Recuperating from dog attack

A few weeks ago I wrote about a vicious dog attack in Midtown. Here’s an update from Melanie Emerson:

Maia is substantially on the mend, after three weeks at vet clinics and nearly $11,000 in care. In addition to the two initial surgeries, she spent 10 days on an amazing tool of emergency care called a wound vac which removed fluid and debris from her significant wounds, gently stimulated the area thereby building new tissue, and readied her skin for closure.

Maia went home on Tuesday, September 13 with the final staples set to be removed around the 27th–she has almost 50 staples in her hind wound and 25 in the front. Melanie looks forward to sharing new photos of Maia without a cone and with her fully regrown over the two tears on her body (and the big one in her heart). Despite this horrific experience and throughout what must have been a scary and seemingly endless care process for her, Maia has been a loving, sweet and patient dog.

Many staples from dog attack

This old soul was kind and gentle to the veterinary staff and really wanted nothing more than to come home and relax on a dog bed in the living room, and case the perimeter of the backyard alerting of pedestrians ambling by. Melanie looks forward to her once again frolicking in the backyard, giving loving nudges to her adopted sister Loretta, and bringing doggie order to the household.

At the time of this writing, the owners of the attacking dog have still not been found though Melanie continues to work with Pima Animal Care Center, the Tucson Police Department and her neighborhood association on the case. She hopes that someone may come forward who knows the identity of the dogs’ owners so appropriate follow-up can be conducted and some liability placed on their recklessness.

Central to Maia and her making it through this ordeal were the dozens of caring people from far and wide–old and new friends, neighbors, colleagues, family and complete strangers–who lent a caring hand, understood what we were going through and generously donated over $5,000 to support Maia’s medical care. Melanie said she cannot thank people enough for everything that has been offered.

She is still working to raise some of the remaining $6,000 to cover the rest of her bills. She maintains a website with a secure method of helping if people are moved to assist in Maia’s care.

Donations of any size are deeply appreciated.

So many people are interested in and have been following her progress quite closely, so to make that accessible to folks in any time zone, she created a Flickr site with photos of Maia that is updated regularly:

This recovery has truly been a community effort and a heartwarming outpouring of encouragement.

Thank you!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 at 5:00 am and is filed under Animal News, Dogs, Canines, Fun with Fido, Barking Encouraged. Tags for this post: dog attack Midtown, Tucson dogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.