Prayers Needed

Our adorable senior Hobbes saw the Veterinarian this morning to check on his healing progress from his surgery; sadly the news is not looking good.

For those not familiar, Hobbes is one of our most recent intakes; senior gentleman around 20 years of age, both blind and deaf. He has endured a life of extreme criminal neglect, and required surgery for his extremely damaged gums and urgent repair of a fistula that was bleeding and causing him pain. 

We knew that the surgery itself was risky for a dog of Hobbes’s age and that there was a risk even with the expert surgery that the fistula would not stay closed. But, we wanted to give Hobbes the best chance for a comfortable life in his final years. Unfortunately, due to his age, the fistula did not remain closed and this puts Hobbes at great risk for infection. 

Today’s news has put a huge cloud of sadness over the Sanctuary as we need to make some difficult decisions. 

The Veterinarian is recommending we wait 2-4 weeks for the tissue to completely heal and she can try again, however during this waiting period Hobbes will need to be closely monitored to ensure no infection sets in. Then again, she also stated that even though she is willing to attempt the surgery again, it is once again a risk due to Hobbes’s age, may still not work, and of course will be costly. 

In the next couple weeks, Paws Give Me Purpose will need to make some difficult medical, and financial decisions, as well as determine what is in Hobbes’s best interest and the best interest of all our Sanctuary Residents. 

Please pray for us, and pray for Hobbes. Pray that we can make the right decisions, and pray for Hobbes to remain healthy so he can live his life out to the fullest – he deserves this second chance to be happy, loved and cherished. 

We hate sharing sad news, but believe in providing complete transparency to our supporters and followers. We thank you all for your support and caring during this time. 

Paws Give Me Purpose Inc. treats every dog that comes through our doors with excellent care, compassion and love. Our promise to this beautiful soul is to provide a safe and loving environment for the rest of his life and we are committed to keeping this promise. 

If anyone is interested in sponsoring Hobbes lifetime care in Sanctuary, please reach out to us directly.

Sanctuary Introductions

Although we are currently short staffed here at Paws Give Me Purpose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are trying to keep things as normal as possible for our Sanctuary Residents. To say the least, it has been challenging and exhausting. Thankfully, the work we do is rewarding. 

Since Calvin and Hobbes’ arrival here to our Sanctuary they have been in their own room, for a 14 day quarantine from the other tiny residents, to be sure they are healthy and not carrying anything contagious that they could possibly spread to the other dogs. 

The Veterinarian has now given us clearance for them to begin to be introduced to the other small residents. This weekend we had fabulous weather here in Southern New Jersey and took advantage of this to begin introducing Calvin and Hobbes to everyone else slowly. Since they are a bonded pair, and Hobbes is both blind and deaf, we need to take things slow to be sure everyone gets along and Hobbes learns the new areas of the Sanctuary, including where the water dishes are etc. 

The great news is that everything is going very well! Calvin and Hobbes enjoyed laying outside in the sun and loved spending time out in the play yard with all the other small breeds and made friends quickly. We do have one Chihuahua here that is not thrilled with their arrival, Angel, but that’s just her personality; she is a cranky 15 year old. When she barks or growls at Calvin and Hobbes, they just ignore her.

For the first time in their lives, Calvin and Hobbes are safe and loved. Their bodies, souls and hearts are healing. 

On Thursday, Hobbes will be heading to the Vet to check on how his mouth is healing from his fistula surgery, we are hoping for good news. Stay tuned for updates, on both our senior gentleman.

If anyone is interested in sponsoring Calvin or Hobbes’ lifetime care in Sanctuary, please reach out to us directly.

Calvin Update

Calvin saw the Cardiologist on Thursday and underwent an echo-cardiogram. Although the shelter documentation had noted his heart murmur was a grade 5-6, the examination and test results from yesterday do not match that assessment.

The good news is that the heart murmur is really more like a stage 4, and not a 5-6, and Calvin’s beautiful heart is not enlarged so there will be no need for medication at this time.

Even though they are healthy, we are going to start both Calvin and Hobbes on some senior supplements to help keep them healthy as they enjoy being loved and spoiled the rest of their lives! 

We want to thank each and every one of you for the outpouring of love, thoughts and prayers for Calvin. We can’t begin to tell you how relieved we are to hear such wonderful news, and look forward to sharing many happy updates about Calvin and his wonderful new life here in our Sanctuary. 

If anyone is interested in sponsoring Calvin’s lifetime care in Sanctuary, please reach out to us directly.