GiveBIG to Old Dog Haven on May 9

His name is Yukon Cornelius. Yes, I’m talking about the dog in the photograph. Yukon Cornelius is one of more than 300 Old Dog Haven dogs you’ll be helping if you participate in GiveBIG on Wednesday May 9. Here’s more about this charming little guy.

Yukon Cornelius came to his Old Dog Haven Final Refuge family via a local shelter. He’d been observed wandering and scavenging in the woods for over a month during an exceptionally cold spell. Not a big dog, we wonder how Yukon managed to survive out on his own. Surely he would’ve been prey to predators. How did he eat and stay warm? A kind man discovered him and started to feed him to try to befriend him so he could get him help. Once the man was able to, he caught him and brought him to the local shelter.

Shelter staff did all they could to stabilize Yukon Cornelius. Knowing he needed extensive vetting and had a long road to recovery, they reached out to Old Dog Haven for help. A Final Refuge home was found for Yukon and the work to get him healthy began. Yukon was intact, his teeth were awful, he had demodex mange, his ears were infected, he was extremely thin, and he’d sustained an injury to one of his eyes.

 

 

Thanks to ODH donors Yukon Cornelius is well on his way to become the best version of himself. He saw an animal dermatologist to help with his battle of demodex. Months of medicated bi-weekly bathing and medications helped his skin heal. Yukon will receive weekly mediated baths for the rest of his life along with a mite preventative as he is prone to a possible reoccurrence. The animal ophthalmologist told us that Yukon must have “speared” his eye somehow when he was out in the woods. He’s had some chronic inflammation and dry eye in both eyes, which has caused occasional ulcers in each eye so he receives daily two prescription eye drops and he’ll see the ophthalmologist for monitoring.

Once his skin was healthier, he was neutered. His teeth were so bad however, that he needed to see a dental specialist. But before his dental, he had to have an echocardiogram with a cardiologist because his heartbeat was irregular. Once the cardiologist cleared him for his dental, he had many rotting, broken teeth extracted.

 

While we were getting him healed physically, Yukon had some emotional wounds that needed healing. Since he was a “stray” and on his own surviving, we don’t know where he came from. Yukon Cornelius had some trust issues. Loud, sudden noises scared him and he shied away from petting. As time has gone on and he’s learned he is OK and can trust his family and people. He is less skittish but every so often he will still hide and appear frightened for no apparent reason. Dogs, like people can have P.T.S.D. and that seems to be what Yukon suffers from time to time. Thankfully he will be able to stay with his forever foster family for the rest of his days. He is VERY attached to his foster mom (“Yukon has become my devoted companion. We have really connected and I am honored to be his person.”) and has bonded with a female Chihuahua named Maz in his Final Refuge home, also an Old Dog Haven dog

Yukon Cornelius is a smart, happy boy who loves his toys, going for walks and tagging along for car rides with his foster mom. He is loved, safe and he’ll never again have to survive on his own, thanks to Old Dog Haven and their supporters.

 

 

 

None of what has been done to help Yukon and what still needs to be done for him could happen without Old Dog Haven’s supporters. Are you interested in joining Yukon’s support club? Here’s how you can help:

Now more than ever you can make an impact. Thanks to the Seattle Foundation, GiveBIG is a day when people come together to support the community and causes they love.

GiveBIG is a HUGE fundraiser for ODH, raising an invaluable source of income for the dogs. Currently Old Dog Haven has over 300 dogs in permanent foster care and vet bills are approximately $90,000 per month. Help us reach our goal of raising $90,000 during GiveBIG so we can cover one month of veterinary care.

This year you can opt to pay your credit card fee. If everyone who “Gives Big” covers their fees we can raise thousands of dollars more for the dogs.

You can schedule your GiveBIG donation now. Just click here and your donation will be processed on Wednesday, May 9.

Thank you from Yukon Cornelius and the rest of his friends at ODH!