a sweet, sweet girl she is.

I gave her a bath (which she loved) and she hasn't been able to leave my husband's side (since he is, after all, the one who sprung her). She loves all dogs and LOVES kids. She is going to be really easy to find a home for.

Here are some pics after her bath, getting lots of kisses and well deserved frenchie love! Note the last picture of (front left to right) Snow White, Bea (mine) and FBRN grad Madie who was staying with us for the weekend while her parents went out of town. What a great frenchie convention it was!"

Did you know spays and neuters for Frenchies cost way more than the same procedures for other dogs? In fact, we've been denied grant money because the grantors felt we weren't trying hard enough to find inexpensive spay/neuter options.



Frenchies require a special protocol that spay/neuter clinics are either not set up for or are reluctant to follow. We've lost a number of dogs when the shelters where they were housed insisted on doing the spay/neuter before relinquishing the dogs to us and used the typical protocol for anesthesia. In at least two of these cases, we've provided the protocol we ask our foster families to use but our advice was discounted or ignored and the patient died. You can imagine how we felt.


A big part of the expenses we lay out for our foster dogs is simple spay/neuter surgery, and often the cost of adoption doesn't cover the combined veterinary costs of spay/neuter, initial exam, tests for heartworm and intestinal parasites, let alone any further problems the dog may have, like a hernia or skin infections, or ear obstructions, or really, really bad and infected teeth. We are considering raising the fee to adopt one of our Frenchies, but we really don't want to do that, because it might mean that great families are cut out of the application pool.

Snow White is having her spay surgery today. Please keep a good thought for her, and if you are so inclined, you could put a couple dollars in her sponsor fund; as of this writing, she doesn't have a single sponsor. We'd all really appreciate it!

The Frog Princess

UPDATE Snow White is out from under the anesthetic and waiting for her foster mom to come and take her home! Thanks to everyone for your good thoughts!
FP

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a sweet girl! i will tell everyone i know to sponsor!

Squeeze said...

Hope she's resting comforably. We are eagerly following her recovery and adoption proceedings. It looks like she's found the perfect foster parents! God Bless!
-The Barletta Family

Frog Princess said...

Hi, Barlettas--
The surgeon found that her uterus was infected, and that can be a really serious problem! Thankfully, she has had no complications and is home and healing nicely! Thanks for your concern!
FP

Frog Princess said...

Thanks, Jorden. Who could tie a dog to a fence and walk away?
Blows our mind.
FP

Pinky said...

Frog Princess-

Why don't you post the amount of money that FBRN puts into the each rescue profile. I think that many individuals do not know how much is required to get the dogs back to a healthy state. If you do this, adoptees may be willing to donate more than just the adoption fee. This would help you avoid raising the adoption fee by allowing people who can pay more to do so and those who can't will stay in the "pool".
:)

Frog Princess said...

Hello, Pinky--
Thank you for your comment!

This is an idea we have considered in the past and we cannot recall at the moment why it was not adopted, since it seems very sensible. We believe the bod thought some of our very sickest or most long-term dogs have very high veterinary bills indeed, and we don't wish to create a sense of obligation in our adopters.

Yet it is clear from many comments on boards across the country in many different venues that a great many people don't grasp the role and purpose of breed rescue. They believe that breed rescue does it for the money. We were reading such a board just yesterday and though many posters leapt to the defense of rescue organizations like FBRN, a good many were affronted at the notion of a home visit or an adoption fee in the hundreds of dollars.

We also get occasional comments from people objecting to the amounts we spend on s/n--these are comments made from ignorance, not meant to be malicious, but there is a lot of work to be done in terms of education about the special needs of these brachycephalic dogs, and it may be that showing potential adopters the kinds of expenses they may have to be ready for should their Frenchie go down in the rear or need surgery for a bowel obstruction would be enlightening to them.

And to return to your suggestion, letting people know that the Frenchies we adopt out have been thoroughly vetted and are absolutely as healthy as we know how to make them is a good thing.

Thank you for your suggestion! We will have to revisit many ideas we have considered and rejected in the past as our contributions continue to decline and numbers of surrenders continue to rise.

FP