Today is my little pig beast Maeby’s 4th birthday!
I call her my little pig beast because Maeby is notoriously good at finding food ANYWHERE — especially our garbage can. She’s pulled off some really insane feats in search of food. I think she scavenges for food so much because she probably did a lot of that when she was a homeless street dog in Mexico.
We adopted her from a pet adoption fair outside a Petsmart in San Diego back in January 2007. A really nice lady had traveled to Mexico and brought back several dogs. I had been searching for a dog to adopt for months, but just hadn’t been able to find one in LA. And God, I was craving a dog to adopt like women probably crave babies. I had such extreme puppy envy the entire 3 years I lived in SF but I just couldn’t afford one. When I moved to LA in 2006 I just KNEW it was finally my time. So when we finally had Maeby in our lives, it was like the heavens parted. I HAD A DOG! She was sweet, she was healthy, and she was mine.
Only 2 days after I adopted Maeby, I took her to the vet for what I thought would be a routine physical exam. The doctor (Dr Natalie Mitescu, I will never forget you!) told me she was PERFECT and in great health. But I had suspicions about her back left leg and upon further inspection and X-rays, I found out that Maeby had major orthopedic problems in her hips and pelvis (probably due to getting hit by a car when she was in Mexico) in addition to a torn ACL that required a TPLO surgery. The rescue group I adopted her through said they had no idea there was anything wrong with her, and refused to give me back my adoption fee. There was no way I was going to return her to that person, but I couldn’t afford a $3500 surgery. You see, by the time we decided to proceed with the TPLO, I had already spent nearly $800 on her medical bills. As I had only had Maeby for 2 days, most people told us to just give her back! But we decided to fundraise for her surgery instead.
Through my personal blog and a website I set up for Maeby, our incredibly generous friends donated $1700. Her vet also gave us a huge courtesy discount and lowered her estimate from around $3500 to around $2500. United Animal Nations donated $300 in grant money, and Orthodogs’ Silver Lining contributed another incredible $500.
Her surgery was estimated somewhere between $2300-2800. We had fundraised an incredible $2417. Guess what her final surgery bill came to?
$2420
Yup, I paid $3. I truly believe in God’s good work, and in the power of prayer and miracles. I won’t call the final surgery amount a coincidence — I know it was truly a miracle! The TPLO is major surgery — it requires cutting bone, rotating a piece of it, and holding it together with screws and plates. Maeby couldn’t run, jump or play for 16 WEEKS. I kept a pretty detailed blog of our account to placate the psycho dog mommy in me, but it’s cool because it’s been useful to others who have gone through the same harrowing experience with their own dogs.
It’s been about a year and a half since Maeby’s crazy surgery, and has been exactly 2 years since we adopted our girl. I credit her for being such a good older sister to our second dog Zoey, and for being the inspiration behind my photography business. She is my forever dog and I love her.
So in honor of Maeby’s roots, I didn’t get her a birthday hat. I searched all over Olvera Street (the oldest neighborhood in LA and home of a big Mexican market) to find her the perfect hat.
(Click on small photos to enlarge)
By the way, when I took Maeby to the hospital for her first physical they asked me for her birthday. Since she’s a former street dog I had to make it up — so I gave her mine.
Feliz cumpleaños to us!
