08/24/2026
Little Levi, and Why We Have to Do More
Little Levi, who was brought to us yesterday afternoon, spent the night at the emergency veterinary clinic on some pretty strong pain medication. We were told that, thankfully, he slept well.
This morning, we received the devastating news that Levi has lymphatic cancer. The cancer caused the glaucoma that ultimately led to the rupture of both of his eyes. He had been like this for quite some time. And this is an extremely painful condition. Because the cancer was found throughout his system, we had no choice but to let him go.
We are incredibly grateful that so many people rallied around Levi and helped us get him the emergency care and pain relief that he desperately needed. ❤️
Unfortunately, Levi is not an isolated case.
We are seeing more and more animals presented to us in serious medical distress because they have not been able to access the veterinary care they needed.
Sometimes the people have just neglected the situation completely, like with Levi, because they dont understand or because they have major issues. Sometimes, people have no resources. And far too often, these cases arrive on Friday nights or weekends, when emergency veterinary services are the only option, even for us. This is a huge problem - for the animals who need the help, and for us financially.
Just last week, we were faced with another heartbreaking situation. A mama dog and her four-week-old puppies came to us, with mom extremely emaciated after being neglected while having to nurse her babies. She had to go directly to an emergency clinic, where we learned she was suffering from nephritis.
Despite everyone's efforts, she died there.
These situations are incredibly difficult—not only emotionally, but financially. Emergency veterinary services are expensive, and as a shelter, we cannot simply turn our backs when an animal is suffering. Sometimes, we are their only hope.
And we know this need isn't going away.
Here in Northern New England, shelters have talked for years about the growing challenges facing our communities. But we are now seeing situations like these every single week—sometimes multiple times a week. Animals are falling through the cracks because their families, animal control officers, or community members simply don't have access to affordable veterinary care when they need it most.
We don't want to just keep reacting to these emergencies. We want to be part of the solution.
So today, we're (cautiously) excited to share something we've been quietly working on for the past several months:
We are working toward opening a low-cost, at-cost non-profit veterinary clinic. ❤️
As part of a new building made possible through a grant, we have a small space—about 460 square feet—that we are designating as a sanctuary based community clinic.
Initially, the clinic will primarily serve the animals in our own shelter, including new intakes like poor Levi and Mama dog. The goal is to hire our own veterinarian who understands shelter medicine. But as we build the program, our hope is to extend services to community animals as well- those like Levi. We're hoping to catch these situations before animals are suffering this badly.
Our vision is to create a place where, when an animal control officer or a community member finds themselves facing an animal in desperate need, there is somewhere they can turn.
A place where care can happen before an animal reaches the point of crisis.
A place where we can help more animals, more efficiently, and hopefully prevent some of the suffering we are seeing far too often.
We are currently seeking approval for this nonprofit community clinic, and the planning board meeting will be Wednesday night at 6:00 PM in Belfast, Maine.
We are hopeful that we will receive approval so we can move forward with the project. Construction on the new building is expected to take place in September and October, and our goal is to have the clinic open by next summer.
In the meantime, we'll be working on outfitting the space with the equipment we need and searching for a veterinarian who understands shelter medicine and wants to help us build this program from the ground up.
We know this is a big undertaking. We are going to struggle to piece this together. But we can't see a way forward without this.
Watching animals suffer because affordable veterinary care isn't available, it's making animal welfare even more of a crisis than it already was.
We can't fix everything. But we can try to build something better.
Thank you to everyone who has supported Levi, supported our shelter, donated, shared our posts, volunteered, and believes in what we're trying to accomplish.
Little Levi deserved better than what happened to him. And he is exactly why we have to keep trying. 💔❤️
(Pictured here: the puppies left behind; but they will have brighter futures).
