Help Toby recover from a dog attack

On 14/11/21, my little dog Toby was attacked by a large lurcher. He was grabbed, shaken, and tossed around like a rag toy. I got to him relatively quickly, and we dashed straight to the vets, but the damage was severe.

 

Toby was transferred to the emergency specialists in Somerset, where he received emergency surgery to repair his chest wall and his sternum. He was in surgery for several hours on a Sunday night - the longest night of my life! When the surgeon finished the surgery and rang me he was not hopeful for Toby's survival. Toby had large holes in his chest, as a result of which his lungs had deflated. He had also dislocated his sternum in two places.

 

I was devastated. Toby is my life. I love him with all my heart. Having witnessed and intervened in the dog attack myself, I was in a state of shock. I shook uncontrollably for 48 hours. Toby, however, did a lot better than I did. After a very tense night, the vet phoned me in the morning to say that he had recovered well from the surgery, and had even wagged his tail a little (this detail made me cry).

 

Toby was not out of the woods - and would not be for several anxious days. However, he's a tough little feller, and continued to rally. By the Wednesday I was allowed to visit him (my lovely Dad drove all the way from Dartmoor to Somerset to see him), and last Thursday he came home.

 

Toby is insured. However, the cost of hours of emergency surgery on a Sunday night, plus his drugs, radiographs, hospital stay etc outstrip the maximum his policy will pay to a tune of £5000. I can cover some of the extra myself, leaving me with a £3000 bill to pay.

 

Toby is worth every penny, and I am happy to be paying this off for the rest of my life. However, I am a freelance writer who lives alone, so this will be a struggle. Any help towards getting the lovely vets the money they need would be a huge weight off my shoulders, and I would be enormously grateful.

 

If you click this link to my Facebook https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10101896417760772&id=37109415 , you can follow Toby's story as it unfolded via my (slightly hysterical) Facebook posts.

 

In the unlikely event that any excess money is raised, it will be donated to a charity that helps Westcountry owners with vet bills. If I can't find such a charity, I'm considering starting one myself ('The Toby Trust')

 

With huge gratitude,

 

Heather Sheppard (and Toby and Lupin) x