Tyson's Place Animal Rescue: Senior Pet Adoption Assistance Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

Our rescue's mission is to assist terminally ill people with caring for and finding new families for their pets, including situations in which the owner is going into assisted living, hospice, or nursing homes, and after the owner has passed away.

How many pets did this grant help?

1

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Cole’s elderly owner was hospitalized long-term, and she had no family or friends who were able to take him or her other animals into their care. Apparently, there was someone who checked on the animals in the home periodically, bringing them food and water. The owner’s friend frantically contacted us after several weeks had passed and let us know that the animals were alone in the house, their conditions were deteriorating, and they were in need of rescue.

When we picked Cole up, he was emaciated, his spine bones were protruding from his fur, and he was covered in fleas and suffering from an upper-respiratory infection. The other cat in the home was also extremely thin and in even worse shape, with eyes so infected that they weren’t visible and blood coming from the eye sockets. The dog in the home, also flea-infested, was a normal weight, leading us to believe she may have eaten the cats’ food to survive. All three of the animals were dehydrated.

We drove straight to the emergency vet clinic after seeing the conditions of the cats, while settling the dog into a foster home. Cole simply was too sick to even attempt to eat. He was hospitalized at the emergency vet clinic for several days and diagnosed with liver disease and thyroid disease. The other cat was hospitalized as well but was too sick to be saved and was humanely euthanized.

Once Cole was stable enough to leave the emergency vet, he continued to heal in a foster home. We were careful to feed him small amounts to avoid refeeding syndrome. We started him on medication for this thyroid disorder as well. Repeat bloodwork showed that the liver disease had disappeared and his thyroid was stable with the medication.

From there, he just blossomed, playfully rolling around in his cat toys and finally eating wet food. He shows his happiness through purring, and he is a purr king. The Petfinder Foundation senior pet grant allowed us to provide an adopter with assistance with the cost of his thyroid medication and, with this support, his foster mom decided that she would adopt him.