The Kindness of Strangers

After the rather dark view of the state of human nature I posted last week, I decided to share a past experience that serves to show how, despite the fact that the bulk of humanity seems hopeless; there are still people out there who can make you believe there’s a chance for us.

Just under three years ago my household consisted of myself, my 12-year-old daughter Morgan, my 18-year-old foster daughter Erica, and our 10-year-old basset hound Aeryn. Aeryn was the absolute epitome of the word spoiled, and was quite the princess as a result, ruling the apartment and all her subjects within.

We’d acquired Aeryn about a year earlier from an ad on Craigslist. The family was giving her up because both the adults traveled constantly and the daughter was leaving for college. When I first called the owners, the father explained that as much as they adored her she was used to constant human affection and they were sure she would simply die of loneliness if they left her home for weeks on end, with no companionship other than the neighbor coming over to feed her. She was a beautiful, 79lb, red and white basset, pure-bred, with papers, and apparently the daughter of a famous champion basset from San Diego. We were completely unconcerned with pedigree, we just strongly believed in adopting rather than buying and our local basset rescue did not have any dogs available, so she was perfect.

The owner passed on her vet records and told us she was in perfect health, which she very much seemed to be. He mentioned that she’d had several seizures in the past but that her vet determined it was the flea meds they were using, so they stopped using them on her. She’d had no seizures since. We took her home with us that very day and she settled in and began taking over the apartment immediately.

Three months later Aeryn had a set of seizures. Off we went to the emergency vetspital, because of course it was 10 PM at the time. The vet was able to witness the seizures because Aeryn went into another one just as we got her onto the table. They hooked her up to IV Phenobarbital and took a bunch of blood tests. The vet explained that she most likely had Epilepsy, which is apparently common in purebred bassets, and had been misdiagnosed by her last vet. He told us that there was also the possibility she had a brain tumor of some kind, but that to do an MRI would cost us 10k and even if it was a tumor and it was inoperable, which was very likely, the treatment would be the same as for epilepsy.

Aeryn came home the next day and we started a new regimen of Phenobarbital tablets twice a day. The better part of a year passed with her having a seizure on average once every three months. The meds, coupled with her extreme laziness and her complete love of food, caused her to balloon up to 98lbs, or roughly the weight of a jersey cow. Other than that she showed no ill effects from either the meds or the seizures.

One morning about five am, just about a year after Aeryn came to live with us, she went into a seizure. We had the seizure routine down by now. I stayed with Aeryn, making sure she didn’t bang her head or hurt herself on something while seizing, Morgan ran for towels because the seizure process causes the bladder, bowels, or sometimes both to purge, and Erica ran to the kitchen and started the timer on the microwave to time how long it lasted. The seizure seemed normal, lasting under 5 minutes and Aeryn seemed to recover fine.

At about 7:30, as we were getting ready to leave, Aeryn had another seizure. Again it was a perfectly normal one, but fearing she was going into a “cluster” that would require vet intervention; I called in to work and stayed home with her. The third seizure came about 4 hours later and lasted a little longer, so I called the vet who told me to give her an extra dose of Phenobarbital and see how it went. At about 9 pm the fourth seizure came. Erica and I each spread out blankets on the couch in the living room where Aeryn slept in her beanbag so we would hear her when she seized. (The seizures were silent but the tags on her collar clanked together during a seizure.) The seizures came about every 2 ½ hours all night and first thing in the morning found us at the door to her vet’s office when they opened.

Other than her vaccines, the occasional ear infection, and the blood test every 4 months to check her Phenobarbital level, she had never needed to go to the regular vet. As a result, we did not know too much about the clinic, ABC Veterinary, which we chose because it was near our house. When we arrived with the frequently seizing Aeryn they seemed confident they knew exactly what to do. I specifically told them she would require IV Phenobarbital to stop the seizures and that the oral meds were not cutting it. They told me that she would have to stay overnight and because of that the cost would be $1300, which I needed to pay up front. I had about $500 in my checking account, no savings, and no credit cards, so I borrowed the rest from my brother, wiping out his reserves in the process, and delivered it to them about two hours after we first brought Aeryn in.

At 5:30 that night I got a call from the vet saying that Aeryn was still having seizures and I would have to come get her because they couldn’t leave her alone all night with her having seizures. Very confused I rushed right over to their office. The vet told me that they had been giving her Phenobarbital suppositories every time she seized but that she was still having about one seizure every hour, and they were lasting about 15 minutes. I asked why the IV Phenobarbital wasn’t working and they told me that they didn’t keep any in their office, so they hadn’t given her any, AND that they don’t have anyone who stays at the office overnight so they can only leave animals there that don’t require night monitoring! They went on to calmly explain, after keeping her 9 hours, that if I wanted her to get the IV meds I would have to take her to a vet ER. More than a little upset at this I demanded to know how much of a refund they were going to give me since they were not keeping her overnight as I paid for, and that I would need the money to take her to an ER. They claimed that the price was the same no matter how long she was there, and there would be no refund. If I wanted to take it up with their corporate office I could call during business hours tomorrow. They gave me some Phenobarbital suppositories and ushered us unceremoniously out.

