Justice for Casper

We wish we were introducing you all to our newest pet, Casper under better circumstances. Unfortunately we were only able to enjoy his rambunctious spirit for less than 3 weeks. In the end, we found out we were pretty much given a sick puppy. He lost his fight (and boy did he fight) against distemper, a disease that's more often than not, fatal. In memoriam of Casper, and to raise awareness to those that think all rescues run their organization ethically, we want you all to think twice.

It all started when I (Melanie), started to get puppy fever. My husband and I already own a 5 year old Throwback Pomeranian, and we thought it would be great for him to have another companion around. My husband ended up finding an adoption listing for adorable Pomeranian mix puppies, one pup in particular stood out to us, he went by the name, Peter.

Without hesitating I filled out the application, which had many questions that I joked to Meg that I felt like I was in the process of adopting a kid and not a dog! But I let it go thinking they're at least being thorough and want the best for these animals. To my surprise I got a call the very next morning from Alondra, the founder of the rescue, A.R.W.O.B., Animal Rescuers Without Borders. I was approved to adopt and we discussed the next steps to move forward. I'd have to go to a meet and greet happening later that day and bring all necessary documents to finalize the adoption process, along with $350 for the adoption fee. Part of the finalization of the adoption also required a visit to your home so they can see if your place is fit to house these pets. If you want that waived you needed to bring in photos. I scrambled to take photos of our place before heading over.

Elated, I told my husband the news and he met up with me at a local Petsmart where the meet and greet was to take place. Alondra ended up being more than 15 mins late, but we didn't think anything of it as we were shopping around the store getting ideas on what to get the new pup. When she does arrive, she arrives out of breath and mentions how she had to chase them all to get them over there. Still not alarmed, although my husband was taken aback that all the puppies were stuffed into one kennel. Alondra then stated how she was surprised they didn't have an accident in the kennel...I have no expertise on how to properly transport foster pups around, but thinking about it now makes me think of how unsanitary that would have been if they did have an accident. But of course at the time all I could think was, "PUPPIES! I wanna see Peter!" When she did hand him to me, we were instantly sold, we wanted this little guy in our lives!

Alondra also apologized for them being so dirty, saying they were playing around in the grass. She also mentioned that their bellies are big right now because they just ate a bunch since having their surgery. Again, we chalked it up to cute puppiness that we didn't think twice and went ahead with the adoption process. I mentioned earlier that I took photos of our place to show Alondra. During our small talk we mentioned how we have a doggie cam watching our current dog at home. She took a look at the live video through our phone, and although it only showed one section of our place, she deemed it as enough to waive the home visit. "Cool, less stress for us!", was all I thought at the time.

Peter was officially the newest member of our family! We renamed him Casper and for the first two days he acted like a typical happy and healthy pup.

Strike 1: Just within those two days, Meg noticed he had fleas. We experienced fleas before, and seeing the amount of flea poop that was on him makes us believe that he's had them for awhile. We were told not to bathe him for at least a week because of his recent surgery (neutered). So I wanted to find flea medication that was safe enough for him. That's when I ran into some confusion about his age...

His adoption contract stated he was 10 weeks old. However his health records and neuter certificate (which lists A.R.OW.B. as Peter's owners at the time) said he was 4 months old.

Confused, I asked Alondra which one was correct, she herself seemed shocked and laughed at the mislabeling but said he was around 10-11 weeks old.

Another thing that caught my attention was that his health records were all in Spanish. I'll address why this may be an issue later.

So I treated his flea issue and I thought that was the worst of our problems.

Unfortunately, Casper started to get an upset stomach. That morning he was acting less like himself. When I opened his kennel, instead of rushing out to play, he stayed hunched over in the back. When I offered him his breakfast he turned away from it. I knew something was up because he devoured every meal I had given him since then. But I also wasn't too alarmed by an upset tummy, I've dealt with it before and I just started to try and teach him the command, "sit" with some training treats. I thought maybe I had given him too much, despite my efforts to chop them up into tiny, tiny pieces. Or the stress of getting use to a new environment finally caught up with him. So I fasted him for a few hours and put him on a bland diet.

