Our Roo,

Roo came into our lives July 10th , 2019. My divorce happened April of the same year. My four girls were devastated. Divorce is never pretty. It split apart our family. God is faithful. He, along with little Roo, have been right beside us. I decided to get Roo to help with the emotional pain of it all. I’ve always had animals. They got me through a lot of emotional issues growing up. I too came from a divorced family. I lived hundreds of miles from my father and my mom took on all of the responsibilities of a mother and a father. She worked sometimes three jobs to keep my older sister, brother, and myself fed and a roof over our heads. At one point, my sister and brother moved back to Alabama with my dad. Their move left me alone with my mom. She continued with her responsibilities to take care of me. But this left me with a lot of alone time. Thankfully I had my dogs Prissy and Puppy. Prissy was a dachshund that loved her food. Puppy was a stray we found. And I can’t forget Kitty. I obviously wasn’t very creative with my pets names. Those three animals saved me. I didnt fit in at school; I guess, today, I would be a called a nerd. I was an introvert that was scared of being disliked, so, I was quiet. I didnt want to give people a chance to reject me. So I stayed to myself. I spent a lot of time alone with my animal family.

Fast forward to my families divorce in 2019. While raising 4 girls we had a miniature daschund, two boxers, 11 Guinea pigs, two turtles, 3 snakes and a gecko.

Yes, a zoo. Quite literally. Two weeks before the divorce I had to put our second boxer down due to brain cancer. Three days after Saint Patricks Day 2019. There a few dates in my life I will never forget.

Divorce was final April 19th, 2019. It was horrible; Divorces always are. Again, God has always been here guiding us. At the time we had our 16 year old daschund left. Clarabelle. She was a gem. She ran the house and she knew it. I thought a puppy may help heal some of the hurt in our broken family. In came Roo. She is a doxiepoo - a dachshund poodle mix. We had no idea just how much peace, she would help bring to our fractured family.

From the get go, her personality shined. Easily potty trained. She learned tricks quickly. She loves cuddling. She has always known how to make us smile and shown us love. She has helped us heal. I had mentioned that I thought Roo would be a wonderful therapy dog -One to visit hospital patients. I had health issues years ago and will never forget the therapy dog that visited me. A few months back I noticed Roo drinking more water than normal -Needing to go potty more often. My vet and I first thought may be a bladder infection. He treated her with antibiotics for 10 days but no change. I brought her in to do bloodwork and found she is diabetic. It has been controlled with no issues. I administer insulin while feeding her twice a day. Once in the morning and 12 hours later. Two weeks ago I noticed Roo having a hard time finding me when I called her name. Within days, she was timid about going down the stairs at our condo to potty.

Monday we got the news. Roo has quickly developed cataracts due to her diabetes. She has lost almost all of her vision. She has struggled with pain from inflammation in her eyes just since this past Monday. I was told that she has A 90% chance of seeing perfect again with cataract surgery. The thing is, I don’t make enough money to pay for said surgery. The surgery costs from $4800-5000 not including pre-testing costs of $700.

I have never been one to ask for donations of any kind. But Roo, She’s special. She’s also only 6 yrs old. No more special than another family that has a dog going through something similar.

I just can’t afford to pay for Roo’s surgery. Since my divorce, I wait tables 40 hours a week. I make enough to pay my rent, utilities and sometimes struggle with groceries. I wanted to see if any of my friends or acquaintances would be inclined to help donate any amount to help pay for Roo’s cataract surgery. No amount of donated funds would go to my girls or me. They would go straight to Blue Pearl Animal Hospital that would be performing her surgery. I’ve never in my life asked for financial help,but Roo, she’s worth it and more. I hope you would considered donating any amount, and/or sharing this post. Feel free to tag anyone.

Thank you, and God Bless.

The Thornton Girls and little Roo.