Comenzó como una transferencia rutinaria para salvarle la vida como cualquier otra, pero en cuestión de horas, nuestro personal descubriría que este perro joven necesitaba una cirugía compleja y riesgosa para sobrevivir.

El 9 de octubre, la Sociedad Protectora de Animales del Condado de Dane (DCHS) aceptó el traslado de 15 perros de un refugio abarrotado de Alabama. Uno de ellos era Brownie. Cuando bajó del camión de traslado, se mostró amigable y un poco nerviosa, lo cual es comprensible dado el largo viaje y el cambio en su entorno. Cuando se dio cuenta de que estaba en un lugar seguro con personas cariñosas y de buen corazón, la mestiza de pastor alemán atigrado de un año se sintió más cómoda.

Pensamos que Brownie sería otro de los muchos perros jóvenes y saludables que hemos traído a nuestro refugio para que tengan una segunda oportunidad de encontrar una familia amorosa en nuestra comunidad compasiva. En cuestión de horas, los miembros de nuestro personal se sorprendieron al descubrir que tenía extensas lesiones internas que necesitaban una intervención rápida.

Gracias a los generosos patrocinadores como USTED, DCHS puede actuar en cualquier momento para brindar atención veterinaria inmediata y compleja a cualquier animal que ingrese por nuestras puertas. Duplique su impacto hoy y asegúrese de que muchos más animales como Brownie puedan recibir diagnósticos y atención veterinaria vitales que les salven la vida.

Al llegar, todos los animales reciben un examen básico de admisión. Durante el de Brownie, nuestros veterinarios se alarmaron al descubrir que no podían escuchar su corazón ni los sonidos pulmonares normales en el lado derecho de su pecho. Inmediatamente le tomaron radiografías, que revelaron que tenía una hernia diafragmática: un orificio en el diafragma que permitía que los intestinos, el hígado y el estómago se empujaran desde el abdomen hacia la cavidad torácica. Esto significaba que sus pulmones no podían inflarse correctamente y que Brownie tenía dificultades para respirar. Nuestro equipo también encontró una hendidura en su caja torácica, lo que indicaba que las lesiones podrían haber sido causadas por un accidente traumático, como ser atropellada por un automóvil.

Nunca sabremos exactamente qué sucedió para causar la hernia, pero nuestro equipo sabía que la única posibilidad de supervivencia de Brownie era un procedimiento quirúrgico complejo para mover sus órganos nuevamente a donde deberían estar y reparar su diafragma lesionado.

Afortunadamente, además de nuestro equipo veterinario especializado, DCHS tiene sólidas alianzas con cirujanos veterinarios especialistas en nuestra comunidad, y uno de ellos aceptó venir a DCHS para realizar la reparación de hernia de Brownie. Incluso con un especialista y nuestro equipo de expertos, el procedimiento que necesitaba Brownie era sumamente complejo y riesgoso. Sabíamos que existía una posibilidad desgarradora de que no sobreviviera a la cirugía.

También sabíamos que teníamos que intentarlo.

Thanks to the skills, care, and compassion of our team, Brownie beat the odds and made it through surgery. Our staff and volunteers carefully monitored her during her immediate recovery. In those crucial early days, she needed a chest tube to drain excess fluid. Every day for a week, our veterinarians checked her progress and drained the fluid from that tube, until Brownie had recovered to the point that they could remove it.

After another week, Brownie was ready for our veterinarians to perform her spay surgery. Finally, she was ready to find her new home.

When Brownie arrived almost a month before, our canine behavior specialists noted she was nervous in her new surroundings. Although she became a bit more comfortable with time, we nonetheless believed she would do better in a home environment – Brownie had been through a lot, from the trauma that damaged her diaphragm to the procedure to repair it. A foster family could monitor her recovery and give her all the patience, quiet, and care she needed.

It came as no surprise that one of our compassionate volunteer fosters stepped up.

“I was asked to foster Brownie, and after reading her story, my heart went out to her, and I quickly said yes!” says Chris. “I wanted to give her a quiet and loving home.”

Brownie took to her new foster quickly, showering Chris with kisses when they first met. 

“She loved all the attention, new toys, and quietness,” Chris reports. 

“She loves to play with her toys,” Chris continues. “She will toss her ball around and chase it, all by herself. She also likes to play fetch but needs to work on dropping the ball. When she has the ball in her mouth and won’t drop it, I kick a bigger ball around like a soccer ball, and she runs after it, so we kind of play soccer.” 

Chris lives out in the country with a fenced-in backyard, and Brownie has been enjoying all the experiences her foster home brings. 

“While we were outside one day, she just stopped and sat down as the deer ran by, heading to the woods,” Chris recalls. “She just sat there like, A dónde fueron? At times, she will look up at the birds flying over.” 

At just over one year old, Brownie is still a bit of a puppy. “She does like to get into things,” Chris admits, “but she is a loving, sweet puppy! At night, we snuggle on the couch and watch television together. She likes her pets and belly rubs.”

During her first few weeks in foster with Chris, DCHS’s team diligently worked to find Brownie’s new home. Several compassionate community members showed interest in the pup, and our staff counseled each one about Brownie’s specific needs.

“After getting the call that people were interested, my heart was happy for Brownie and sad I was going to miss her,” Chris recalls.

Chris brought Brownie back to the shelter for a meet-and-greet with a potential adopter, but the interested family didn’t show.

“On my way home, I thought maybe I could become what everyone warned and joked with me about,” Chris says. “A foster failure.”

At DCHS, we prefer to call these “foster successes.” They’re not about failing at fostering; they’re about finding unexpected joy in realizing the pet you were helping prepare for someone else’s family was actually meant to stay with yours. 

Chris thought about all the ways Brownie had found her way into her heart. “I do enjoy taking her out in the backyard in the morning and watching her watch the deer, playing with her, and watching her smell all the smells on our walks,” Chris says. “She is quite the little independent puppy, rolling the ball around and throwing it and running after it.” Chris knew their bond was deepening, and she really began to wonder if Brownie was already home. 

“My favorite part is how excited she gets when I come home,” Chris continues about Brownie, adding it’s “always a joy to see her all excited with her little butt and tail wagging and tons of kisses.”

Chris consulted with her adult children, who regularly visit with their own dogs adopted from humane societies. She wanted to make sure the fur babies would all get along.

“My son's dog and Brownie already met and played well with each other, so my guess was Brownie would do the same with my daughter's dog,” Chris explains. “She has since met both dogs and loves playing with both of them together and one-on-one.”

With her heart and mind at ease, Chris made it official and adopted Brownie.

Chris says, “We are all so happy she is part of our family!”

So far in 2024, we’ve transferred over 1,000 animals to DCHS from other animal rescue groups, many of them overcrowded southern shelters. Because of YOU, each of those animals had a second chance to find a happy new beginning and over 700 of them received specialized veterinary care from our expert team. 

Contribute to the care of animals just like Brownie in our shelter and community by giving today. Thanks to our generous matching gift challengers, gifts made before 11:59 pm on #GivingTuesday, December 3rd, are DOUBLED up to $50,000.

Together, we can save thousands more animals in 2025!