The 62-pound, year-old, pup is owned by Lindsay Santos and Jamie Palmer of Summerside and recently suffered a debilitating injury. But Lucie is no ordinary dog, she’s got a fan club and they came through for her in a big way recently. They raised $5,000 in a little over a week to help Santos and Palmer pay for Lucie’s medical and recovery expenses.
They surprised the couple with the cheque earlier this week. The couple had no idea their friends, family and strangers were fundraising to help them out.
“Needless to say my husband and I are still in quite a bit of shock over that – it’s a lot of money in a short amount of time. It’s the most generous thing – I’ve never witnessed anything like that in my life,” said Santos.
“It means everything to us … that worry is gone.”
A personal trainer at Stretch Fitness in Summerside, Santos isn’t normally a big fan of social media but started using it shortly after bringing Lucie home to chronicle the adventures of her new pup, who quickly amassed a following.
“She’s like a little celebrity,” she said.
Lucie was injured when Santos and Palmer were visiting their son’s home in Chelton on Christmas Day. He has two dogs and all three animals were playing the back yard when Lucie suddenly yelped and started crying. She’d injured one of her hind legs and was unable to put any weight on it.
The family was not able to secure a visit to a vet until a couple of days later. That doctor suspected the injury may have been a torn ligament, but referred them to the Atlantic Veterinary College for further analysis.
While this was going on Santos and Palmer had to come to grips with the fact that, if their vet’s suspicion was confirmed, they were facing a $6,000 surgery and a difficult recovery for their dog.
“We went homes with our heads spinning … your stomach is churning,” said Santos.
The 62-pound, year-old, pup is owned by Lindsay Santos and Jamie Palmer of Summerside and recently suffered a debilitating injury. But Lucie is no ordinary dog, she’s got a fan club and they came through for her in a big way recently. They raised $5,000 in a little over a week to help Santos and Palmer pay for Lucie’s medical and recovery expenses.
They surprised the couple with the cheque earlier this week. The couple had no idea their friends, family and strangers were fundraising to help them out.
“Needless to say my husband and I are still in quite a bit of shock over that – it’s a lot of money in a short amount of time. It’s the most generous thing – I’ve never witnessed anything like that in my life,” said Santos.
“It means everything to us … that worry is gone.”
A personal trainer at Stretch Fitness in Summerside, Santos isn’t normally a big fan of social media but started using it shortly after bringing Lucie home to chronicle the adventures of her new pup, who quickly amassed a following.
“She’s like a little celebrity,” she said.
Lucie was injured when Santos and Palmer were visiting their son’s home in Chelton on Christmas Day. He has two dogs and all three animals were playing the back yard when Lucie suddenly yelped and started crying. She’d injured one of her hind legs and was unable to put any weight on it.
The family was not able to secure a visit to a vet until a couple of days later. That doctor suspected the injury may have been a torn ligament, but referred them to the Atlantic Veterinary College for further analysis.
While this was going on Santos and Palmer had to come to grips with the fact that, if their vet’s suspicion was confirmed, they were facing a $6,000 surgery and a difficult recovery for their dog.
“We went homes with our heads spinning … your stomach is churning,” said Santos.
Unfortunately, the family’s vet was unable to secure an appointment for them with the college as it was scheduled to be closed until at least Jan. 3 To make matters worse Lucie’s second hind leg gave out a few days later, rendering her largely immobile.
Aware of the pain Lucie was in and the stress her family was under their vet reached out to Dr. Caroline Runyon, a semi-retired specialist and former college instructor living Montague.
The family was finally able to see Runyon on Jan. 5 and she diagnosed Lucie with a Grade 4 patellar luxation, essentially the dog equivalent of a severely dislocated knee.
This was good news for the family in a couple of different ways, two being that, while still requiring an expensive surgery, it is not as expensive a procedure or as bad an injury as they had originally suspected. Lucie will live a normal, active life, if the surgery goes well and have a relatively quick recovery.
Runyon suspects that Lucie’s second injured leg may be muscle pull from having to favour it, but will be able to examine her more closely while she’s unconscious for her surgery.
Unbeknownst to Santos and Palmer, while they were dealing with the situation some of Santos’ clients from the gym started talking ways they could help them out.
Leah Noye, a gym client and dog trainer who worked with Lucie as a puppy, helped organize a Facebook group called “For the Love of Lucie” for people to help donate to the cause. It attracted almost 300 people who posted hundreds of pictures of their own dogs, cats and even a horse who were all wishing Lucie well.
The idea went much further than Noye had originally planned.
“I was getting calls from people who don’t even know (Santos) or her dog. I love it. Nothing we couldn’t handle,” said Noye.
It means so much to their family to be able to face Lucie’s surgery with optimism and hope, said Santos, and she’d like everyone who helped them out to know how much it means to them.
“We live pretty simply here on Prince Edward Island but we just never hesitate to get out our wallets or empty out our change … it always amazes me.”
@JournalPMacLean
