Help Arpana with Emmy's Emergency Vet Bill

Help Arpana Grace Warren and her beloved rescue dog Emmy.

Arpana’s been a pillar of support in our volunteer and extended community for years, and now she could use our support to help cover unexpected emergency vet bills for her Emmy.

Many of you know Arpana Grace Warren, as she’s been familiar figure at MAC-SR and on national tours for years. You may even know Arpana’s beloved rescue dog Emmy from online events where the endearing little white poodle makes an appearance during social time.

Arpana has helped countless people throughout the past few decades, both through her seva (far more than we see in the hall or online!) and through her law practice. Many of us have had Arpana draft estate plans and other documents, and counsel us through difficult moments of a dear one’s passing.

In her service to others, Arpana rarely considers herself -- yet she and her beloved Emmy could REALLY use help right now from friends and loved ones.

Emmy recently went through a routine, necessary surgery that took an unexpected turn. After a day or so of appearing to heal normally, one of Emmy’s surgical incisions became massively infected, and Emmy was admitted to an emergency vet hospital, where she underwent additional surgeries and has been an inpatient for 5+ days. Emmy’s now healing and on the upswing, but the vet bills have far exceeded what Arpana expected.

We — some of Arpana’s friends — have started this campaign to ask for donations to help cover the costs (expected to be about $7000 - $7500) of Emmy’s vet care. If you are able, we ask that you contribute a few dollars to help Arpana. We know she would not ask for this herself, and we know she is greatly appreciative of all support, be it prayers, best wishes, or financial.

If you would like to know more about Emmy’s story, how she came to Arpana, and the trauma of the recent and ongoing medical adventure, please keep reading. There's also a link to a sweet video at the bottom of the story!

Emmy the rescue dog magically came to Arpana just before Thanksgiving of 2020. Arpana first saw Emmy on Facebook in a post from a rescue group in Southern California. Arpana says she took one look at the photo and knew she and Emmy (then a nameless rescue) were destined for one another. Despite the difficulty of a road trip during covid, Arpana drove from Santa Cruz to Southern California to  retrieve Emmy. The photo above shows Emmy in that first car ride home.

When Arpana first saw Emmy, the little white poodle seemed  beyond timid. In fact, she seemed to have no personality, and tried incredibly hard to be invisible, wanting not to be noticed out of fear.  In fact, Emmy was so fearful that the rescue group founder even said "This dog does not know how to play”. While sweet and obviously grateful for the rescue and attention, Emmy was quietly terrified during the ride home, and for some time after arriving at Arpana’s. This was understandable — as were the howling, crying nightmares Emmy had during the first months at Arpana’s — given even what little we know of Emmy's prior experience and abandonment.

Emmy was picked up at a Los Angeles area park, where she had been intentionally left. While Emmy had an ID chip, her prior person did not want her. Given Emmy’s emotional state and physical signs, it seems that Emmy had been used as a breeding dog and bred too young and too often. She has a huge stretched vulva, so large that the vets and everyone else think she's in heat even when she's not. Several nipples had been surgically removed, yet she had not been spayed. We think that when Emmy reached middle age (she’s about seven) and was no longer useful for breeding (that is, creating puppies that could be sold for cash), she was dumped. Emmy also had an ear infection and eye issues, and does not hear or see well. While some of this may be genetic (“white dog issues”), many of the health issues she had when rescued were due to neglect.

Arpana has given Emmy both unconditional love and loving care, and the physical and emotional changes in Emmy have been wonderful. Emmy and Arpana obviously adore and care for one another, and Emmy has become like a sweet shadow to Arpana.

In the months with Arpana, Emmy’s heath problems have cleared up and her eyes and ears have improved — AND her personality has emerged. Emmy is a playful, independent girl, always sweet and loving, and enjoys going on walks, playing with her toys, and generally romping about. Emmy relaxes so much that she "melts" when Arpana brushes her (the photo above) and during her dog baths (AKA spa time). Emmy's highly intelligent, and when one of her favorite aunties comes over, Emmy loves to have what we call the “high view”: Get picked up so that she can see what’s on top of counters (as Arpana cooks), on top of Arpana’s desk (where Arpana stares at and taps on the silver rectangle that somehow eventually produces money for dog food), and when walking near the shore and fields (to get a good view of waves and what’s in the distance).

Emmy has been so vibrant and happy (see the video link at bottom of this page) that it was hard for Arpana to schedule the spay and other surgery Emmy needed, knowing that a surgery meant recovery and not-fun time for Emmy — yet surgery was necessary. The vet said that many of the issues Emmy was having were hormone-related, and that in addition to a spay (which is harder for older dogs than it is for puppies) a few more nipples needed removing, as there was some suspicious growth under them. Plus, a tooth-cleaning as part of a planned surgery was suggested for general health maintenance.

While the surgery and initial recovery seemed to go well, a few days later, Emmy started having problems. She stopped getting up and walking about, would not eat, and her sutures were swelling and oozing fluids. After consulting with a vet friend and the regular vet, Arpana brought Emmy to the emergency vet clinic on the Saturday after the Tuesday surgery.

Of the two surgical incisions — one for the spay, and a second, larger one to remove a few nipples and the growth — the larger one had developed a massive infection. Emmy’s hind legs had also swollen so much they were purple, which meant oxygenated blood was not getting through.

The emergency vet hospital admitted Emmy to ICU right away, putting her on an IV of antibiotics, fluids, and painkillers. Emmy stabilized enough that the vet could do some exploration, drain the fluid, and remove some sutures to make her more comfortable. Within the first 24 hours, the vet thought that perhaps Emmy could go home after only one night at the hospital — BUT — there are always buts.

After a few more hours, the vet realized there were further complications: in the layer of fatty tissue under the skin and over Emmy’s insides, there were some necrotic areas than needed to be removed. The vet removed those on Tuesday afternoon, and inserted a drain to help the tissues stay clean. Emmy remained in the hospital overnight Tuesday and Wednesday. Arpana finally got to see Emmy on Wednesday and spend half an hour with her, reassuring Emmy that she has not (again) been abandoned, but is coming home as soon as the surgical wounds have healed adequately. Of course, the vet and Arpana want to ensure Emmy is stable and won't have further setbacks before releasing her from the hospital.

We believe Emmy will come home on Thursday July 29 or Friday July 30, yet know she will still need lots of care and nursing at home, plus a return visit or two to the vet’s to check on her healing process.

The entire situation's a bit overwhelming and scary for Arpana, not to mention much more expensive than she had envisioned.

Arpana been trying to work during all of this, yet it’s difficult. Obviously she's worried about Emmy, and attending to the details of care is time-consuming even when Emmy is in the hospital, and more so when Emmy is home, needing care. While some of us have been able to provide short bouts of in-person support, many friends can’t offer in-person help. This is why several of us wanted to establish this account — so Arpana knows she has support from loving friends (even those who can’t physically help her be a dog-nurse). 

If you can contribute a few dollars to Emmy’s medical fund, we know Arpana (and Emmy, in her way) will be more than grateful. 

Right now, the estimated costs for Emmy’s initial surgery, the emergency vet costs, and related costs are about $7000 to $7500. Arpana paid the initial vet costs and 75% of the emergency vet estimate up front — yet we know all of this is an unexpected stretch and we'd like to help her.

Click here to watch a short video of how we hope Emmy will be soon (This is how she normally returns home!)

Thank you.