A Tribute to Jackie

A Tribute to Jackie

It was with very heavy hearts that we said goodbye to one of our long-time sanctuary sweethearts this morning. Not a lot of people “knew” Jackie—even the volunteers who come to rescue every week—because she was an indoor dog … and that’s what made her so special. Over the last four years, she had become one of our own.

This beautiful little senior arrived at rescue in the summer of 2011. She had been neglected most of her life and it showed: The ends of her ears were tattered. Her nails were painfully overgrown. Her teeth were rotted. And, worst of all, she had severe skin issues and was missing patches of fur all over her body. That, however, didn’t slow this girl down. She was just as happy—and as headstrong—and any Jack Russell should be.

Unfortunately, her skin issues turned out to be severe allergies … and those allergies turned out to be affected by everything. She was allergic to just about every type of food and grass. We even joked the she was allergic to “air”—which, to be quite honest, was kind of true as many spores affected her.

Over the years, we tried many different things to help alleviate her severe outbreaks —everything from homeopathic techniques, to extremely limited diets, to strong medications. And, every time, she would become immune to it. It wasn’t until the past few months that she was finally finding some long-lasting relief … only to break out in cancerous tumors.

We treated her, and she began to bounce back, but … unfortunately, the cancer bounced back, too, and she developed a mast cell. We had been weighing the odds of trying additional, non-guaranteed treatments, but our girl told us over the weekend that she had, had enough when she began to show signs of congestive heart failure and severe pain. We were not going to let her go through that.

Any loss at rescue is difficult, but this one is extremely difficult as she had become family. She lived in “the big house” with Mama Donna–she even had her own room with a bay window–and  her presence will be greatly missed. The house just doesn’t feel the same.

Jackie had so many wonderful supporters over the years. Mama Donna wanted to share a special thank you to everyone in her own words. Please see below.