Help CARE Cover Rescue Pup Ono's Surgery

Little Ono is only eight weeks old, but already she has been through a lot.

Her mama Mazie was surrendered to the Chatham County Animal Shelter in late December and promptly found her forever home on New Year’s Eve with Holly, a volunteer for Chatham Animal Rescue & Education (CARE).  As it turned out, 2019 was a time of new beginnings for Mazie in more ways than one—not only had she found a loving home, but unbeknownst to the shelter and her new human mom, she was also pregnant. Mazie gave birth to six puppies on February 9th—three boys and three girls. Sweet Ono was the first to emerge. All six puppies immediately became CARE foster pups, and are being raised with love and care in their foster home with Mazie and their foster mom until they are ready to go home with their forever families.

 Ono, it was soon discovered, was born with atresia ani, a congenital abnormality in which the colon is not connected to the rectum. As a result, she had extreme difficulty pooping, and any wastes were routed through her vagina, leaving her vulnerable to chronic infection. Fortunately, the wonderful folks at the North Carolina State Veterinary Hospital were able to repair her colon to allow her to eliminate properly, and little Ono is definitely on the mend.


Top: Mazie nurses Ono at the NC State Vet Hospital. Bottom: Ono post-surgery #1. Ono has no tail at all and one of her siblings inherited Mazie’s natural bobtail.

As luck would have it, Ono’s healing, while progressing, has experienced a bit of a setback requiring a second visit to NC State Vet Hospital—she managed to work off her tiny Elizabethan collar and get at her incision. The good news:  the original repair site is intact. The not so good news: the subcutaneous sutures between her anus and vulva were pulled out and being constantly bathed in watery poop, which made the site difficult for the vets to assess. She has begun a diet of soft food in hopes of getting her poop to form, making a second repair possible that will be less likely to get infected. She also has a new, sturdier collar to keep her from getting at the incision site.  A recent third visit to NC State Vet Hospital involved general anesthesia to remove an impaction.  Ono’s aftercare will be determining ideal the balance between food consistency and the dose of medication to achieve a normal stool.


Ono is slowly healing and gaining weight but still spends much of her time napping alone, unable to join in the puppy fun with her five siblings.

While the prognosis is good, Ono still has a long road to recovery before she is able to find a forever home, and she must be monitored constantly, even going into the office with Mazie’s human—no wild puppy romping with her five brothers and sisters. As you can imagine, the vet bills are piling up. We at Chatham Animal Rescue & Education (CARE) are committed to helping Ono but need your help to pay the bills so this innocent puppy can get the medical treatment she needs to have the quality of life she deserves.   Special needs cases drain our funding for medical care for all of the animals in our foster network and may limit our ability to rescue more dogs and cats into foster care. Your gift to CARE makes it possible for us to help animals like Ono.

The mission of Chatham Animal Rescue & Education (CARE) is to promote the health and safety of all dogs and cats in Chatham County, NC.  CARE foster caregivers provide loving, stable homes to homeless cats and dogs, helping them become the best possible pets for their future forever families.  CARE works with the Chatham County Animal Shelter to save the lives of unwanted cats and dogs, manages feral cat colonies, and serves as an educational resource.  CARE’s Lillie's Fund is a targeted spay/neuter program, subsidizing sterilization surgeries for pets owned by lower income families in Chatham County.  CARE is a nonprofit animal welfare organization that has served the community since 1975 and relies on individual and corporate donors for support.  All funds raised above and beyond those necessary for this special needs animal will be directed to CARE’s general fund for the use of all CARE animals.

Click here for more information on Chatham Animal Rescue & Education (CARE)