The Rocko Fund

The gruesome pictures on a local lost and found Facebook page were hard to look at. A large breed dog had been hit by a car, laying spread out limp on the road while passerby’s tried to somehow help until Animal Control arrived.

The officer immediately rushed him to a local full service vet clinic. Animal Control doesn’t have much in their budget for this sort of thing, so the vet called HSNBA. We were more than happy to spring for some diagnostics to find out how bad his injuries were. X-rays were what we expected, a pelvis broken in a couple of different places but other than that, he appeared to have no other internal injuries. He was being kept very comfortable and spoiled rotten by the vet techs. Everyone’s biggest concern was if the injury had caused enough damage to prevent him from being able to relieve himself on his own. There was also a chance that his owner could be looking for him so we waited and watched.

After a few days, when no one stepped forward and it became obvious he wasn’t able to control when or where he went to the bathroom, we had to have a tough conversation. After careful consideration between the vet and the director at HSNBA, the difficult decision was made to humanely euthanize “Rocko”. The cost of the surgery was a big factor but more so, the prognosis of the surgery being successful and him being able to live any sort of normal life was slim.

The following day, the vet techs who had grown so fond of him these last weeks were determined to give him a grand send off. They spent their lunch break with him in the sunny courtyard at the clinic, feeding him pizza and giving him belly rubs. Throughout the whole ordeal, Rocko - as they had named him because he was so tough - had been nothing but affectionate and eager to please, despite the pain he must have been in and the confusion he certainly was experiencing. There wasn’t a dry eye for miles as the veterinarian came out with Rocko’s final injection.

That’s when Rocko righted himself as best he could given his injuries, hobbled across the courtyard and took a very deliberate poo. Then meandered over to the tree shading the courtyard and peed. On purpose. Exactly where he meant to.

The vet and technicians stood in awe and disbelief. They looked at each other and the vet reached for his phone to call the shelter director……

With this new indication that Rocko COULD indeed have full control of his bodily functions, the plan for euthanasia was tossed out like stale biscuits and a new plan was hatched.

Rocko needs a pretty pricey surgery to repair the damage done by the accident. He has already racked up $1000 worth of x-rays, diagnostics, medications and boarding and we need another $1500 to get him on the road to recovery. We need to raise these funds fast and get this terrific death defying dog on track to finding his forever home! Anything raised over his bill, will of course go to the next dog in need.

We are anticipating after 6-8 weeks of healing post op, he will be ready to get back to the business of being a dog, and we are actively looking for a foster or adopter to give this dog his second chance at a first class life!

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