Help Magpie Fight for Her Life

My family and I are shell-shocked and heartbroken. Our miracle fur baby, Magpie, is in the hospital fighting for her life. So, I find myself in a place I never imagined being…here humbly asking for your support to help her win her fight!

She is almost four years old and has always been a very healthy dog. At the start of this week, she was our normal, healthy head-strong girl. By Wednesday she was hospitalized and in stable, but critical care, for a spontaneously occurring auto-immune disease known as ITP (Immune-mediated thrombocytopenia). The disease is attacking the platelets in her blood which prevents it from clotting properly and causes spontaneously bleeding. When I rushed her to the emergency vet, she was bleeding from her mouth and her eyes.

I referred to Magpie as a miracle, and I don’t say that lightly. She had a slim-to-none chance of surviving from the day she was born. Arriving on the first of February in 2020, just weeks before the pandemic shut down the world, she was a Valentine’s Day gift to her first owner. At just two weeks old, she was ripped away from the warmth and nurturing of her mother and litter mates. Her odds of surviving at this tender age were not good, but Magpie was born to survive. She was bottle fed, given at-home vaccinations, and then confined to a concrete backyard where she lived for the first few months of her life. She was then passed around to several owners over her first year of life, one of whom abused her so that she cowered at a raised voice or sudden movements. Her tragic start in life left her with behavioral issues that made her future even more uncertain.

But through the power of social media, she landed in a safe and secure foster home where she charmed her way into becoming a foster fail, being adopted by her foster family. I met her when I was asked by her family to help work through her behavioral challenges, which were a direct result of her lack of socialization and abuse as a puppy. She was reacting to the other alpha dog in the home resulting in several severe dog fights. She has been my greatest challenge and my greatest inspiration as a dog-trainer. While she showed progress from the beginning of training, I chose to make her my own because the original adoptive family did not have the bandwidth to work with her due to their focus on their special needs child.

For the past two years of her life, she has been in our home learning how to be calm, regulated and trained for better behaviors. In the mantra that has always defined her, Magpie has proven that she is not only determined to survive…she is determined to thrive! She has absolutely amazed me at every turn, learning to respect our other family dog and more recently welcoming a new dog into our home. There is always a lot of training and management around Magpie's progress, but she has proven that she is worth the investment. She is a wonder! Her transformation has been nothing short of miraculous. After all that she's been through, it breaks my heart that she is now fighting for her life in this way.

Her brief life has already been filled with so much struggle, stress and hardship and she has braved all of it. My heart cannot handle that this is how it might end, so my family and I are doing everything we can to help her win her fight. We have no shortage of love, devotion, and hope for her, but we are struggling to come up with all of the money to cover her extensive medical bills, which are already at around $5,000. The hospital costs alone are expected to rise to $10,000, and there will be additional costs for her long-term recovery, which will take many months. It is extremely difficult for us to ask for help in this way, as we pride ourselves on having always been self-sufficient. However, if humbling myself helps save Magpie’s life, I will gladly swallow my pride.

If you can contribute any amount, even the cost of a latte, we would be eternally grateful. She has so much life left to live and so much love to give. I often say that I’m not sure humans deserve dogs, but I know Magpie deserves a chance to live out the long and happy life she has fought so hard for.

Please consider helping her on the next leg of her journey by donating to and/or sharing our plea. Words truly cannot express our gratitude.

Our hearts are filled with gratitude for all the love and support we feel around us right now.