Often, the animals we help arrive in horrible condition. Some are literally closer to death than life. A very recent example is a 5 month old shihtzu mix puppy who came in with an ugly, infected, tumor of some kind in her umbilical area. She was running a temperature, hadn’t gone to the bathroom in 3 days, and had stopped eating. Her owners said they could not afford vet care but didn’t want to see her dying slowly and in horrible pain. Although her chances were very slim, we rushed her to Perkiomen Animal Hospital. Tests showed that surgery was her only hope, and this little 4 pound pup found herself on the operating table for hours. We will spare you the technical medical details about the surgery, but are happy to report that after several days of intensive care and medical support, Nala survived and got better to the point that she could be released from the hospital. She is such a cutie…to look at her now, you would never know how close she came to dying just a few weeks ago.