Hope's story

She was posted by Ft. Worth Animal shelter as an abused boxer that was extremely emaciated and was taken from her owners due to abuse. The owners claim she was 10 years old. Yes, she was a boxer. I picked her up after seeing her pictures on February 24th and took her straight to the vet. She weighed in at 19 pounds!! She was a petite girl for a boxer, but she should have weighed at least a good 40 pounds!! They kept her over night. Did an exam and found out that she had a skin tumor, she wasn't spayed and had heart worms. The vet sent her home with me the next day and said she just had to put on weight before we could try to treat her for anything. So I set out thinking she was just a starving dog. What did I know? The poor thing devoured anything and everything I set in front of her. Still, after a few days....no change in her weight. We kept trying. I even made Satin Balls to try to "fatten" her up. After about 10 days and no changes, I really noticed that she was "pooping" everything out as fast as it went into her. We took her back into the vet and they kept her overnight again to run some tests on her.

The tests came back positive for EPI. I unfortunately do not remember her numbers. They put her on enzymes, and I started to research everything I could about EPI. The vets just didn't have very much information on it. I found the yahoo group for EPI and joined and sent out an urgent plea for advice and any help and encouraging words. Everyone was very helpful and the group has some of the best information compiled in one place about EPI.

I put her on a good EPI correct diet and gave her enzymes with each meal.

She was a happy girl. She had the classic "wiggle butt" that all boxers tend to have. She was my shadow. She was MY girl. She loved me and I loved her. One of her favorite things to do was curl up on my back whenever I lay down on the couch to watch TV :)

She also liked to play with our other female boxer in the sprinklers. They had a great time together. My other female even taught her how to hunt down lizards in the flower beds next to the house. They were an awesome pair.

Hope became my dog after a visit to the vet's one day when they determined that she would not be adoptable. I talked to the vet and asked if she was in pain or suffering, if she could live out her life in a happy home. They agreed that as long as she was not in pain that she could have a somewhat "quality" life. For how long....no one would know. So...I took her home and "adopted" her. I was going to make sure she knew love and was happy for how ever many days she had left.

Hope started to not feel too well early August last year. I had plans to take her to the vet. The night before she could hardly walk. I had to pick her up and take her outside to go potty and help her get drinks. I slept on the couch and she on her doggie bed right next to me on the floor. I got up several times during the night. One time she had made it over to the window to look out. I brought her back to her bed. When I woke up around 5:30 am to check on her....I found her almost by the back door. She was gone. It really broke my heart.

Thanks for wanting to use Hope's story in your research. Her life touched mine so deeply and if just seeing her shocking pictures can get the attention of people and make them aware of EPI, then her life was a very full one.

Jodi from Texas