Maria is a dog that the police asked us to take into the rescue in January of 2025. She was found wandering a back alley, alone, in the freezing cold, almost too thin to even stand, let alone walk.

Maria spent weeks in ICU where she fought so hard for her life, however, her medical problems weren’t over when she was discharged. Maria was soon diagnosed with Bartonella (cat scratch fever) She was given a long course of antibiotics and steroids to complete to help combat the infection. In the meantime, Maria was in and out of urgent care due to severe fever spikes and lethargy.

We never got a formal diagnosis for Maria, and were left to assume that her fever spikes were due to the Bartonella infection taking longer than usual to clear. After spending over $40,000 on Marias lifesaving care, we were left without any answers, but grateful to have, what we thought was a happy and healthy dog.

Since then, Maria has been adopted, by her foster family, but the worst case scenario has happened today. She spiked another excessively high fever. Her now adopter rushed her to PennVet for immediate care. Despite already having dozens of tests done, Maria needs more testing to finally determine the cause of her chronic illness. Because this was an illness that was present before she was adopted, Philly Bully Team is responsible for her bill- which is estimated to be upwards of $7,000.

With how sick she was, Maria would've been an easy dog to give up on in the beginning. Her chances of surviving were low and she wasn't thriving… But now she is. And even though we've invested tens of thousands of dollars into her, it's been worth every penny because she's the sweetest dog and is extremely healthy most days. She deserves an answer. She deserves a prognosis. She deserves to be healthy every single day of her life moving forward. But we need help raising the funds to give her that care. Please consider a donation if you're able to.