Meet Lily, our brave, fearless angel

​

Lily's Story: Lily was pulled from a rural Arizona shelter over the July 4th weekend when the shelter would be closed for an extended weekend. Lily was emaciated and would not have lasted throughout the weekend.

​

When our volunteers transported her, they opened her mouth and saw a softened stick that had gotten wedged in the roof of her mouth, causing a raging infection. 

​

Over the course of a few weeks, we gave Lily antibiotics to reduce the infection, in order to see the damage it had caused. We had seen her bone was exposed on the roof of her mouth, and she would next be seeing a specialist. After her nose began bleeding, she made a trip to the emergency vet.

​

While being seen at the emergency vet at VCA Animal Hospital here in Tucson, the vet discovered an oral fistula, which is an opening from her sinus cavity into the roof of her mouth. She had been given 3 antibiotics and was given a consultation with Dr. Rocco, an oral specialist at VCA, to assess bone graphing options. 

Lily was only a 6 month old puppy, who had her entire life ahead of her.  She deserved a chance at a normal, long, happy, healthy life.

​

When Lily went in for her consultation with Dr. Rocco, the oral specialist at VCA, he informed us that Lily’s mouth was much, much worse than we could have imagined. After the infection cleared, her bone had been eaten away straight through the roof of her mouth. Dr. Rocco built a team from Pennsylvania and Australia to discuss the best course of action to tackle attempting to fix her mouth with a creative solution. He said at best, we were thinking it had a 50/50 shot of working, but we want to be sure that we did absolutely everything we could for Lily. 

​

We gave him the "go-ahead," even though we did not have the funds, and in the matter of 6 hours, our incredible donors and volunteers fundraised $3,800 to conduct her surgery that day! 

​

After Dr. Rocco was able to begin in her mouth, the bone itself deteriorated in his hands. It was all dead without any blood supply. However, as he was going to take impressions to make the prosthetic, he noticed some healthy bone that he was able to graph bone onto. He said the surgery went beautifully, and he was so thankful we decided to go through with it. 

​

That was Lily’s only chance of surviving.

 

That day, we only thought we were getting her x-rays and a game plan. Little did we know, it was literally life and death for Lily, our little fighter. 

​

Over the course of the next week and a half, Lily had to have a few stitches replaced, as expected, because it was a high use area of her mouth. She also had to wear a soft muzzle, aside from when she was eating or drinking. She went in for continual re-checks, and the last one was devastating. 

​

We received a phone call from Dr. Rocco from Lily’s last check up. Her mom and dad felt something was off and took her in. Their guts were right, and Lily spiked a fever, lost weight and her mouth was not healing. Lily was suffering. The roof of her mouth was not closing, and her body was fighting infection. 

​

If we had any other option, we would have done anything we could. However, the damage was irreversible, and letting Lily be pain-free was the absolute best thing we could do for her. 

​

Yes, we were gutted, as we know all of her followers and supporters were, too, however, Lily wouldn’t want you to feel anything but happiness, because through it all, that is what she had known - she had the most incredible spirit no matter what crappy hand of cards life dealt her. She would want you to think of her life, think of her playfulness, kindness, light-heartedness, and smile.

​