My concerns were heightened once he threw up everything he ate, he couldn't keep anything down. Then the diarrhea came. He looked weak and I knew it was time to take him to the vet. This all happened within 1-2 days, I definitely didn't wait around too long before getting him treated.

The contract with A.R.W.O.B. states that if they get sick within 48 hours to call them immediately. Casper's symptoms didn't start to show until the 3rd or 4th day, so I honored the contract. Also still believing that this was just a stomach issue that the vet would clear up soon enough.

Strike 2: Sadly, a mere upset tummy wasn't the cause of Casper's symptoms. He tested positive for Parvo...the vet explained the disease to me, letting me know that there are some puppies that do die from the disease but hopefully with some extensive care he'll recover. I kept my composure on the outside, but my heart sank...he's so little I worried he wouldn't be strong enough to fight off this virus.

I left him at the vet for them to start treatment. When I got back home I started sanitizing everything I could, bleaching the floors, changing my clothes, washing my clothes, towels and anything else Casper touched. I even soaked his toys in a bleach solution.

Strike 3: Later that day I was able to take him home. They said he was doing much better and eating like a pig! BUT he also had roundworms, so they de-wormed him and told me not to be alarmed if I see worms in his stool. We were now wondering if that's why the puppies all had big bellies, the signature pot belly that goes hand in hand with having worms. But my biggest worry was trying to get the little guy back to normal, and him responding well to all the treatments gave me hope.

I watched Casper like a hawk. Offering him food every 2 hours, and fluids almost every half hour. Most nights I barely slept, some nights I didn't sleep at all. But I was determined to help Casper regain his health.

Then Casper surprised us and even the vet, he recovered from Parvo and was a happy-go-lucky pup again! We were so relieved that our little guy pulled through!

We even got matching dog tags for our little furry guys.

Even though he seemed in the clear, we didn't want to take any chances and leave him unattended for too long. We even took him along with us to get our taxes done! This precious boy slept throughout our whole appointment.

But then he relapsed...one morning I woke up to him in his playpen with bloody diarrhea. I took him back to the vet and they treated him right away.

And we still had hope for Casper. He continued to devour his food, and after his last vet treatment, any upset stomach issues were gone.

But he was developing a cough that wouldn't go away, at the time it was very mild, but I took him back to the vet and they gave him a cough suppressant.

We continued to give him round the clock care, equipped with lots of cuddles.

Even when I was working he was always close by.

Unfortunately the cough suppressant only worked for a day. I noticed his cough was starting to sound raspy, and I was seeing nasal discharge.

Another trip to the vet...this time they heard something in his lungs and wanted to take some x-rays. They believed it could be aspiration pneumonia, because his immune system was already compromised by Parvo.

They put him on antibiotics and taught me how to help him breathe better at home.

He was definitely a trooper, even when he wasn't feeling 100%, he'd wake up to enjoy the occasional belly rub. We were hopeful he'd recover from this too. Especially since he'd still run around every time I took him out to relieve himself.

But I noticed his energy slowly declining. And something else too. It was so mild that I could only describe it to the vet over the phone as "silent hiccups". They reassured me that hiccups is a normal thing for pups and he'll grow out of it.

So I continued to give him antibiotics and do everything I could to keep him comfortable.

But those "silent hiccups" were progressing, and they no longer looked like hiccups. Now that they progressed I believed he was having spasms of some sort in his stomach...it was getting to a point where it was keeping him from sleeping soundly. He started to whine in his sleep. He looked desperate for comfort. Each time I climbed into his playpen he would look up weakly and try to climb into my lap. My hope was starting to dwindle.

Strike 4: Our next vet visit would be his last. They diagnosed him with distemper...his stomach spasms were actually a neurological disorder caused by the virus, making his body tremor.

