Hope for Joey

We adopted joey from the Ozato Animal Control kill shelter back in October last year. We picked him up on the day he was due to be gassed and he was covered in urine, feces, mud, and burs and seemed demoralized and weak. After cleaning him up he turned into a different dog. He is always happy, sweet, and loving, and our others dogs get along with him very well.

However, while being at work the other day something happened between Joey and one of my other, bigger dogs named Cash. Cash freaked out about something and bit Joey twice on the face. When I returned home from work Joey was in a corner bloody with his right eye swollen and completely out of the socket.

After rushing him to the vet he went into emergency surgery. The vet told me it was much worse than they originally thought and that his skull is fractured, his right upper jaw is crushed, and they irrigated his eye to fit it back into the socket which they then sewed shut to heal. He will need a second reconstructive surgery for the bones in his face and will be on a feeding tube for 2 months.

When I asked if euthanasia was a more humane option due to the amount of pain Joey was in the vet said he was optimistic Joey could make a full recovery if infection does not set in and it would be a long, expensive process.

Joey has a heart murmur due to heartworms he contracted as a stray. We adopted him under the condition that we treat his heartworms and we have been. However, due to the heart murmur they were unable to go through with cleaning his teeth back in January when I scheduled it because they weren't sure if he could handle anesthesia. Now the tartar still on his teeth puts him at high risk for infection so they are going to clean his teeth during the second surgery, which will be an additional cost.

Though it is difficult to hear Joey cry in pain I have trust in the vet's opinion. We saved Joey once and we will do whatever we have in order to give him a high quality life once more. It's heartbreaking knowing it was one of my own other fur babies that did this, but we love our dogs and would do whatever we could for any of them in situations like this. Dog lovers understand the amount of hope I am keeping in the situation. We are asking for donations to help pay for his two surgeries, medicine, and hospital stay. Anything would help and we would greatly appreciate it and I know joey would too.

**The pictures added are from when we picked him up from the shelter and after we got him cleaned up.  The cover photo is of him after his first surgery.  The eye that was sewn shut is shown.