Support Eric's Nine Rescue Dogs' Medical and Ongoing Needs

Eric John Grossbeck organise cette cagnotte.

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Best greetings. My name is Eric, at this point I have 9 small rescue dogs, the majority of which were in dire situations at the time of rescue.

They now all are in safety and together. It wasn't the plan to have 9, however my life situation and my facility here where I work and live were able to accommodate it, and the animals were in need, so this is where we are.

I work for myself for my own company, and I am coming off a 3.5 year battle with covid and long covid (acute March/April 2020, long covid May 2020 through June 2023), so have absolutely no financial margin - in fact I am frankly struggling the meet each's months needs since I recovered my health.

I live where the dogs can all move about a large space (large for them, they are tiny after all) and go inside and outside to a safe enclosed patio with grass and trees and their own couch 24/7. I am here with them the majority of the time unless I have a particular obligation. (I am also extremely fortunate enough to have a building owner who I rent from that lets me get away with having this many tiny dogs because they don't bother anyone else and he knows I have rescued them.)

The two most recent arrivals, Zowie and Cairo, were both in urgent need and had immediate medical expenses. I realized with these needs on top of the needs of the other seven, it was well past time that I really needed to seek financial help.

I put time and effort in all day and all night on these dogs with very very good results, however I need help paying for it all as well as making up for the time I am unable to earn money doing other tasks. This is why I finally made this GoFundMe, and I very very much appreciate your help.

Here is everyone's story, in order of oldest to youngest (the two newest arrivals are the youngest, though I rescued them in order of need/awareness, not age - most of them were older when I rescued them; older dogs in general need more help because fewer people are willing to take them on):

FALCONY

breed: cairne noodle (cairne terrier poodle)

birthday: March 5, 2008

current age: 16

Falcony, who ends up being called Coney or just Cone generally, is one of two who isn't technically a rescue; he started life in a bad neighborhood but with a family in a small unit over a gas station. He came into my life as part of my marriage, and by mutual agreement, after the marriage ended in 2013, it was decided that he was better off with me and the rest of the dogs in his family. He is also the surviving one from the previous generation of dogs, so most of his life he spent around the long-haired dachsund twins Jack and Ginger, both of whom lived to 18, and the black chihuahua Belle, who lived to 14.

By the time Jack died (the last of Belle, Ginger, and Jack), I had already rescued Roxie and Frack, but Falcony didn't hang around with them much as of yet, and he went into a deep depression. I thought he was going to die of a broken heart from missing the three he spent most of his life with.

Fortuitously I rescued Tanks and Peanut and they were babies at the time, and the babies didn't care about his depression. They just bugged him to play constantly.... they basically bugged him back to life and he recovered. I have no doubt they saved him.

Peanut especially acts like Falcony is his dad, and goes and sees him and puts his paw on Falcony's head and Falcony grooms him.

Falcony is very old now (obviously) and is mostly blind and deaf, and has a few places on his skin that look like he is developing skin cancer. He does his thing and migrates around mostly by knowing the layout. He sometimes gets a bit foggy mentally but mostly he is present and content.

Falcony's biggest needs - aside from constant grooming - are end of life issues and a doctor should take a look at these potentially cancer skin areas urgently.

ROXIE

breed: long haired chihuahua

birthday: August 21, 2012 (estimate based on organ condition observed in surgery as well month/date of her surviving near death infection)

current age estimate: 11

Roxie was abused by a breeder, they basically made her have babies until her tiny body couldn't take it anymore and then cast her aside. I had to drive way out to the desert to get her from these people who had her, and when I first saw her little tiny self she was out in this big dusty dark scary place. They wanted me to wait until another day to take her but I wouldn't leave without her. She fell asleep on my lap on the way home during the very long ride in the car, completely exhausted.

Shortly after adopting her, I thought she never had any energy and mostly sat around, because she would just pick a spot and barely move. One morning she was hanging her head badly, which was extremely concerning, so I rushed her to the hospital.

They told me she had a closed pyometra, which is a badly infected uterus, where there are no external symptoms until it is almost too late. They said if I didn't have her have immediate emergency surgery (6K+) she would die. She also had a long hospital stay after the surgery.

When she recovered, I got to see the real Roxie, the one who joyfully celebrates mealtimes and zooms around when she feels like it, and suns herself on the patio.

That wasn't the last major medical thing for Roxie. One morning she looked up at me with her face looking like a golf ball, clearly saying help me. This time she had a face infection which needed surgery to be drained.

And since then she has periodically struggled with gastrointestinal issues, and is very fluidy/snify. I actually believe she got covid and long covid along with me, though I can not prove this.

Also she has lost nearly all her teeth so I have to hand-make her food into very tiny soft pieces and make sure she eats enough every meal. As long as I do this, it alleviates the gastrointestinal issues.

So Roxie has been through a lot, and is a lot tougher than she may appear on first glance.