Most puppies that reach the neurological stage of distemper don't recover. The opposite happens and they start to go downhill fast. But we were all wondering if maybe he could pull through, he did after all still have his appetite, if anything was at 100% it was his love for food.

But at this point we had already spent $1,000+ in vet bills. Any further treatment Casper may need was going to cost just as much. But even then the vet was saying it was a long shot and he may still need to be euthanized after all the treatments.

She gave me some time to think about it, and was kind enough to keep him at their facility and treat him as much as she could. I didn't know what to do...spend more money and possibly just prolong Casper's struggle when he may just be put down anyways? Or just say goodbye to him now? The latter was just too heartbreaking, so I contacted Alondra and explained our situation and asked if there was anything the organization could do.

This was her reply. I remembered her saying that they have a vet that can take a look at the pups if something were to happen. I took this as the tiniest bit of hope and agreed to hand Casper over to her.

Looking over this text now, I'm scratching my head as to why we weren't alerted about another pup being sick. Sure she got better. But at the time they also thought it was distemper. Distemper also works in waves, you see symptoms, they disappear and then they come back, much like Casper's situation. I feel that this should have been enough grounds to be cautious and let the other dog owners know so that they can have a bit of a heads up. Even if it it turned out to be nothing, better safe than sorry! I'd rather be paranoid and get everything checked than left in the dark and have issues sprout up later on.

But back to Casper's fight, a few days go by with him under the care of Alondra. She never once mentioned taking him to the vet. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. But her first call to me was saying she believes he has distemper, and she's not a vet but she's a little hopeful for him because he's still alert and eating. She was basically just going to up his antibiotics and hope for the best.

This is my two cents, I don't care if someone says they have "experience" because they've fostered dogs. If you're not a certified vet, you're not qualified to make critical decisions on treating a dog fighting for its life.

In another text she also mentions they didn't test the other dog, Marsha, that got sick for distemper because the vet advised against resource spending...great, they're trying to save money.

Sadly on Saturday, April 23, 2016, we get a call from Alondra that Casper just had his first seizure. She asks what we wanted to do so my husband and I take a moment to process our options. Just within that short amount of time, Alondra texts me saying he just had more seizures, and that it was time. We knew it too, he was suffering at this point. We gave her permission to euthanize him, just a day shy of when we were suppose to get him back. Although I had been preparing for the worst for days, it was still heartbreaking to know that our little trooper didn't make it. Three weeks may not seem like a lot of time, but it was enough time for Casper to wiggle his way into our hearts. We miss him terribly everyday...

We hope you've found some peace little guy, you were a big soul in a tiny body and a true fighter.

So now we we're left with broken hearts and a number of vet bills. And let me say the staff at Banfield in Poway, CA were amazing. I've read stories where people couldn't afford treatment for their pets so they asked for cheaper options. This particular staff, and mainly Dr. Kat Fedorka, tried to keep the costs down as much as possible for me, without me even asking.

She also mentioned that she believes we were given a sick puppy to begin with. Distemper has an incubation period of about 1-3 weeks, and although the order of when symptoms that show can vary, usually gastrointestinal issues are the first to pop up. Lo and behold, Casper's first issue was loss of appetite, vomiting and diarrhea.

Okay, so maybe they had no way of knowing about the distemper either. But that still doesn't stop us from questioning the conditions in which these puppies came from while in their care. Casper came to us dirty, infested with fleas and worms and is shortly diagnosed with Parvo! Even the vet told us that the rescue needs to know everything that's happened because clearly whatever they're doing isn't working, and that Casper should have been dewormed from the start. She also mentioned that the right thing for them to do is to reimburse us for ALL of Casper's medical fees.

Before you think that we're overly emotional at this point and just want our money back, I was weary at first about asking for anything, telling my husband that we did sign a contract after all that had a non-refundable adoption fee. But after talking it over among ourselves and with other people, we came to the conclusion that it is only fair that they give a little something in return. 

