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The Mulligan Fund
Mulligan first came to The ARF Shack as a 'routine transport' ~ however ~ we find in life that all things happen for a reason but more importantly they happen to remind us of our purpose... Although Mulligan was only with us for a short time, his purpose was to touch each of our hearts in such a way that his existence will never be forgotten!
Mulligan was originally named 'Jack' because we were asked to pull this little guy from animal services clinic care for a gentleman by the name of Jack. The medical attention needed by Jack was "beyond the abilities of. . ." the local county services team. Jack was pulled on a Saturday and was scheduled for transport to an awaiting surgeon to operate on his fractured fibula. Uncertain at this point exactly where the failure in communications occurred, but the surgeon in wait was only waiting for a designated amount of time! Since Jack's pick up and pull from animal services took longer than anticipated and the overall travel in and of itself was longer than expected, the decision was made to take Jack to our local rescue vet who services the public on a twenty-four basis.
Asking our local rescue vet to watch over Jack until transport was re-scheduled, it was from the outreach of our rescue vet's heart that he said he wanted, for his own peace of mind, to x-ray the pup to make sure the internal damages were not causing any blockage and/or damage to the pup's internal organs. Upon examination and x-ray our rescue vet made the personal decision to offer his time to Jack rather than having to have him wait for the transport to be re-scheduled. A few phone calls later and a proposal from the vet for a drastically reduced fee in relation to the procedure, Jack went into surgery. Jack's procedure consisted of repairs to multiple fractures; the puppy had laxation of the right calcareous in addition to the proximal metatarsal bones being luxated. Basically, after repairs, a complete re-alignment of Jack's bones had to take place.
Although no one can be certain, it is guessed that this little guy may have been struck by a car. Not only were the above injuries noted BUT Jack also suffered from what is called a 'supple neck.' A supple neck is when the skull is no longer attached to the spine. It was purely the muscles and tendons that were supporting little Jack's head. Although abnormal, improvement would be expected to occur over time with muscle development through both exercise, strengthening and repetition of activities.
This little guy obviously had the odds against him; however, he had the eyes of a tiger and the spirit of a lion king. Jack handled surgery so very well and went home with one of our fosters to begin his road to recuperation; Jack had himself a foster that was more than willing to provide him with everything he was going to need...
It was shortly after his surgery that Jack's name was changed to 'Mulligan.' The explanation, I was told, was that a mulligan is a do-over in the world of golf. Since Jack received a do-over on life, Jack was now known to all that loved and cared for him as Mulligan. Mulligan made magnificent strides; however, it was then noticed that Mulligan was not truly acting and/or being himself. First it was noted that he was having some standard cold type symptoms. Almost simultaneously, those symptoms became accompanied by a fever. Without delay, the decision was then made to bring Mulligan back to our rescue vet. Upon examination, everything in terms of the surgery follow up checked out magnificently. However, it was agreed ~ across the board ~ that something in relation to little Mulligan just was not right. Nothing was definite and/or could be confirmed at that point in time; however, further testings were going to be required in order to find out what exactly was causing our little man to exhibit these after-the-fact errupting concerns!
This now ~ is the sad part to this story ~ Mulligan never returned home from our rescue vet's office. Mulligan never got to return to the warm and loving arms of his foster family. The final arms that held Mulligan belonged to Sue ~ the Founder and Director of The ARF Shack ~ as it was she that held this little man as he crossed over rainbow bridge. The cause to these further obstacles in which Mulligan was sadly forced to face was a villain called Canine Distemper; a disorder that causes uncontrollable seizures and affects the neurological aspects of the animal affected by the disease.
Unfortunately, distemper is more common in local animal controls and county shelters than we wish to even have to admit and often times the symptoms do and will lay dormant until a day/date later in time... Let it be known that although Mulligan's life here was short, his time here with us at The ARF Shack and with our foster families remind us at to why we continue to do each day that in which we do! Mulligan is forever a part of us and Mulligan's Fund is going to be our on-going mission allowing us to provide a 'do-over' for each and every animal we bring through our doors. Whether their do-over will be in the form of medical needs, nutritional needs or emotional needs, each and every volunteer of The ARF Shack agrees, that a little bit of Mulligan will go out the door with each and every rescued and rehabilitated ARF Shack animal
Please remember that The ARF Shack and The Mulligan Fund both need the support of you, the members of our community, to enable us to proceed with our mission for each and every 'Jack' out there needing a 'Mulligan' in life. Please proceed to our PayPal Button in the left hand column of our Home Page and specifically state in the message box upon submission that it is a Mulligan Fund donation. It is tax deductible as we are a 501(c)(3) corporation.
Together, we can continue to make a difference,
one Mulligan at a time!
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