Roxie's biggest needs are ongoing doctor visits for her gastrointestinal issues. She also isn't getting any younger.

STAR

breed: chihuahua

birthday: January 13, 2014

current age: 10

Star was on a kill list, it was almost over for her. She had been heavily abused and beaten, and in the rescue therefore was so distrustful/angry at people that even people who came to see her to rescue her didn't think it would work. That combined with the fact she was already 5 at the time (this was in 2019) meant no one was going to help her.

They warned me about taking her. I told them that I already had 5 and I don't need anything out of her, and that I can just put her in the safe place and let her be.

Initially she was scared of everything. You could tell, for instance, she had been smacked with a newspaper because every time I went to read the paper, she freaked out.

Six months in I came around the corner and there she was, sitting on the bed with Tanks and Peanut.

A little while after that they were actually playing.

Then she became very affectionate and clingy, but I had to never surprise her with my hand gestures. Sometimes she would have bad dreams and wake up attacking, like a PTSD thing.

This all now has passed. She still gets freaked out by new things and new people visiting, but she tries really really hard to go to them.

Of all of them, I think I am proudest of Star for what she had to overcome and how far she has come.

Star's biggest need is she has a hernia that sticks out of her bottom side. She has always had it since I've known her, but it seems to me to be getting slightly bigger, and it should be examined as soon as possible.

FRACK

breed: chiweenie (chihauhua dachsund)

birthday: March 4, 2015

current age: 9

Frack was a stray for five years, originating in Bakersfield I believe, though somehow he had found his way to a Los Angeles rescue group before I encountered him.

He was another who the people there characterized as difficult and bitchy (though not at the same level as Star and Cairo). He was really ornery when I met him but he was interested in me. I picked him up and kissed him on the head (while they were warning me not to :-). He grumbled so I kissed him on the head again.

When I went back to see him the following day he was all about me. To this day he grumbles when you kiss him on the head and hates when the other dogs step on him when he is sleeping but otherwise he is probably the most polite of all of them.

Frack came with 28 pages of medical issues and treatment. Everything from back problems to skin problems. He has all these tooth shaped scars from street fights when he was a stray, and you can easily see them because he essentially has no hair - the condition known as alopecia (the same that Jada Pinkett Smith has famously).

Because of having no hair, Frack is always cold but he is not fond of clothes, so he is always under blankets. You have to be constantly vigilant of any bumps in blankets and not step on them because they are probably Frack.

(By the way, I didn't name him, like most of them; if they already had names they knew I kept them the same. I only named Tanks, Peanut, Zowie, and Cairo.)

Frack's most urgent need is deep teeth cleaning, he has needed this since before the pandemic, and there just never are funds for it, which I feel terrible about. I try to do what I can for his teeth (and the rest of them; just bought new stuff for this purpose the other day) but he needs the full version with the anesthesia.

TANKS

breed: chi-poo (chihuahua poodle)

birthday: May 22, 2019

current age: 5

I will write about Tanks and Peanut together because they always have been together. I basically answered an ad for Tanks, from a rescue that got him from a puppy mill, most likely in Mexico. When I showed up to adopt him, Peanut was there in the cage.

(By the way it's Tanks as is "Tanks, you're welcome" not like war machines :-)

Both of them by the way were way too young to be separated from their mom.

They said Tanks and Peanut have never been separated so I certainly was not going to separate them, as they clearly were strongly bonded.

The most pressing need for both of them is they need to be fixed. This was supposed to happen when they got old enough after I adopted them, but the pandemic lockdown happened and then my 3.5 year battle with covid long covid happened and then there just hasn't been the funds since. They as a result are the only two here not fixed.

This creates a problem because it periodically leads to too aggressive behavior, especially as they age and at certain times, because they are tiny creatures and their hormones drive them wacko under certain conditions - so they get along famously all the time until they don't, at which time they fight.

Stupid people tend to think this is funny because they are small - it is most definitely NOT funny.

So basically when either of them is threatened and insecure they take it out on each other. So they are very threatened currently because I just rescued Cairo, who is a younger, bigger, faster male dog (though he is fixed). Thankfully Cairo is super submissive or there would be even bigger problems.

I do all kinds of training and deterrence when this fighting issue comes up, but they need their operations as soon as possible - even then I will have to work with them to unlearn the behavior, but it will significantly help.

Peanut has been super healthy always but Tanks must have some inherited teeth issue, because half of his big front ones completely fell out when he was super young (which makes his face look a bit crooked) and the rest have way more issues than he should have at his age.

Especially as I feed them all dry food always along with wet science diet, no snacks, nothing unhealthy - so they relatively speaking should have pretty good teeth.

Tanks is a legitimate genius dog, maybe the smartest one I've been around, though he is also constantly in need of stimulation and tires out all the other dogs - the new addition of Cairo should help with this once Tanks gets over himself.

