This month’s puppet is Coconut, or Coco, submitted to us by her mom, Callie.
Callie works at a veterinary hospital and after a very, very long Saturday, the hospital was just about to close for the weekend when the owner of a local animal rescue came flying in with a kennel. They told the hospital that the puppy inside the kennel had been pulled from a dumpster where she had been thrown away to die. They were in over their heads to treat her at the rescue and needed the hospital’s help.
Callie opened the kennel, she found a terrified pile of a pup, hairless from mange with open sores all over her little body. When they reached in to get her out of the kennel to assess her, she screamed in pain. Callie said you could see in her eyes that she had completely emotionally shut down. Since she was so underweight, it was difficult to tell her age, but they estimated that she was about a year old and had suffered every single day of her short life. She was only half the size she should have been.
The rescue that brought her in said, “Hey, we’re all in. Do whatever you need to do to save her life and make her better,” and they did. They started fundraisers and people all over the world donated to help save this precious pup’s life! The pruppet needed a ton of care, and spent seven weeks at the hospital where Callie worked, getting blood transfusions, medicated baths for her skin, and soaks on her feet because they were so infected. Every day she got stronger and stronger and her fur started coming back in. Patchy at first, but in a beautiful chocolate color. She looked like a little coconut, so that’s what they started calling her.
She eventually was well enough to leave the hospital and go to the shelter to recover further. A foster from the rescue came and picked her up one day, and even though this was good news, Callie realized she had fallen in love with her sweet baby Coconut. She had watched her heal not only physically but emotionally too. Despite how life had treated her, she overcame her fears and pain and loved humans. Coconut was beautiful inside and out.
The same night that the foster for the rescue came to get Coconut, Callie called the rescue and asked to adopt her and they’ve been together ever since! It’s been 5 years since then and Callie is so thankful that she got to not only help Coconut get better, but introduce her to her new life as well. Callie was Coco’s main nurse, so those seven weeks in the hospital gave them so much time to bond. She feels honored that she got to not only be the face the Coco came to love and trust as a nurse, but also, now forever as the human Coconut can call “mom”.
Callie wanted to shout out Midwest Animal ResQ in Raytown, Missouri, who brought Coco in and raised so much money for her care in the hospital and, of course, uniting these two through pet adoption! Learn more about Midwest Animal ResQ here.