2026 – a tough one for our FOP sanctuary sponsored pups

Our story this year is honestly a bit hard to own up to publicly. We’ve been determined and we’ve put on the best face we could, but it has been just….brutal. Last year’s pitch included the terrible scare that we got with Geneva, who we thought had a gallbladder issue that turned out to be a liver problem. This year, the gallbladder very nearly killed her. Through multiple diagnostics and an exploratory surgery, then a dangerous surgery done in an attempt to beat the clock on a rupture, that gallbladder has had its third and final chance to take Geneva’s life. Her growing team of veterinary professionals here and Outside have become both medically and emotionally invested in her saga. We all depend on this little girl so much as the soul of our family, and as desperately as we have hung onto her at times, she has just as tenaciously held on to life.

Bristol has been through the wringer as well. We’ve been fighting her systemic infections and horrible skin degradation for three years now, particularly when it comes to her ears. This year has been the worst since she first arrived in our family. I’ll skip past the details, except to say we’ve really hit a wall on infections that defy healing. However! After more go-rounds than I can count, we just last week had a notable step toward success. She has had two separate infections in her left ear (fairly treatable) and three infections in her right, including the nearly-unstoppable Pseudomonas. We’ve gone through regime after regime, but just this last month she has been on a new drug that has brought the best results so far. (Ah, that sweet moment when the veterinarian looks up and exclaims, “I can see both of her eardrums!”) It hasn’t been easy and I’ll skip what we’ve had to do every day to fight it. But every success makes us more determined to keep fighting. (And so does every failure, but we like to change it up when we can.)

I don’t wish to always mention London as the afterthought here, despite the fact that he is the least medically complicated of the three. But the fact is that he’s aging and his poor eyesight has been harder for him to cope with. He can get around okay – he hates his navigation halo and so he just bonk-bonk-bonks his way around at times – but the movements of others around him can be startling and upsetting. But he tolerates his daily treatments and debriding, and his health is otherwise very good - and in this family that’s the biggest blessing of all.

Here’s the point:

Without FOP, none of it would be possible. Bristol and London especially owe their lives to your support of this work. As FOP-sponsored sanctuary animals, the cost sharing aspect has allowed us to combat some of the worst challenges I’ve yet experienced in 30 years of special-needs dogs. Beyond that, we’ve sort of joked about the fact that with Bristol in particular, FOP has contributed to the body of veterinary knowledge simply by presenting a dog with challenges that some veterinarians never face in their entire careers. But truly, that’s a valuable part of this battle that others may yet benefit from. Rare cases like hers offer opportunities to find new treatment pathways while fighting for her daily quality of life.

Realistically, without FOP’s help with Bristol and London, I could never have attempted to fight this hard for Geneva at all. We’ll be digging out for a long time regardless, but this family is a package deal, and FOP is part of that family in every way.

We have too much to do to keep this little medicine show going for me to spend more time writing. In times that are worrying and exhausting for this medical mama, there is always such gratitude that we aren’t alone in this fight. Nor are all the other families who take on the responsibility - and the great joy! - of sanctuary adoption, made possible by FOP and by you.