Peanut is a sensitive guy, starting from when he was very tiny. Now he isn't really that tiny (relatively - we are taking about a 7 pound animal) but nonetheless he is still sensitive.

PEANUT

breed: deer chihuahua

birthday: May 22, 2019

current age: 5

I wrote about Peanut together with Tanks just above.

PATSY CLINE

breed: silky terrier

birthday: August 4, 2019

current age: 4

Patsy is the other of the two not technically a rescue, she is here because she came over for Christmas and then just stayed since her owner, a close friend of mine, is in a particularly demanding time in life and Patsy was home alone a lot.

Patsy already knew the others from previous visits - especially Tanks, from notable attempts by Tanks to impregnate her before she was fixed (which caused Patsy to always have to wear diapers when visiting here :-)

Patsy is actually from a show dog family. They tried to breed Patsy once but it was very sad, all the babies died. So she got fixed. Now she is happily one of the 9.

She was the first to try to make friends with Cairo when Cairo first got here and he was still terrified.

Patsy also is the only one to date Roxie has regularly tolerated in close proximity - until literally TODAY (5-26-24 is when I am writing this) when I found Cairo sleeping next to her, so maybe Roxie is changing her viewpoint on this :-)

ZOWIE

breed: mixed breed, deer chihuahua-ish with wire hair

birthday: May 15, 2021 (shelter date, entry minus age estimate)

current age: 3

To explain why there is now 9 of them, I will share the text story that I wrote to close friends:

"So the week has been completely unexpected.

The most significant outcome has been the rescue of these two, Zowie and Cairo, from terrible situations that led to terrible situation in the shelter.

I didn’t expect this, nor was it good timing for me in any way, including financial - however it wasn’t about me, they were in trouble and they didn’t pick the time. A friend made me aware of it and I knew I had the capability here at the house to do it so I did.

(I in fact had a colonoscopy/endoscopy in the middle of it, that was oft delayed due to my long covid battle. Generally ok, upper tract biopsy clean, but they removed 3 pre-cancerous polyps from the colon - no big deal since I handled it but definitely speaks to staying on top of your medical stuff so developing issues are caught before it’s a problem.)

Zowie’s deal: she was somewhere covered in so many fleas that her entire skin was red and inflamed and she was in pain and in trouble. At the shelter they started treatment, but she is shy and also no one wanted to deal with the skin thing, so no one was adopting her. I took her already to get real treatment, and with shots and safety, is improving rapidly and is an incredibly affectionate sweet dog.

Cairo’s deal: was a stray and not mentally/emotionally ok in the shelter AT ALL, he was losing his mind. So it was making him act all freaked out and hostile and no one would go near him, he was really in trouble. He just needed someone to give him a chance, he’s super smart and very different now. He’s a spazz like all terriers but super submissive and nice.

Unfortunately they fixed him there at the shelter because the vet was unexpectedly closed and did a hack job of it, so it’s not a good stitch up, and I need to get him to a real doctor (the holiday weekend is not ideal).

My existing 7, most of whom came from and recovered from rough backgrounds themselves, have been pretty good about it, of course not without complications and adjustments, but as I write this about 72 hours in since arrival of the new ones, everyone is doing pretty well, all things considered.

I am going to have to start a GoFundMe at this point - something I’ve never done even in the 3.5 years of long covid - but I don’t use credit cards and both the new and already here ones have pressing needs, and I am almost $1000 in on the new ones already.

As I said, they didn’t choose the time they were in the situation, they just needed help."

So this is how we all got here.

Cairo

breed: mixed breed terrier

birthday: May 13, 2022 (shelter date, entry minus age estimate)

current age: 2

I wrote about Cairo in connection with Zowie above.

SUMMARY

Something that is very good in the situation is that a Modern Animal opened up one block away, which will enable me to get all of them care without travel.

Modern Animal has a $199 per year per animal membership options which is ideal here - all regular visits are included, there is a 10 percent discount on all additional services, all the records are available in the app. There is even 24/7 online support (which is great as Roxie, when she gets sick, always picks Friday evenings and even better on holiday weekends).

Zowie is the only one I enrolled so far. I need to get the other 8 memberships and first visits to get the other needs I specified above in process. I was extremely pleased with the doctors and medical staff (two doctors and one nurse) and support stuff during Zowie's initial visit to triage the skin emergency.

Zowie already has a follow-up appointment for the skin condition scheduled June 3, Cairo needs an initial visit, et cet

I put the initial goal at $3000 but as you can see that will be consumed relatively quickly - that is what the GoFundMe recommended so I am not going to overthink it as the needs identified above exist now.

100 percent of these GoFundMe contributions (less the 2.9 percent fee this platform takes) will go to the animal expenses; the majority of the medical will be on record in the Modern Animal app. The food and supplies will also have records obviously. I do a ton of grooming myself, though those with a lot of hair (Falcony, Patsy, Tanks, Cairo) are a bit complicated in this regard.