Stella Guy

Dear family,

We come to you with such extreme sadness & grieving the huge loss of Stella.

Stella had a mast cell tumor removed 7/6 and the report said they got it all, low grade, grade 2. She rested two weeks and was doing well. We had a dog vacation planned to dog beaches up the coast of Santa Barbara area, San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, Avila Beach, Hendrys beach, los osos, Paso Robles and Attescadero areas. We stopped in Orange County the first night, Stella loved being in hotels. We stayed at beautiful VRBO’s after that in the areas for the next 6 nights. We waited to go to the beaches until her surgery areas had healed well. We first went to Morro bay beach and only for about a half hour, she was in mermaid heaven & her happiest place.

We took a day off, then went to Avila beach for about 45 minutes not overdoing but letting her enjoy it with sister Elsa. Over the next couple days we went back to Avila Beach and discovered Hendrys beach was amazing. We then headed to Solvang and it was while there we started to notice her coughing/hacking/breathing harder/not wanting to walk around the little town. We came home two days earlier than planned. Our vet couldn’t get her in so we went to the ER 7/29. The X-rays showed her right middle lung collapsed & air filled her chest cavity.

They kept her for 24 hours draining the air off on both sides 2 times and more X-rays between and after. She was in an oxygen kennel, on iv’s and everything she needed to heal. They didn’t have a ct scanner and they talked about that being something we could do next. We found out she would need to be sedated so we waited since she was stable. They talked about the possibility of removing her right middle lung. Our regular vet got the records and called letting us know he didn’t recommend the surgery as it would not improve her quality of life. So she rested another 2 weeks and we prayed her body would heal itself. This week we went for the 2 week follow up Tuesday. It was found her lung was still collapsed, air still filled her chest and there were 3 new shadow type circles meaning she had gotten worse. We took her to new ER Wednesday and they did the ct scan after tapping the air on both sides and her chest kept filling with air, they retapped and tried more ct scans. In the end they couldn’t get a good ct scan. They called to offer surgery that was going to be exploratory and very evasive. We had to think quickly if more was damaged or not repairable or if they repaired and she didn’t recover? What would her recovery be like? Could she handle it after the last few weeks. They kept her sedated and we came to say goodbye. We couldn’t put her through anymore with all the unknowns. She had done her work on earth being our precious Stella, healing people at hospitals, through abuse and homelessness, autism and special needs, crisis response at major fires and a mass shooting across the US, at home in schools when children & teachers died and so much more.

Here is a picture from our trip and her earning her angel wings. She & Guinness are enjoying life together doing all their favorite things.

Blessings & love,

Wendy, Jeff & Elsa