HOW MUCH ARE DOGS WORTH?
Continued

She's just not letting go
Penny is a 19-year-old Chihuahua who should have died nine years ago. At 10, Penny was diagnosed with mammary tumors that needed to be surgically removed. The cost: about $900.

Two years later, the tumors returned and Penny needed another surgery, including a radical ovariohysterectomy, which cost another $1,300.

     Penny did well until 2000, when she collapsed, a result of chronic heart failure. The veterinarians gave Penny three to four weeks to live. Rather than put her down, her owner, Colleen Tomes, decided to make Penny as comfortable as possible in her last days.

Colleen Tomes holds her dog Penny and a puppy named Kaile. Colleen brought Penny to work almost every day to monitor her failing health. Photo by Julie Pasquinelli

 But three years later, Penny is still alive, and the costs have mounted for Tomes. Penny’s heart wasn’t pumping enough blood to her organs and her lungs filled with fluid, so Tomes spends $60 a month on heart and lung medicine. Because of her poor circulation, Penny developed cysts that needed to be drained every month for six months. Each of these visits cost about $50. Penny needed liver, kidney, and blood tests to make sure her organs weren’t failing, a common side effect of her heart medicine. She also developed a blood clot in her back legs, which caused her to lose more than 50 percent of the feeling in her back legs.

     All told, Tomes figures she has spent well over $5,000 keeping Penny alive.

      She and her husband have postponed vacations, bought new beds for Penny, and even purchased a house that was mostly tile—all the better to accommodate Penny’s difficulty controlling her bladder, another side effect of the heart medicine. They have to watch Penny all the time to be sure she doesn’t try to jump up or down from furniture or climb stairs. They can never leave her alone.

      Penny is still alive, although her “eyesight failed slowly and her legs lost feeling slowly,” Tomes said. Penny still has her wits about her; she knows that if one water dish is empty, there is another one in the other room. She knows to wake up Tomes to be let outside in the middle of the night.

“Her quality of life is not so poor that putting her down is a viable option,” Tomes said. Penny still has her routine, she said. She’s “a happy, cuddly little dog.”

Labor of love
Twice a day, Kristan Kelley takes Pinky, her 9-year-old German shepherd, outside to relieve herself.        

After a long walk in her cart, Pinky rests in her bed. Photo by Julie Pasquinelli

Pinky is about 74 pounds, and Kelley isn’t much more than that herself. She puts a harness around Pinky’s waist and lifts up her back legs while Pinky “walks” to the grass. Afterward, Kelley stays outside while Pinky watches the birds and barks hello to people walking by.

     When Pinky was 3 months old, she would regularly accompany Kelley on two-mile long hikes. Living in Hawaii provided lots of opportunities for swimming, boating and playing ball outside, so Pinky was an active dog. Kelley felt a bond with Pinky from the day she was born. “She was born dead,” she said, “and when I was about to give up on her, I saw her breathe.”

     Pinky was alive, but she was deaf and mentally handicapped. She hallucinates, Kelley said. “She’ll duck and then look around like something is trying to get her.”

     At 6, Pinky started dragging one of her back legs. It was so slight that Kelley said that if she wasn’t a technician at a veterinary clinic, “I wouldn’t have noticed it.” The leg-dragging went on for about six months until Pinky started falling—on walks, when she tried to run or when she stood up.

     Kelley took Pinky to a vet, paid $1,000 for a full-body scan and was told her pet had degenerative myelopathy, a disease that starts at the base of the tail and works its way up the spine, killing blood cells and causing loss of body control. Slowly, Pinky lost the use of her back legs; she now drags herself around with her front legs. A year ago, Pinky was still walking, although she fell a lot.

     Kelley knows there is no treatment for the disease, so she does what she can to make Pinky happy. She bought Pinky a twin-size bed, for about $200, and put it right next to her bed, so they are always close.

VIDEO: Watch Pinky use her doggie wheelchair

     Kelley is considering getting Pinky a new cart, one that is more comfortable and would help distribute her weight better. The cost could be close to $600. Kelley shrugged it off as if it was just another dog toy.

     Pinky has already lived longer than most dogs with degenerative myelopathy, and no one can predict how long she has before the disease stops her breath.

     So Kelley is hanging on as long as Pinky will.

     “You can’t replace her . . . she’s a soul mate,” Kelley said. “She’s not just a dog. She’s my best friend, my child. You’re never gonna find another Pinky.”

VIDEO: Kristan Kelley talks about taking care of Pinky