25/09/2026
In Memory of Millie ❤️
Dogs Deserve Better Blue Ridge has some very sad news to share with everyone who followed Millie’s story.
We lost our sweet girl.
Millie came into our lives earlier this summer when we were in Appomattox County for one of our free spay and neuter clinics. We heard about a property with a large number of hounds and went out to see what assistance we could offer.
That’s where we found Millie, living outside on a chain. As soon as we found her on her chain I just knew she was heartworm positive. She looked so sick and had a hacking cough. She was surrendered to us that day, and I took her to my hotel room that night and snuggled with her on the bed. She loved the bed so much. One of the pictures below is the night she was saved and just snuggled with me in the hotel room.
Unfortunately, Millie’s health problems didn’t stop there. We later discovered a mass in her lung that was believed to be related to the damage caused by her heartworm disease. Over the next several months, Millie saw our veterinary team countless times as we tried to get her healthy and safely navigate her treatment.
But during those months, Millie also got something she had never really had before.
She got to be someone’s dog.
Millie landed in the most incredible foster home with a family who treated her like she had always been theirs. She learned what it was like to live inside. She had toys, soft places to sleep, affection and people who genuinely loved having her around.
And slowly, we started seeing Millie feel better.
Just last week, we decided it was time for her to see a specialist. Her behavior told us she was feeling so much better, but medically, we had reached a plateau and needed more answers.
Unfortunately, we never got that chance.
Last friday morning, Millie’s foster found her struggling to breathe and immediately rushed her to the emergency vet.
Her lungs were filled with fluid. Her heart was decompensating, and she was likely in heart failure.
We may never know exactly what caused such a sudden decline. Was it a complication from her heartworm treatment? Was it related to the mass in her lung? Was it the damage heartworm disease had already done to her body? We just knew that Millie was very sick and her prognosis was not good.
Together, we made the heartbreaking decision to let her go peacefully.
We wanted so much more time for her. She was just starting to understand how good life could be.
But we are incredibly grateful for the family who fostered her. They were the only real family Millie ever knew. Because of them, her final months weren't spent alone at the end of a chain.
She knew comfort. She knew affection. She knew what it felt like to belong somewhere. Most importantly, she knew she was loved.
And as difficult as it is to share this part of her story, we need Millie to be a reminder of why heartworm testing and prevention are so important.
Heartworm disease isn't simply a positive test followed by treatment. It can cause serious and sometimes irreversible damage to a dog's heart, lungs and blood vessels. Millie's body had already been through so much by the time she came to us.
This is why DDBBR requires resident dogs to be appropriately tested and kept on heartworm prevention when adopting from us. We don't have these requirements to make adoption more difficult. We have them because we've seen firsthand what this disease can do.
We can't say with certainty what ultimately took Millie from us, but we do know that heartworm disease had already caused significant damage to her body. Heartworm disease is preventable, and no dog should have to go through what Millie did.
We wish more than anything that her story had ended differently. But when Millie left this world, she wasn't just a hound living at the end of a chain anymore.
She had a family. She was loved. And we hope she knew just how much.
Rest easy, sweet girl. ❤️
