Help Roxy on the Road to Recovery

Jane Mundy’s sweet dog Roxy became suddenly ill on May 4. She was lethargic and wouldn’t eat, both unusual for her, so Jane rushed her to the veterinarian in Victoria. In the car, she was going into shock. The vet who admitted her said she was in critical condition and likely would have died if Jane hadn’t brought her in right away.

Roxy stayed in intensive care at Central Victoria Veterinary Hospital for five days, where she had to be put on a feeding tube. The vets have done a battery of tests and they still don’t know exactly what caused her health crisis. It is a severe gastrointestinal issue with inflammation of the stomach and intestines. An ultrasound detected a thickening area in the stomach, which could indicate an ulcer or abnormal tissue.

Jane was finally able to bring Roxy home on May 8. She is on several medications, is very weak and barely eating, but she is slowly recovering.

The cost of her care is enormous. The bill so far is about $9,000 and it is expected to exceed $10,000 for a biopsy and further tests, treatment and follow-up care. It is a huge and unexpected cost for Jane, but of course she would do anything she could to save her girl.

As you may already know, Jane has had several dogs over the years, all rescues. Jane and her previous dog Lizzy were well known and loved in east Vancouver, where they lived until 2019 before moving to Victoria. Lizzy tragically passed away on Christmas Day, 2021 after a sudden illness. And now Jane was afraid history was repeating itself with Roxy, who she adopted about a year later.

Roxy came to Jane from Mex-Can Pet Partners, a fabulous dog rescue in Guanajuato, Mexico, founded and run by Victoria’s Marlene Davis. So did our wee dog Julie, and the two have become good pals. Roxy was found skinny and scared on an abandoned construction site in Guanajuato, so she must have felt like she was in paradise when she was adopted by Jane.

Roxy is a gentle, happy girl who loves playing with other dogs, but she will go into guardian mode to protect her little friends like Julie, warning off other dogs with spirited barking. But most of the time she is a sweetheart who sticks to Jane like glue.

Jane often takes care of Julie and other friends’ dogs at her home in Victoria. Jane’s friends call her the “dog whisperer” — she loves all dogs and they love her. She even bakes liver cookies for them.

Jane is a freelance writer earning a modest income, but that hasn’t stopped her from volunteering her time to a number of charitable organizations here and abroad, including feeding baby birds and squirrels at BC SPCA's Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre. She has visited Kanab, Utah to volunteer at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the U.S., and to write about it for Modern Dog magazine and The Vancouver Sun.

As well, she travelled to Mexico to work with Marlene for a week at her shelter there, and the two have become friends. During the pandemic, Jane was instrumental in raising almost $23,000 in contributions to support Mex-Can’s work in rescuing and rehoming dogs, many of whom are now with loving families in B.C.

Jane was a caterer for the film industry in her past life, and she also travelled to Lesvos, Greece in 2016 on her own dime to volunteer as a cook for Syrian refugees camped there. She later wrote about her experience for The Vancouver Sun to bring more attention to the dire conditions at the camp.

Jane is now the rehoming coordinator for Victoria for the non-profit ElderDog Canada, a charitable society that helps support seniors with dogs and works to rehome older dogs who can no longer be taken care of by their owners.

Roxy is still under veterinary care and the bill keeps climbing. Jane hasn’t asked anyone for financial help herself, but her friends know that this huge expense is a real worry for her at a very stressful time.

Please contribute whatever you can to help Jane and Roxy. It will be greatly appreciated.