Wally

December 9, 2010

Wally's first day at his new forever home

Hi, I'm Liz. I'm a photographer. In 2009, I spent part of the summer volunteering at the Sean Casey Animal Shelter in Brooklyn, a no-kill facility where I'd spend weekends helping out walking dogs. That fall, the rescue center asked if I would photograph some of their animals for their adoption site.

I was introduced to Wally by another volunteer at the shelter who'd been fostering him. Wally was a four-year old Pekingese mix who we were told suffers from intervertebral disk disease and would probably require future surgical intervention. At the time, however, both the shelter experts and specialists advised that, since Wally wasn't showing signs of pain or discomfort, we should take a conservative approach and not rush into unnecessary surgery.

Wally has been a happy and productive member of our family now for almost a year—he even gets along great with all our cats!

This past August, we took Wally to a friend's house upstate for a barbecue. There were five other dogs in attendance and one of them clamped his jaws around Wally's neck. We intervened to try to separate the dogs, but Wally wound up badly yanked around when we tried to pick him up and the other dog wouldn't let go.

Wally suffered a ruptured disk, was completely unable to walk, and was in a great deal of pain. The veterinarian prescribed a course of painkillers and steroids. After a week of heavy medication, he seemed to have recovered, but about a month afterwards, Wally suffered another episode—he became very reluctant to get up, struggled to walk, and would lie in his bed crying all night.

On September 22nd, we took Wally to VERG in Brooklyn, where Wally had major back surgery. The vets were able to remove about 75% of the ruptured disk material.

The surgery cost $4,500 and we're looking for a way to defray the cost. We've set up a Paypal account, and there's a donation button on the right.

In the meantime, we'll be posting photos and stories about Wally and his ongoing recovery.

Thank you for reading and please spread the word!

· Sean Casey Animal Rescue

happy to report...

the last set back only lasted a week:) and was not a ruptured disc (we think) wally was back on his feet after a 7 day dose of steroids. we are keeping a close eye on him making sure he doesn't play too hard, get picked up by anyone or jump from any furniture. so far so good- thanks for all of your wonderful wishes...

November 18, 2010

NOT A GOOD DAY

AFTER AN AMAZING COUPLE OF WEEKS WITH WALLY PLAYING MORE THAN HE EVER HAS BEFORE WITH HIS TOYS AND RUNNING DOWN THE HALLWAY.....TODAY NOVEMBER 18TH, WALLY STARTED TO SHAKE AND WHIMPER AS HE WAS LYING DOWN. I FELT THE SIDES OF HIM AND THEY WERE COMPLETELY TENSE LIKE LAST TIME.

I CALLED THE VET AND SHE ASKED HOW MUCH OF THE MEDICATION I HAD LEFT FROM LAST TIME.. I HAD ENOUGH TO START HIM BACK ON STEROIDS AND SHE SAID IF HE WORSENS..HE MIGHT HAVE ANOTHER RUPTURED DISC.

WALLY IS ASLEEP FROM THE MUSCLE RELAXERS WRAPPED IN HIS FAVORITE BLANKET RIGHT NOW. IT HAS NOT BEEN A GOOD DAY SO FAR.... AND I AM HOPING FOR A BETTER NIGHT... FINGERS CROSSED.

November 8, 2010

WALLY UPDATE NOVEMBER 2010

update:

We wanted to pause and say thank you to everyone who has contributed or helped spread the word about wally's surgery fund. We are so gratefull for the generous donations so far and we hope wally's story will continue being passed along. We have gotten emails from complete strangers wishing wally a speedy recovery and we are so touched!!! We plan to keep the donation going for a couple more months till we are a little bit closer to the half way point.

Wally has been running/jumping.... he's almost like a superdog these days. the surgery was a total success and he is able to use his back legs more than ever before.