Labor of Love Live Stream for Monroe and Bluey!

Thank you for viewing this fundraiser and taking a moment to read about two of our beautiful long-time time dogs. Life is so unfair and after everything they've individually been through, their health has suddenly gone down the drain. We are a rescue. That means that we will do whatever we can to at least get a diagnosis and then make an educated decsion before putting a dog to sleep. It is really hard to take a life, and we are not going to do it if we don't have to. Unfortunately, everything has a cost and we are not loaded. There is no money tree in our backyard, we wish! 

Monroe was found as a stray/dumped dog in Middlebury around July 1, 2025. She has been in our care for the better part of her 2.5 years of life. She's had many issues with her paws and issues with happy tail. Her tail has taken a beating and is dying. We were working on plans to amputate when another problem arose. She developed some type of fluid in each of the joints that connect to her foot. Though her back legs seem to have improved, the front joints are terrible. Cytology shows infection but it's been resistant to antibiotics. She is not lame and is not favoring her legs. But the problem cannot be ignored. The concern is that surgical intervention to clean the joints is necessary. She has now been diagnosed with a previously undetected Grade 2 heart murmur. There could be some type of bacterial infection around the heart valves. There is also a possibility that this is Lymphoma. We cannot rule anything out right now. First step is an Echocardiogram and Cardiologist consult. That will determine her heart health and whether we can proceed with any type of surgery. Monroe is currently on a high dose of Clavamox with hope that it reduces swelling. Monny's Echocardiogram is scheduled for September 16th. 

Bluey has been with us since February 2026 but has been in the Texas shelter/rescue system for an additional year. We know, we know. Plenty of dogs in Connecticut but we had to do a favor for a friend that did us a favor. It's how rescue works! Bluey is five years old and had been adopted from a high kill shelter in the Dallas area. His owner went off the rails and needed to keep Bluey safe, so he reached out to his shelter. He was bounced around to give the owner time to get himself together, but he ultimately could not. No fault of Bluey. They needed a place for him to go and as luck would have it, a favor was called in. Bluey has been an amazing, good boy and we all love him. He was finally adopted four weeks ago. Amazing owner who has an apartment on the second floor an hour away from our little shelter. All of the stairs unmasked an underlying Osteo Arthritic problem in Blue's hips. Not only has he had a horrible time maneuvering the stairs, but he suddenly stopped urinating on his own. He will defecate in the house but not outside with assistance. He had a UTI right after adoption and was treated. He was in the ER this week and the x-ray findings showed severe arthritis but no obvious masses near his prostate. He's currently on pain medication and can at least clumsily walk now. The consensus is that he is returning to rescue because we have all flat surfaces. His owner is heartbroken so please no hate. Bluey needs an immediate rectal exam (he didn't appreciate it in the ER) and ultrasound with our veterinarian. If no mass is detected, we have to weigh doing an MRI to be certain what is going on or consider putting him to sleep. He could respond well to a medication trial that may indicate there is no tumor. He could deteriorate and need to be put to sleep. We honestly do not know what to do for him. It's baby steps until a definitive answer arises. 

For anyone that has a pet at home, you know how much you love them. Imagine having 10-20 dogs on any given day. We cannot help but get attached and want to save them. We know we cannot save them all, but these dogs have been in our care and we cannot walk away. Not having concrete answers prevents us from having closure. Medical issues are sometimes easily resolved even though they present badly. There's just no way of knowing at this moment and without further expensive testing. Thank you for reading about these two amazing dogs. They really got the short end of the stick. We are holding onto HOPE for them. Thank you.