Success Stories

Shane, September 2001

Shane's story is one heard all too often here at LABMED, but every time we hear it we are moved. Shane is an approximately 10 year old male black Labrador Retriever, who was found roaming a neighborhood in Warwick, Rhode Island. He was tired, dirty, and hungry when he decided to take temporary shelter in a neighborhood garage. The owners of the garage weren't quite sure what to do with the old dog, they even feared he might die in their garage! But they felt sorry for the friendly old dog and gave him some food and water. They also told their neighbor, an animal lover who already had 2 dogs, 4 cats, and 5 birds about the old dog. When Shane was sufficiently rested, he got up to move on, and to the animal lover's dismay, he headed right for the road, totally ignoring a car which was in a collision path with him. Not able to watch this tired old man hit by a car, the animal lover became Shane's rescuer.

The first thing she did was take Shane to the veterinarian where it was discovered that Shane probably had some hearing loss as a sequela to his chronic ear infections, and more devastatingly for Shane's rescuer, he was heartworm positive. Shane's rescuer was determined to help the dignified old dog and she talked to the veterinarian about ways to get the money to start the heartworm treatment. He mentioned several ways to collect money for the treatment and recommended that she contact LABMED. So she talked to all of her animal loving friends and applied to LABMED. Shane's rescuer was thrilled to find out that LABMED would be able to help her, and Shane received his treatment.

Shane's rescuer was happy to report that Shane's quiet nature helped him to get through the treatment with flying colors so that he could look for that special home that would allow him to live in luxury, or at least a Lab's idea of luxury -- sleeping at the foot of the bed and having his own humans to love -- for the rest of his days.