I hope that they find the couple and reunite them with their beloved pooch.

I cannot imagine this myself. I had five. Put them all down when their time came. they were 11, 16, 17 and two at 18. I pray they find these people and give their angel back to them.

Our country is one hot and ugly mess.

It is a damned shame - but I understand it as I went through similar things with my dog not long ago.

Even being able to care for your pets is becoming a privilege only for the rich.

This county pisses me off so much........

And that will first require REMOVING the Repukes.

Capitalism poisons everything.

our country has too many ignorant, uneducated teabagger-like ignorants who just adore the Repuke propaganda.

This country is DROWNING in stupidity.

of promoting that.

EVERYTHING has become about profit. EVERYTHING.

This little dog had to be left outside of the vet because the owners could not afford to line the pockets of some money-grubbing executive in the company that makes the medicine that this doggy needs!

and meanwhile the American Dream is being promoted.

That phrase is one of the most laughable things I have ever heard.

"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."

and heart rending when many politicians seem to want policies that make it worse, not better.

I find myself wishing I lived in a civilized country more and more often

as people become unable to foot the tremendous amount of money Vets charge to take care of our animals.

This week my sister's 13 yr old Corgi got an abscessed tooth which ended up costing her $1500 when all was said and done.

I think its a crime the fees they charge- a goddam crime

I had a tooth pulled in December and it was less than that. They put me to sleep. I had repair work on my gums as well. That was extra and I paid it so 1500 for a dog tooth is daylight robbery.

Vets can charge tremendous fees because city people are so sentimental about pets.

Plus, they have applied all the expensive medical technology developed for humans to animals.

Locally some people had a dog who was hit by a car and had a broken leg - happened on a Sunday when their local vet's office was closed, so they took him to the new super fancy emergency animal hospital, where all the vets are "board certified" in some specialty or other - even the ones who got their vet's degrees at St. Kitt's in the Caribbean. They were given an estimate of over $3,000 for x-rays, pins and plates. When they said they couldn't afford that, were told, well we can amputate his leg for only $1500. Were also offered chance to sign a loan agreement to pay over time. They took their dog home, took him into their local vet on Monday, who splinted and wrapped the leg. The leg healed. I looked into getting my senior cat's teeth cleaned, purely as a preventive measure - and they wanted to do numerous x-rays, stress test, echocardiogram. When I said I couldn't afford an additional $400 for the echocardiogram, suddenly they were willing to go ahead without that test. Then my bill would only have been $1200. This hospital's front desk were very high pressure sales types. I got a really bad feeling and decided against taking my pet there. Researched it on the internet and found, not only a lot of bitter complaints about this emergency hospital, but this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/business/high-debt-and-falling-demand-trap-new-veterinarians.html?_r=0

She also has $312,000 in student loans, courtesy of Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. Or rather, $312,000 was what she owed the last time she could bring herself to log into the Sallie Mae account that tracks the ever-growing balance.

“It makes me sick, watching it increase,” she says. “There’s also the stress of how am I going to save for retirement when I have this bear to pay off.”

"Starting salaries have sunk by about 13 percent during the same 10-year period, in inflation-adjusted terms, to $45,575 a year, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. America may be pet-crazed and filled with people eager to buy expensive fetch toys and heated cat beds. But the total population of pets is going down, along with the sums that owners are willing to spend on the health care of their animals, one of the lesser-known casualties of the recession.

Today, the ratio of debt to income for the average new vet is roughly double that of M.D.’s, according to Malcolm Getz, an economist at Vanderbilt University. To practitioners in the field, such numbers are ominous, and they portend lean times for new graduates.

practice. Makes a house call for 100 in spare time. Does an average of one house call a day. 36,400 extra income per year, towards her student loan balance.

Student loans are a trap, but there is a way out of them for some.

they died that their 2 Schnauzers would be euthanized. My Mother asked them why and they said they were afraid the next owners might abuse or be mean to them...so they wanted them to die peacefully. I think it was the old ladies that would die peacefully, not the dogs. I don't know what happened. I assume their will was carried out...my Mother never told me and I never asked. Poor doggies!

A friend of mine who is very old and has cancer has it in her will that if she goes before her cat that the cat goes to me. She didn't know what to do with the cat, who is her baby, and she was really dreading what might happen. So I offered to care for her cat (who is an absolute doll, and would be no trouble at all,) and I swear you could see the worry lifted from her face.

He is the most well behaved and sweetest dog you'll ever meet. He's also a pit bull, so I'd hate for him to get into the wrong situation. And I'm his best bud. When I'm between jobs I go and get him so he can just hang out with me while she's at work. We go on walks all the time and he stays with me whenever she goes out of town.

My cat is my one true dependent, and making sure she would go to someone who would totally love and care for her would be absolutely paramount.

Every elected official and people of wealth should be required to ride public transportation to the city centers of all major cities in the US. They would definitely see the sad faces of poverty. We live in a country of haves and have nots. They should talk to every bus driver in the inner cities to hear tales of homelessness and hopelessness. It appears a modern day French Revolution is coming to America very soon unless our leaders wake up.

can spend their last days with each other and be as comfortable and well nourished as possible, we deserve no such comfort for ourselves. This organization is great, they are heroes, but, they can't help everyone and these poor people fell through the cracks.

Still think Chained CPI is a good idea? Still think we have no alternative except offering Chained CPI to the republicans so they will …. blah, blah, blah, fill in the blank?

republicans are evil. Democrats who bend over for republicans, are worse. Every time the Chained CPI is mentioned by Harold Ford, Ed Rendel, Third Way or President Obama, this evidence of what happens when seniors don't have enough money to care for their beloved pet, of 13 years, should be splashed on the TV screen over their faces.

Craven bastards.

Hope for Paws. You can see on YouTube many touching videos of their rescues of stray, abandoned, and feral dogs.

The guy who runs the group and personally does most of the rescues is, I believe, named Eldad. Really, go view the videos. You will come away believing him to be a saint or an angel--even if, like me, you are not at all religious!

All my charity donations go to animal rescue groups. Some people might criticize me for donating only to animal rescue rather than human focused charities, but I am passionate about the welfare of animals, and as someone famous once said (maybe it was Einstein--I no longer recall), life among humans is for animals an endless experience like the torture and extermination camps run by the Nazis.

ON EDIT: The remark I refer to at the end of my post was made by the brilliant fiction writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. He said that for animals life is "an eternal Treblinka." I fret all the time over the suffering if animals--and not just the ones humans find cute or appealing. ALL suffering horrifies me, but animals' vulnerability to human cruelty bothers me most.

Second edit: Corrected two typos in the subject line.

The Eldad videos are some of the most compelling stories ever posted to YouTube. Sadly, you are correct when you say there are people who criticize charity dollars going to animal welfare instead of humans. I'm with you. After splitting the money with my family, if I ever win the lottery, making Eldad a rich man would be first on my list. Imagine what he could do if he had the financial freedom to rescue full time, maybe he could train rescuers in every city.

I think there is no suffering that can compare to being in pain, starving, sick and afraid of everything with no way to understand any of it, no way to make a better future, no way to even imagine a better future…

That's my two cents.

My hope is that the dog can be saved, reunited with the owners, and that the owners will receive whatever care they need so that they can then enjoy the remaining time with the dog.

It does indeed take a village. I hope we are notified when this story plays out, too.

Arrrrgggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The rescue will cover all future expenses for this precious senior girl.