Hello! My name is Mary Ludwig and I have been actively involved with Pughearts since its first meeting. When Cindy ask me to start doing this I was very reluctant, I'm definitely not a writer and I'm not in the least imaginative. However, Cindy said all I have to do is talk about my fosters, well duh, that is my favorite subject so I think I may be able to handle this assignment! I've thought a lot about who to start with and decided that I will begin with the foster I've had the longest, Whitney. Or as I call her Whitney My Love.
I'll hit rewind and go back a few years and begin the story. This poor, tiny five year old pug, who was a backyard breeder, came into our care in deplorable condition. Her feet didn't look anything like they should, they spread out like fingers because she had lived every day of her life in a wire cage. She had both eyes when she came in but one had stitches in it that had never been removed and they had busted lose.the remains were in her top and bottom lids. She also had this HUGE mass on her back left hip that looked very bad. Well the first thing that was done was her eye, it was beyond saving so it was removed. Then Dr. Hendrix began the process of evaluating her mass. As it turns out it wasn't a tumor but a huge abscess. He went in and cleaned it and put in drains to let it all get out. But something wasn't right about it so he sent a sample off for testing. When the results came back we found that Whitney had mass cell cancer. We took her to the Doggie Oncologist and he said that there wasn't much that could be done for her but to give her prednisone and to love her. At this time she was still in the hospital and hadn't been put in a home yet. I had been hanging out at the vet and getting pretty attached to her so I told Cindy I would like to foster her. I think Cindy thought I shouldn't take her, she told me that her prognosis was not good and that she would probably only live a few months. I know she wanted to protect me from the sorrow of losing her, but I was already attached to her and I wanted to make sure that what life she had left was going to be the best that any dog could imagine. So I took her home..
That was almost four years ago, October 2007. Whitney is amazing. I call her my little blonde headed cheerleader, she's in her own rosy, wonderful world. She is not aware that there is a thing wrong with her, she runs around and plays just like everyone else. Her favorite activity is to play tug o war with anyone that will play with her. She still has that mothering instinct from her early years, she keeps Daisy's ears spotless.she loves Daisy. For the first two and a half years she coasted along just like any other foster. She had been taking prednisone every day for her cancer and it seemed to be holding it at bay. Then she started losing her hair and after testing it was discovered that the prednisone had caused thyroid problems. So now she takes two medicines every day and is still just as happy as a bug in a rug. In the last six months she has almost completely lost the sight in her remaining eye (due to taking the prednisone for such an extended time), I think she can still see a little between light and dark but that is about it. She has lost a little of that bubbly personality along with the loss of her vision, but she is still a very happy puggie. She was never really big into being held and cuddled but lately she has started wanting to get on my lap and just be loved. I just love to have her sit on my lap so I can look at her cute little face, she is such a pretty little girl. And she's happy.
Whitney is a perfect example of why there is a PugHearts, she would have died a horrible death without this rescue. She is in hospice care so she will never be adopted but that hasn't changed one thing about the kind of treatment that has been given to her. She is just as important to PugHearts as the cutest, most adoptable pug that has ever come in. No one knows how long Whitney will be with us, but she has already beat the odds that were given to her four years ago. And the most important thing to Whitney is that she has become someone's Whitney My Love.
PRINCESS WHITNEY
