Foster Chronicles - Romona the German Shephard Mix

UPDATE and NEW INFORMATION on ROMONA:
Great News! Romona (now spelled Ramona) was adopted by a Forever Family! She will live her life - how ever long she has left - happy and loved and part of a family. She was adopted with a waived adoption fee because her health future is unknown. She had so many BB pellets in her body that surgery was not an option. Therefore, they could not repair the hernia and relocate her organs. We wish her a LONG and happy life with her forever family. Happy Tails Ramona!

Unfortunately, because of her condition - the diaphragmatic hernia - her organs will eventually suffocate her heart. She was adopted without an adoption fee because there is no way to know how long she will live. She has over 250 BB pellets imbedded in her skin, which made surgery impossible. I'm told the pellets are probably due to her ending up on land where she wasn't welcome. There is a custom to shoot stray dogs with BB guns to get them off their lawn. So Ramona was either quite persistent or didn't get the message. I like to think of her as being unstoppable.

Below is the original post:

We are fairly new to fostering so we are still learning all the rewards and challenges that come with this gift of service.

We learned a new lesson with Romona - that there's a dark side to the Fostering experience.

We were foster-free. Henry had been fostered and we were less than 2 weeks away from a trip that would take us out of town for over a week. So no more fostering till we got back to town. And then I saw Romona on the Crate Escape Foster Safe page. They couldn't rescue her from the shelter without a foster family and no one had stepped up.

All I need to hear is - this dog will not be saved - and you have me at your mercy. I figured she would be in the foster system for longer than we had to foster her but better than death row.

Russell picked her up because I was out of town. She was shedding but other than that seemed ok. I asked for updates and photos and all he said was - she won't let me stop petting her. She loves people over dogs and really had no interest in Bella ... which was too bad for Bella. She really just wanted to be pet. She would put her paw on you if you stopped. I was working on ridding her of this habit so her next move was to LEAN on you. She would do what an old friend of mine would call being "IN" you - so close there is NO SPACE. She would scootch up to you so she could really get right up against your leg. It was an insistent and needy love - but love just the same. And her soft eyes and peaceful disposition were hard to resist.

She was due for her vet visit 4 days after she arrived to our house. I dropped her off and the Vet gave her the once over. I mentioned she was favoring her back left leg. She also seemed really skinny. The Vet thought she may have already been spayed but couldn't find a scar.

I was surprised to find out that she would be on 1 month bed rest until she was cleared for adoption, activity, play of any kind. Heart worm treatment post-op procedure. If they exert themselves they could clot and die. I didn't realize heart worm was such serious business. I didn't think Romona would mind the inactivity - though the crate living would be terrible for her. I couldn't help but think of how Bella would do with this scenario. I get stressed for her just thinking about it.

I was due to pick her up on the 3rd day of her stay ... 1 day for the spay and 2 days for the heart treatment. But then I got a message from the foster coordinator that she needed to give me an update.

It was not good. Here's what she said...

"...Ramona was anesthetized for her spay surgery, they found out she was already spayed but while in there, found what that thought was a mass. Her organs we're not where they were supposed to be.'

'They did some imaging and diagnosed her with a diaphragmatic hernia, which means her organs which should be in the abdomen, were in her chest.'

'Well that was only the tip of the iceberg. She had a pelvic fracture which healed funny

A leg fracture that healed wrong, hence the limp. She had bee Bee pellets in her.

And she (still) has heartworm.'


'She also had complications while under for surgery due to her condition. So.......she did not get heartworm treatment.'

'...the hernia obviously needs to be fixed, but that's another story. It's got to be done by a specialist and we were quoted ($5,000 to $7,000)."

I'm not sure what will happen now. At the time of this writing, Romona had not yet had the heartworm treatment and the money for the surgery would need to be raised. We don't know if she was hit by a car and never treated or if she was abused. Either way it's a terrible thing to go through and she's too sweet to have deserved such a roadblock to her forever home.

Please send lots of prayers to Romona for a speedy recovery and a happily ever after!