Aid for Peabody's Mutilated Tail

After being lost for a few days, Peabody was mutilated by a stranger. He now needs his tail emergency amputated. Friday I will try to meet this exorbitant cost (detailed below), but have not yet even been able to cover the ER visit as I live on a fixed income as a full-time student and raise a little on my own.

A friend wrote to Mr. Peabody and said, “Well, let him know after the surgery that I said he’s still handsome, and that short tails are actually en vogue in many dog circles.”

Poor PB: A scary story

Sweet PB is grateful to be home and going with a rear-end reinvention. In the words of the vet, his tail was “gruesomely lobbed off” and “whatever happened to him was really bad.” Sadly, it may indeed be a result of animal cruelty while he was on the lam. The day before the Woodlands staff spotted him, I received a series of terrible phone calls where I was trying to find out where he was from a caller(s) only to hear him screaming in pain. Someone went out of their way to prime these messages by first calling me and playing with him—they barked and fake howled, then hung up. They called again as I searched park, cemetery, block after block, only to bait me into a inhumane conversation with nothing but the sounds of poor Mr. Peabody crying. I called back again and again and pled. In the end, and after 4 hours of waiting on the police, I received a text: “I don't have your dog anymore.” (see below for images, recordings, and cost breakdown).

When I found him the next day at Woodlands Cemetery he ran up to me with heaps of kisses and half a tail. Peabody gave me more love and then whimpered and looked back at his tail with its exposed bone to show me what happened. We rushed to the vet to take care of this painful open wound. Poor little guy, he hurts so much and is so traumatized he won't leave the closet. He lays on a bolt of silk used as the funeral shroud for my 17-year-old PitBull I lost in March. I am so glad he is back and that they didn't take another body part. The whole of West Philly helped, between posts and friends sharing updates as I biked from location to location, to those who gave us rides to find a vet that could care for him, and neighbors whom we dont even know that looked and posted, to the Woodlands staff that kept an eye out as I raced to get him.

Poor Mr. Peabody has been through so much. Before this normal instance of a runaway doggie trash walkabout he had already had a rough life before Lydia found him. He is a foundling from Bartrams Garden. About two years ago Lydia (my 10yr old) found him when she was learning to ride a bike. One summer night she raced down a wee hill out of my sight. As I chased her and reprimanded her for leaving my vision I heard her sweet little voice yell "Jesus Christ". When I reached her she said "No mom you dont understand, I almost hit a little dog!" She pointed under the street lamp and at first glance what I thought was a plastic bag turned out to be a little sick dog. He was so dehydrated from being dumped outside in the summer (and likely kept solely in a crate) that he could not walk. His entire back half was stained yellow from urine we could only assume he was an old man. We took this little guy (formerly named "Jesus Christ") home and began the process of foster. So dearly neglected it took weeks to build muscle in his back legs from the atrophy of being strictly crated. The yellow color of his back half and the formality of yelling "Jesus Christ" to call him eventually meant he was to be re-named Hence, the name Mr. Peabody.

We would never stop looking for this little guy and thanks to the West Philly community posting and searching, dear friends giving me updates as I biked and called his name and rides to find a vet that could care for him, as well as the Woodands staff calling me with in-real-time updates I was able to find him. I have recordings of the phone calls where they had his screaming while I pled as well as their voicemail greeting where they had recorded his whimpers afterwards so that when i called back again and again I had to listen through his pain before I could leave them pleading messages. Images without "band-aids" are available upon request. The voicemail greeting on the phone of the person(s) where you can hear his post-maiming whimpers was shared to the police. I am on the fence as to follow up with the authorities: I do not believe the system solves problems, we called them because we needed help (and in the end it is always the community not the police that lifts us up). If anyone wants to see or hear what this poor little guy went through, I am here for it.

Tier Range

| -------------------------------------------------------------

Low : clean/simple case, daytime ER ll $3,200 – \$4,000

Typical (urgent, complications, 1 night in hospital: $4'500 – $6,000

High (infection, added labs, longer stay $6,500 – $8,000