After we gave Alondra the persmission to euthanize Casper, I handed the phone over to my husband who proceeded to ask about whether or not we would be getting any kind of reimbursement, not only for our trouble but because we were given a sick puppy. (Another thing to note, when Alondra was assessing Casper's situation, she told me that she now would have to contact the rest of the owners that adopted Casper's siblings to let them know, because if he has it, they have it too. Acknowledging the fact that he was already sick before we got him.) He said she began to get snarky with him by saying, "well, you can come here and pick him up yourself and euthanize him for $150", and then tried to reiterate that we signed a contract, and gave an analogy that they couldn't reimburse everyone cause then they'd get people coming to them 10 years down the road saying their dog has cancer. My husband quickly shut down that analogy saying that's completely different, that's congenital. What Casper had was a virus that was incubating in him (and may have been prevented depending on how they cared for him and his siblings) before we adopted him. But she continued to say that money isn't her worry right now, it's Casper's well-being, but if we wanted we could email her our case and she would forward it to the board.

If you still think we're a couple of dog owners that just got too attached to their sick pup and should move on, I get it, I had those thoughts too. Until we looked up reviews on the rescue. I suddenly felt justified with my reservations towards A.R.W.O.B. There are quite a bit of negative reviews for the organization, and more specifically, towards Alondra. You can read all the reviews here.

After reading these reviews, I was slowly feeling more justified with how I felt about this whole situation. And just so you know, we did email the organization about our case (it's been 4 days and we still haven't heard from them). But looking at the reviews about Alondra's past actions, I don't think we'll be hearing from them anytime soon. We have doubts because Alondra said she would forward our case to the board...we found out, she IS the board! She IS the A.R.W.O.B. organization. It also sounds like she takes on more than she can handle. Now I'm not saying that I have doubts whether or not this organization does any good, I'm sure they've successfully connected pets in need with their forever homes. But a few good adoption processes doesn't allow you to slip and drop the ball all other times.

I don't want to hear that they're a small organization ran by volunteers, who I'm sure are trying to do good as well. But if you can't handle the workload you're given, don't take on more work! It's like all those cliches, don't bite off more than you can chew, or else you're spread yourself too thin. If you really want to do well by the animals and the owners, you need to make sure you can do what you set out to do right, not right half the time or sometimes, it has to be ALL the time!

In addition, a true non-profit organization needs to run mostly on donations, not from adoption fees. Which by the way, according to another yelp review, A.R.W.O.B. hiked up the price for one pup because he was "popular". I don't know about you, but that sounds more like a money-making scheme than a non-profit organization trying to find a home for the pup.

And this is the problem with a lot of rescues nowadays. You get scoffed at for trying to buy a pet rather than adopt, however there are laws in place, such as the lemon law in California if you buy from a breeder. But no regulations on rescues because they're technically "non-profit". So what happens when you come across said organization that isn't running ethically? Who suffers the consequences? Apparently in our case, we're the only ones suffering, from the loss of a pup and piled vet bills. There are just so many things wrong with the way A.R.W.O.B. operates, such as the 48 hour rule, that is in no way enough time for a disease like distemper to show up. Casper's health records being in Spanish concerns me because this means he was vaccinated in Mexico. This means they either took him there for vaccinations (it would most likely be cheaper there), or, he's from Mexico and they imported him and his siblings to the U.S., and considering their age, that would go against the US Department of Agriculture regulations.

At this point, we've pretty much accepted the fact that we aren't getting anything back from the organization. But we're not going to sit here and keep quiet. We want to spread awareness to others, and be on the lookout for unreputable rescues that prey on potential pet parents who really do want to open up their home to these animals in need. It's a shame that Casper's fight to stay alive is what opened our eyes to unethical rescues, we hope you never have to go through what we did.

We planned to take Spring photos of our boys in their new spiffy outfits once Casper got better. Sadly, that will never happen, he didn't get the chance to do many things. But we hope his spirit is alive and well, continuing to chew on everything he sees and forever making his funny "cat cries". We just want justice for Casper, please spread the awareness about unreputable organizations/rescues.