Case of the Month

When Joanna Patrice, outreach director for CARE (Cat Canine Assistance Referral and Education), first spotted, Jeannie the Jindo, she thought a little red fox had gotten loose on her street. She would see her wandering around the neighborhood and Joanna would do her best to try to catch her, but Jeannie was quite the artful dodger. Joanna became especially alarmed when Jeannie formed the habit of sleeping right on the street. Joanna was just positive Jeannie would get killed, so she made it her mission to track Jeannie down and do her best to take care of her.

After some reconnaissance, Joanna discovered that Jeannie did indeed have somewhat of a home. Her owners kept her in their backyard without food and water, and Jeannie would bite through their wood fence to escape. One day Joanna had enough and she confronted the owners about their poor care for Jeannie. Joanna convinced the owners to relinquish their ownership of Jeannie to her, and she promptly placed Jeannie into a foster home with a secure backyard.

Jeannie lived with the foster family for seven years, but, unfortunately, her conditions were less than ideal. She was relegated to being an outdoor only dog, and she endured an anterior cruciate ligament tear on her right hind leg. Jeannie did have surgery, but the injury never did heal properly. During this time she had many prospective parents come to see her. Jeannie is a gorgeous animal, and people would come wanting to adopt her; but when they experienced the cool, aloof temperament associated with Jindos, they would decide that Jeannie wasn’t right for them.

 One day last August, Jeannie was playing in the yard with her German Shepherd yard buddy when she tore her other ACL. At this point, Jeannie was ten years old, and because of her age, her foster family was in favor of euthanizing Jeannie. Joanna, however, had other plans.

“Of course that was not in my playbook,” scoffed Joanna. “I took Jeannie to Dr. Adler at the Adler Vet Group in Northridge for surgery. She was in so much agony, she was screaming and crying. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money right away for her to get her work done, but Dr. Adler let us board her there while we worked on getting our funds.”

Joanna worked for five days to try to raise money for the surgery. While she was able to make progress, she was still falling short of the amount needed to help Jeannie. This was when she learned about the Angel Fund.

“The Angel Fund’s money literally saved Jeannie’s life,” said Joanna. “Jeannie was in such extreme agony that Dr. Adler told us that if we couldn’t raise the money, it wouldn’t be fair to let her live in that state of pain. So we’re extremely grateful to the Angel Fund.”

During Jeannie’s recovery time, Joanna received a call from a gentleman who saw Jeannie’s picture online and was interested in meeting her. His own Jindo had died the year before and when he saw Jeannie’s face, he fell madly in love with her. Joanna screened the prospective new owner thoroughly and when Jeannie was released from care, he fostered her for a short amount of time before adopting her.

“Not only did Jeannie get a wonderful surgery because of the Angel Fund,” says Joanna, “but she also got a wonderful new life. Jeannie went to Santa Fe for Christmas and Santa Barbara for Valentine’s Day. Her new owner takes her everywhere. She’s in a fabulous home now and it’s because of the generosity of people like those who provide the Angel Fund.”