PATCHES
"our sweet little girl"
circa 2011?-March 4, 2020
Patches had been saved in late 2013 by the North American Black and Tan Coonhound Rescue the day before she and her puppies were to be killed at a dog pound in Alabama. After her puppies were sent to New Jersey for adoption and she was spayed, we drove over to meet a Treeing Walker Coonhound who at the time was called "Wishes" at her foster home near Springville AL on a sunny Saturday, January 11, 2014. We renamed her Patches on our drive back to Sandy Springs.
Patches fit into our pack immediately, becoming Pibb's best friend. Patches would wag her tail whenever she heard her name, and make friends with anyone she met. She enjoyed riding in the car, snuggling next to Pibb.
When we adopted Patches, we didn't realized how hard her life had been prior to being rescued. During her first complete exam in Georgia it was discovered that Patches had been exposed to Ehrlichia, a tick-borne disease similar to Lyme disease. Fortunately the Ehrlichia organism was determined to no longer be in her. After moving to Minnesota we had her x-rayed to see what was causing her little round potbelly. It was determined that she had Cushing's disease. But what the x-rays really revealed was that Patches had been blasted with a shotgun—there were over 30 #6 birdshot throughout her body. Despite how Patches had been treated before joining our pack, she remained loving and friendly to everyone.
Unfortunately, during her annual checkup in December 2019, Patches was diagnosed with canine oral malignant melanoma. She endured surgery to remove the tumor from the right side of her mouth, but the oncology specialists at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine predicted that she had only one or two months to live. For a few months Patches was her old self: running on the back hillside, snapping snow, wagging her tail, and begging for treats. But in early March her health faded quickly so we made the hard decision to have her euthanized by her caring vets at Bass Lake Pet Hospital.
Patches was a beautiful and loving companion to her people friends and her best buddy, Pibb.