Saving Gil

Hi! My name is Gil! 

I am a lab mix, and I'm about 2 years old. Right now I’ve been living in Tucson for almost 2 months. In dog years, that's like a lifetime! I used to live in this really remote part of the Arizona desert where I was an outside dog and got to roam free with all the other dogs—chasing rabbits, ground squirrels, cats, you name it.  It was so much fun, but one day, something really bad happened.

Someone shot me with a shotgun. Twice.   

I don't like to talk about it because it makes me sad and confused.

The noise was so loud, it scared all my dog friends away. And I was scared too, and wanted to run, but my legs wouldn't move. I couldn't walk or run or even stand up. And it hurt a lot!

When I was able to, I dragged myself around to join my friends and track down scraps to eat. But I could never keep up with the other dogs or find much food or water. My feet got raw down to the bone, bloody, and infected from dragging them on the ground. My humans say this went on for two or three months! Another doggy lifetime.

It was a human who finally found me, hiding under a tree after a frightening thunderstorm. They gave me food and water, and took me to a place with other sick and injured animals. I cowered in a corner, until a lady named Nancy came to meet me.  And then…

A group of humans in Tucson, Arizona came to my rescue!

Nancy later told me that they almost lost me, that if we hadn’t met on that day, at that time, I would have been euthanized. I don’t have to tell you—this is a really big and sad word—but Nancy and her helpers—Evelyn and her husband Mark, Bonnie, Michele, and Kim and her boyfriend Yaron—knew I wanted to live!  

Ever since, everything has been different.

Now I live with Evelyn and Mark, my foster parents, and their chihuahua Pancho is my bestie. All the humans—Team Gil! My team!—raised money so I could have an operation. Now the pellet in my spine is gone!! Another generous human named Kate, from a Loyal Companion, gave me this great wheelchair I can zoom around in.



But I’d love to learn to walk again. 

I could ditch the wheelchair, cool as it is. And definitely lose the diapers! How great would that be!

Learning to walk again means going to something called physical therapy. No guarantees, but I keep surprising everyone! Team Gil keeps telling me so every day.

But therapy is expensive, and once again, Team Gil needs your help to help me.

Therapy is expensive because I have the best doctors at a state of the art facility! I will get to swim on an underwater treadmill and get something called acupuncture to stimulate the nerves around my spinal cord. I will get to look like a porcupine with a bunch of needles!

In addition to my therapy, funds will also help Team Gil pay for my food, diapers, and medications along the way. Team Gil isn’t an organized rescue – just a group of people who came together to help me.  How cool is that?!

So I am wondering, can you help Team Gil help me? 

Any contribution—small or large—and sharing my story with other humans will give me a chance at running around again and keeping up with the other dogs. I’m still a puppy, after all.

Thanks so much for reading my story and joining my team! For a while there, I thought humans wanted to hurt me, but now there are so many who love and feed and walk and cuddle me! Not sure how many lives dogs have, but I’m so happy and grateful to be on my second, and to one day find my forever home. Thank you!

Lots of love and doggy kisses,

Gil

PS.  You can follow me on facebook: @savegil  and you can also follow me on instagram: @gil_the_wunderpup