Viral dangers

E CRIFICE

Maria Grace, 39, from South stop at nothing to save her sick dog…

As Bella limped across the floor, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

‘Not long now,’ I soothed, as I gave her a little bit of a fuss.

Bella was our eight-year-old ShihTzu and she was just about to go in for surgery. She’d ruptured her left cruciate ligament and injured her kneecap in the process.

She needed an operation, but Bella was used to that. At the age of eight, she’d already had seven operations – almost one a year!

She’d been prone to breaking bones in her legs or damaging the ligaments.

‘Will this one be too much for her?’ I worried, to my fiancé Gareth, 36.

‘Hopefully this will be the last time she needs any surgery,’ he said, trying his best to reassure me.

I didn’t like the thought of her going in for any more operations, but this was our only option now.

Besides, Bella was such a happy little dog, there was no way we wouldn’t give her the chance to get better.

In 2011, when we picked her out at the breeders, we’d been told she had a weakness in her left side.

If anything, it only made us love her even more.

My daughter Charlotte, now 18, had a weakness in her left leg like Bella and it felt like it was meant to be. ‘We have to get her, Mum,’ Charlotte pleaded. ‘She’s so cute.’ I was besotted and didn’t take much persuading. A d h Gareth h h

ogs became able.

y were both m the same eders and ere brother nd sister.

Although Bella couldn’t

always keep up with Len, she tried her best and we loved them both to bits.

They were our abies. But just days before her eighth surgery, Bella injured herself again. Leaping off the sofa, she landed funny on her right leg. As she lay crying on the ground, I immediately called the vets.

‘It’s OK,’ I soo but it was awful her in so much p I rushed her t but it wasn’t loo ‘Be eme the v

‘She’s done the same on her right leg and this one seems worse.’

‘Will she be OK?’ I worried.

‘We won’t know until after she’s had the operation,’ the vet explained.

When she came around, all seemed to go well, but only time would tell.

Weeks after, Bella was still no better and it was clear the surgery hadn’t worked.

She was completely lame on her right side and couldn’t even toe tap on the floor.

I wasn’t sure what more could be done.

‘We’ve got two options,’ the vet explained.

‘She could go for specialist surgery in Bristol.

‘They’ll be able to give her metal knees and a special kind Our only other option was to put Bella to sleep Bella as a pup

We’ve all chipped in

g replacement for the cruciate.

‘It would be risky, and Bella would need physio, hydrotherapy and a lot of medication to get through it. ‘But if anyone can fix Bella, then these guys can,’ the vet reassured us.

‘Is there anything else we can try?’ I asked.

‘Your only other option is to put Bella to sleep,’ he explained, gently.

I was devastated. Bella meant the world to all of us.

‘I’m not ready to give up on her,’ I said, determined.

Bella was so happy and full of life, it seemed unfair to cut it so short.

But the surgery wasn’t going to come cheap, and our pet insurance didn’t cover anything to do with Bella’s legs as she’d had the condition from birth. We’d have to find the

REAL LIFE

On the mend

y for n our e wanted d with it. urgery t aro

to do

‘Well, we’ll have to dip in the wedding fund to cover costs,’ Gareth said.

We did have some savin but it was supposed to be f our wedding day.

We’d been saving since w got engaged in 2018.

We hadn’t booked anyth yet, but we’d planned on getting hitched in 2020.

It was important to us, b Bella needed to come first Although, money was already tight for us.

I’d just had a hysterecto after suffering with crippli endometriosis, and it mea had to take six months off to recover.

We’d still managed to sa £7,000 for the wedding between us, but with everything else going on, w didn’t have enough for the surgery for Bella.

Whatever we had was now going towards Bella’s op, but we didn’t need to think twice about it.

I know it might seem crazy to spend that amount of

Best of friends

sure Bella was OK was the most important thing to all of us.

But, even after all that, we still didn’t have enough to spare.

‘I have an idea,’ I said to Gareth, as we discussed how else we could raise the money. ‘What if we start a GoFundMe page?’ ‘It’s worth a shot,’ Gareth agreed.

With that I set up a age and before long, onations started ooding in.

It started with family nd friends but after etting a bit of local press, rangers even started onating to us.

People were so generous nd kind.

I’d do the same for my g, one user mmented. Get well soon lla , another nator added. Every time I ecked on e page, the nations

med to just be ng up d up. We couldn’t believe it. ‘This is all for you, Bella’ I said to her, as she curled up on the sofa one afternoon. Everyone’s donations Bristol and took Bella in for the big op.

I hated the thought of her having more surgery and hoped this would finally work.

Thankfully all went well, and after a few days of being monitored, she was able to come home.

We were all so relieved. Once home, Bella went from strength to strength.

She soon started to move around, and before long she was running about in the garden again.

It was wonderful to see her doing so well.

We have to make sure she’s careful, as she still has more surgery to go, but so far, she’s doing great.

Next, we’ve got to save around £3,500 for them to operate on the other leg.

We just hope it finally does the trick for her. I’m so grateful to everyone who has donated to our GoFundMe Page so far. Without them, I don’t know where we’d be. For now, the wedding is on hold for a while, but we don’t mind at all. We’ve spent everything we had on Bella, but we’d do it all over again if we had to. The wedding will happen when it happens. Bella is like my baby, and I wouldn’t haveit any other way.  To donate to Bella’s surgery fund visit www.gofundme.com/f/ bellas-specialist-surgery Soon, strangers were sending us money to help Bella

Bella is like my baby