Angered beyond belief I loaded Aeryn into the car and headed home. A block from the house she went into a seizure. By the time we got her into the house the seizure was into 10 min long. I immediately gave her a suppository, which had no effect. Meanwhile I began calling emergency vets begging could they take payments, etc. They all wanted money up front, a credit card guarantee, or something like. By ½ an hour Aeryn was still seizing, Morgan was lying next to her on the ground crying quietly, and I was hysterical. I gave her another suppository with no results.

By now I was at my wits end. In a last ditch attempt I called the local Humane Society thinking that they might have an emergency vet for cases where people couldn’t afford treatment. Of course they were already closed for the day, but they had an emergency line. I called it. A nice young woman explained to me, between my sobs, that they did not have such services, but that there was a hospital in El Cajon that not only took payments, but that worked with several charity organizations. She gave me the number of the Animal Medical Center Foundation & Adoption Center.

I called immediately and they gave me the name of a group that authorized initial visits, and then the name of a private citizen (Cynthia) who also helped people with their vet needs. I called the first group who, who’s name I’m sad to say I no longer have, and they immediately authorized $200 to an account in Aeryn’s name at the center. With the help of our neighbor we loaded the still seizing Aeryn into the car and headed for the Center, which was about a 25 min drive from our house. I’m fairly sure I broke every traffic law in the state on my way there and the drive seemed to take forever. Thanks to Bluetooth technology though I was able to call Cynthia and leave a message while in route.

We arrived at the center and I was immediately impressed. Nurses raced out with a gurney to fetch Aeryn and had her in the treatment area in minutes. The lovely people at the front desk took our information, and were extremely patient with my inability to focus for more than 30 seconds. Just as I finished with the paperwork my cell phone rang. The woman on the line introduced herself as Cynthia, and got right down to business asking me all about Aeryn, what was wrong with her, what had we been able to do, where had we taken her (She grumbled angrily when I got to the ABC Vet part and commiserated that I hadn’t known that they were not only stupidly expensive, but in her opinion incompetent.), and what we were trying to do for her now.

About this time the Dr. called us back, Cynthia stayed on the phone with me while we went back into the treatment area. Aeryn was on a table being wiped down with towels dipped into buckets of water and ice. She had an IV started already and the seizing had stopped. The Dr. explained that when she came in her temperature was over 105o and that they were trying to bring it down. They were giving her IV fluids to cool her and they had given her IV Phenobarbital at stop the seizures. She was breathing heavy and her eyes were closed. We petted her and kissed her and the Dr. Led us into a private room off the treatment area. Cynthia was still on the phone, talking to me reassuringly and asking me how Aeryn looked. She then asked to speak directly to the vet, who explained to Aeryn’s condition to Cynthia and me at the same time.

They would keep her heavily sedated overnight to keep her from having seizures and to get her temperature down to normal. Tomorrow morning they would bring her out of the anesthesia and see if she seized any more. The Dr. warned that there was a good chance she had brain damage from the high temperature, but that we wouldn’t be able to tell until tomorrow when they took her off the meds. Cynthia authorized the hospital to do anything Aeryn needed overnight and charge it to her account. She said she would call in the morning to find out what else needed to be done and to see how Aeryn was doing.

The next morning I called the vet first thing to see how Aeryn was doing. They had taken her off the anesthesia and she hadn’t gone back into any seizures, but she was not responding to any stimulus. They wanted to give it a few more hours before they could say for sure how bad the damage was. Cynthia had already called them for an n update, and had authorized any additional treatment Aeryn needed that day.

A few hours later I talked to them again, and it was clear to the Vet that the brain damage was severe, and that other than basic functions like breathing, her brain wasn’t processing anything. The vet also strongly felt that the symptoms she observed in Aeryn pointed to a brain tumor and not epilepsy. She felt that the tumor had reached the size where it was putting constant pressure on the brain and that it had contributed to the brain damage along with the fever. In her opinion, the seizures could not have been permanently stopped at this point because the tumor had progressed too far.

The girls and I went over to the hospital and said our goodbye’s and stayed with Aeryn while the vet helped her to the bridge. Cynthia had called just before we arrived and told the vet to tell us she would pay for everything, all of the vet bill at AMC, her cremation, everything. I was overwhelmed.

The next day a card arrived from Cynthia telling us how sorry she was that we couldn’t save Aeryn, and how glad she was that she was able to make Aeryn’s last hours as good as they possibly could be.

I never saw a single bill for any of the services, but I’m sure that from experience that when all was said and done it was over $3,000. We sent Cynthia a thank you letter, and a pair of sapphire earrings that I made, but it will never seem like we can thank her enough. A total stranger who never laid eyes on me or my beautiful basset gave Aeryn the help and peace she needed out of nothing more than a love of animals and the goodness of her heart. I try and think of her whenever I get depressed over the state of the humankind, and I hope that there are enough people like her out there to redeem us as a race.