Miracle Pup Will Soon Seek Forever Home After 2 Gunshots to Face Left Her Maimed
Amber and Dave Burrus are the owners of Coco’s House Senior Sanctuary and Rescue. They’ve seen plenty of dogs in their time — all shapes and sizes, all walks of life, and all levels of health.
Their description on Facebook says “We are a senior dog sanctuary and rescue located in Terry MS. We believe that every dog deserves to live out (its) life loved the way that they love us.”
But when they saw a post online about a particular stray last month, their heartstrings were tugged. The poor animal was not only unwanted, she’d been shot. Twice.
One bullet was sitting behind her eye, and the other had taken out her jaw. Her jaw was flapped open, absolutely useless. The Burrus took her in for surgery and on Aug. 31, she had her jaw reconstructed.
“She goes in for surgery today. Please continue to share and or donate, she has a long road ahead of her and may end up a special needs with the possibility of needing help feeding if her mandible is removed,” the post read.
“Even with a major part of one side of her mandible missing, the team at MSU was able to realign her jaw,” read an update. “She has 3 pins on one side and 2 on the other with an acrylic filled tube.”
“They did a bone graft from her shoulder to remove marrow and used it in her mandible to replace the necrotic tissue removed. They also did some reconstructive work on her other side and pulled her lip up so that her tongue won’t dangle.”
“All of this is expected to allow her mouth to close better. She’s sleeping with IV pain meds and we don’t expect any change tonight because she is heavily sedated.”
The rescue is accepting donations, since the vet bills are quite large. If you would like to help out, you can check out the post that lists how to donate here.
According to the rescue’s Facebook post, this pup is finally learning about the compassionate side of humanity, but the going is slow and tedious. Even for people, adjusting to a new way of life after months of daily nightmares takes time.
“Undoing to abuse and neglect is a hard battle, but so worth it,” they wrote. “Ariel aged at approx 8 months (could be a few months younger) has known nothing but hate, neglect, abuse her entire life.”
“She winces at a touch to her legs, she buckles down in fear of hands coming near her. She thinks what is going to happen next? She is certain it is going to be something horrible.”
“But it is not, it is a kind loving touch, a treat, her food…..All these things she has not known, so it is hard for her to remember she will no longer be a unwanted pup. She will always know love, compassion, full belly, a soft bed to lay in, the INSIDE of a home, to have shelter, to not feel like she is dying every minute of the day.”
Thanks to kind, compassionate, dedicated people like the Burrus, dogs like Ariel can have a real shot at a happy life instead of dying unloved and alone.
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