Darla

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Darla’s Mom

Darla

Let me tell you about Darla, our œVelcro dog.  When she focuses on you, she can make eye contact forever.  I swear she reads our souls.  She is in tune with everything.

If part of her œpack isn’t home, she’ll watch out the window until everyone is accounted for.  If we’re having a party, she’ll scan the room until someone makes eye contact.  Then she’s over to them like a shot; directing them in how to scrub her butt.

She was my younger daughter’s gift for her 3rd birthday.  My older daughter had gotten our other bulldog 2 years before for her 7th.  So of course, it wouldn’t do for only her sister to have a dog.  And wouldn’t you know”Darla has always slept on my youngest’s bed!  I swear she knows!

Darla is truly our family sweetheart.  The kids can do ANYTHING to her and she’ll play along.  No growling.  No trying to get away.  She’d rather snuggle and be with us than anything, even than eat.

Well, except maybe if you offer her peanut butter knobs.  That’s how we first knew something was wrong¦she stopped eating those favorite treats.

Even when she started throwing up, since she does that sometimes, we weren’t concerned.  But within a couple of days she was throwing up every 10 minutes.  When our vet took x-rays the next day, there was her bouncy ball blocking her intestines.  Dr. C. said if she didn’t have surgery, she wouldn’t last the day.

Sobbing, I called my fiancé, who dropped the kids at my Mom’s and rushed over.  We tried everything but just couldn’t figure out a way to afford what Darla needed.  As we readied ourselves to tell the vet it was over, a tech came in and told us Ellie’s Rainy Day Fund was going to help us.  But we needed to get Darla over for emergency surgery immediately.  We didn’t fully understand  what Ellie’s Fund was but we knew it was our girl’s only chance, so we scooped her up and started driving.

Our girl is back home now, acting thrilled to be back to her job as family Chief Snuggle Officer.

You saved her life.  When the vet came back, we we’re ready to tell him we’d have to put her down.  It wasn’t fair.  She was so young.  My kids think of her as a sibling. There were so many memories still to make with her.  And now thanks to your supporters, we’ll get to make them.  There are no words to express the depth of our gratitude, or what your kindness truly means to us and our girls.

–Darla’s Family