Some rescues are harder than others. Everyone loves a cute, perky puppy, but senior dogs, or dogs who are sick or badly injured? Those are a harder sell.
For the senior dogs, we’re lucky to have Muttville here in San Francisco; Baltimore is fortunate to have Noah’s Arks Rescue, an organization dedicated to giving medical care to abused and neglected animals. Their latest rescue is a great case study in what this kind of work is all about.
Bubbles is a two-year-old Neapolitan Mastiff mix who was brought in to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Center by someone who found her wandering on the street. Her age and temperament would probably make her perfectly adoptable, except for one thing: half of her face is covered by a huge tumor, big enough that it’s shifted one eye out of the socket.
It’s apparently growing out of the cheekbone, and according to CAT scans, it may have spread to other parts of her body, such as her lungs. It’s also taking up so much blood flow that she’s become anemic. The article notes that “Bubbles uses the tumor like it is a pillow” when she goes to sleep.
This is abuse of a different kind than we’re used to writing about here on Dogster; most of the items we cover have to do with extraordinarily cruel kinds of violence. In this case, someone apparently just dumped Bubbles on the street and walked away, with the tumor growing larger and deeper. It’s a kind of passive abuse that’s more common than we like to think, for humans and dogs.
For now, Bubbles is stable and awaiting the results of a biopsy, and Noah’s Arks Rescue reports that she’s being monitored in an ER facility. Whatever the results of the biopsy, it’s certain that she’s going to need treatment at a nuclear medicine facility.
It’s hard to think of a dog like Bubbles being lucky, but she is. It’s hard enough to get homes and treatment for all the dogs who look like they were born to go onto a greeting card. It’s even harder to get that kind of care for a dog like Bubbles. We’re wishing Bubbles the best and are thankful for groups such as Noah’s Arks Rescue to help her out. If you want to contribute toward Bubbles’ recovery, there’s a link for PayPal donations on the web page.
