The Brink Of Humanity

The letter came in the form of an email. Buried in the list of a hundred others, 99% of them spam marketing. I was tired. It was late. It is a small miracle in itself that I didn't dismiss it at a glance and pitch to trash.

The letter was a thank-you for a pet I had seen, (and honestly only vaguely remembered seeing), at the end of a long Sunday. Sunday's are a blur. They are walk-ins, essentially emergency appointments, and the whole mission is to get in, get these patients triaged, offer options that need to include transfer to an ER,  (which none of them go to anymore due to cost), and then get the staff out at a reasonable hour. We are open for 2 hours and typically see 12 to 20 patients. This particular Sunday was Dec. 22. Christmas was just a few days away. Like every Christmas season I head into work knowing that a few Christmas miracles would arrive. I look for them. Those cases who just need a little bit of kindness, a compassionate hand, and maybe just a free exam. 

Sadie. So much of my story starts with this girl.

Dear Dr. Magnifico, 

I've been trying to find the words to thank you since last Sunday when you helped our Pearl. I'm afraid to let more time pass without trying, as I don't want to appear ungrateful. 

The past few years have been a complete struggle for our rescue, Hodgepodge. We have endured so many losses and hardships: life threatening illnesses, job changes, divorce, and even a tragic, unexpected death.  We kept plugging along until it was eventually just me caring for all of the rescue animals, handling admin work and records, meds, transporting, etc. We went from eight workers to one. Intake was closed. I worked 790, consecutive, 16-18 hour days, to keep this rescue going. I cried - a lot! I pushed thru my broken bones, covid, and pneumonia. (Additionally, my dad was hospitalized 14 times in one year with post-op complications of osteomyelitis, MRSA, sepsis, Steven's Johnson syndrome, and kidney failure. He seemed to be in competition with my blind uncle that I look after. I'd get one out of the hospital and the other would go in within days. It was a lot of running back and forth to hospitals.) Some days the animals didn't get fed or cleaned until midnight, and I was often at the barn at 2 A.M., but it got done. Fortunately, animals are very forgiving and they didn't seem to mind my crazy schedule. Unfortunately, caring for them and holding down things at the rescue left no time for fundraising or adoption events, so I carried the rescue financially again and I depleted my bank account.

My adult son could see my fatigue and kept telling me that I couldn't keep doing it, but I told him that I had so many lives depending on me - I had no choice but to keep going! I'd made a commitment to them that I wasn't breaking. I reminded him that things were constantly changing, and if our numbers could go down, that they could also go up. I was right! Amazingly, my dad's health eventually improved enough that he returned, my nephew and his three kids moved back to help out, and my 12 year- old niece has also moved in. We have two student volunteers from Hereford High, and another volunteer that comes by every Tuesday.  My daughter transferred from Salisbury to Towson, so she is local again. I am grateful for the noise, clutter, and help! We've also been able to do some fundraising which is nice and has helped keep the animals fed. 

Some days, I have no clue how I kept going for so long, or how I endured such long, hard days alone caring for 80+ animals, plus family members. (I have MCAS/EDS/POTS that I manage daily, and was in a car accident that left me with a TBI and whiplash. I tried for 2 years to heal, trying every remedy that was thrown at me, eventually having to have 3 occipital nerves severed and resected. Four months later, I fell at a car wash and broke the acetabular bone in my hip and got another TBI, basically undoing the prior surgery. My husband left me shortly afterward and we were divorced within four months.) So, the fact that this rescue is still here despite all of those setbacks, is pretty amazing.  

Hodgepodge has always tried to help people as well as animals. We have a hardship program where we foster and care for pets for free for various reasons: military deployments or training, incarceration, rehab, homelessness, hospitalizations, domestic violence, etc. Most pets are here for a couple of months, but we've had pets for as long as five years before they were reunited with their owners. (I don't know if you remember Moofin and Stormy, two Aussie's that were boarded at your hospital last summer? We paid their balance and brought them here for three LONG months before their owner got housing and took them back. Moofin was so bad, we almost discontinued our program...  ;) We have also paid for behavioral training and vet bills for strangers when funds allowed, to prevent the owner from euthanizing or surrendering their pet. We strongly believe in doing everything we can to help an animal stay with its family.  

I guess the point of this very lengthy email is to say that though we have struggled greatly and persevered, we really needed a break now. We needed to be the ones receiving kindness and compassion. We REALLY needed help. And, you came thru for us. We are so grateful! 

Your kindness and generosity are so appreciated! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Happy New Year! 

My Frippie. Taken Dec 22, 2024,
modeling her new collar.

Medicine is about a lot of things, but paramount to all of them is compassion. The idea that people who are trained, capable, and in place to help, and yet choose not to via financial blackmail is unethical and archaic. There is a way to solve this. It will take enough broken hearts to force bankruptcy of the current model, or enough CEO's being shot in the back, to solve it. Sad that this is where we have pushed people whose only crime was loving the pet who provided their salvation. 

There is not one day in my life where I don't give something away. Meet some random, anonymous person on the street and offer a piece of unsolicited pet care advice. The aging dog struggling to walk. The pup with the glucose meter in the park. The Pawbly question. Always free, always in the spirit of having had someone else's kindness in passing their medical knowledge down to me for the sake of our collective patients, and patients yet to be.