06/22/2026
Please help us cover an $878 unexpected urgent vet bill for an outreach situation turned intake🥲
This puppy’s given name was M**o. It indeed stands for what you think it does. Name change to come….
M**o belonged to a homeless man.
Someone posted on Facebook last week asking for help getting the homeless man’s puppy seen by vet. The puppy had sliced his paw open on glass in the woods a couple days prior. The poster had wrapped it for the owner a couple times, but the puppy really urgently needed vet care.
I reached out and told them Joy’s would pay for the puppy to be seen by a vet and help with the to/from. The owner was tracked down again and I picked up the puppy from him. He gave permission to do any other vetting we wanted to do while he was there.
This puppy was in awful condition. The sliced open paw was not his only problem. In talking with the owner, it was revealed that M**o also had 2 healing puncture wounds from being bit by a bigger dog 5-7 days ago. He was flea and worm infested, lethargic, dehydrated, no vaccines. The owner also mentioned he had a shopping cart before a wagon, and the puppy fell out smacking his head on the concrete. There weren’t any evident injuries from that, but this poor puppy had been through it.
The vet said the puppy needed surgery to repair the paw. It needed to be cleaned, clipped, sutured, splinted and bandaged. Recovery for that was 3-4 weeks of being kept calm, confined, cleaned, bandages changes. He could stay overnight and that happen the next day.
Before I headed back to talk to the owner, we ended up doing a glucose check, bloodwork, and iv fluids because the puppy was concerningly lethargic. He was lethargic from the get go, laid out on the concrete in front of a store. I didn’t know how long they had been in the heat though, how far they may have walked that day, if he was just tired. It had been around 3 hours at this point though since pickup and he was still wiped. He was basically lifeless and unresponsive to anything besides touching near his paw which he would get to screaming. He did also respond like crazy to food later on, which was relieving some.
I went back to talk to the owner, update, get permission for overnight stay, talk about recovery, etc. I also went back to ask him one more time if there was anything he could have possibly given this puppy. He was just so out of it and it was worrying us.
The owner said he had been giving the puppy whiskey, Old Thompson to be exact. He said the puppy would get to whining and be unable to sleep because of pain, so he would give M**o a cap full of whiskey.
That in an odd sense gave some relief? Like answers maybe — maybe this is part of the problem and what’s going on with his energy. Nonetheless I communicated info back to vet and kept talking to owner.
Recovery was not possible in the owner’s current situation. It would fail, the foot would get infected, he would likely die if something else didn’t kill him first.
I brought up surrendering as an option, but the owner said he had friends to call about keeping him. He said he would think on it. We made plans to meet at the vet at 10am the next day (the vet was in his areas / walkable).
10am came though and the owner no showed. The number he gave me could not be completed as dialed. I spent 6 hours searching to no avail. A business saw him walking like normal that morning, but that was the only sign we could find of him. He never showed at the vet all day and we couldn’t track him down.
Puppy’s surgery went well in the meantime. The vet asked if we wanted to go ahead and neuter while he was under. His man parts were down, he’d already be under, it would only add mere minutes, and we didn’t know where this puppy was going to end up at this point. At least we’d know he was neutered if he did end up back in the situation.
Plans were arranged for someone to take the puppy home for the weekend while we tried to figure this mess out. The vet was closed on the weekend, the puppy had to go somewhere, but his owner was a no show AWOL, and animal control was closed for holiday.
As I was getting ready to head out to look for the owner again Saturday, I got a voicemail from him on a borrowed phone. He said he was checking in on his puppy and over by the same area, to stop by if I was around. A bit frustrating… like nothing happened… but I headed over.
We talked, he knew he no showed, but signed the surrender form nonetheless.
I gave him a leash and frontline for his other adult dog. We offered to vaccinate and neuter that one for free but the offer was declined. The owner said he had a voucher for a free rabies vaccine already, he got it after AC had the dog when he was in jail, but he hadn’t done it yet because he had to get to the vet in the morning and he’s not a morning person. All we can do is offer help. Can’t make someone want to help themselves / their dog.
Long story later…. meet our newest little unexpected survivor. We had a foster offer come up over the weekend that we’re working out. Now we just need help covering his totally unexpected $878 bill.
Please consider donating if you can❤️🩹
Ways to Donate:
🐾 Directly through post
🐾 CC: joyspromise.org/donate
🐾 PayPal: [email protected]
🐾 Cashapp: $joyspromise
🐾 Venmo: (last four digits 1598)
⚠️ Please DOUBLE CHECK the spelling of names on Venmo/PayPal/Cashapp! There are unfortunately scammers taking our logo picture and making accounts with super similar @ names, just changing a letter(s) or adding symbols. Our accounts are EXACTLY as they are spelled above!!!
Thank You!!!!❤️🩹
