Text Box: I lost Tara, my first rescue, on May 4th, 2003 to heartworm treatment. She had a very hard time with it and she went into kidney failure. Tara passed away exactly three years to the day where I had to put my Annie down. Ironically, Tara had passed on approximately the same time that Annie was put down. Knowing this, I'm sure that Annie came as Tara's angel to bring her to the Bridge. For this reason, I Chose to duplicate "Annie's Song" for Tara. This is Tara's story. I picked Tara up in early February from a shelter where she was turned in with another Collie. She had been bred since the first day she could have puppies and they just kept pumping puppies out of her until a concerned relative pulled Tara and her mate from the situation and turned them over to the shelter. Tara had been so over bred that she was undernourished, very weak and very frail. She had even killed her last litter of eight, all being deformed due to her pathetic condition. I treated her for malnutrition until I thought she was strong enough to undergo heartworm treatment. The day she came home from her first initial treatment you could tell that she was having a bad time with it so we kept her very quiet and a watchful eye on her. A week later on a Sunday evening she coughed up a blood clot the size of a quarter. She appeared very weak afterwards so I just kept her in that night rather than walk her and kept an eye on her. The next day in the afternoon, she coughed up a foamy substance filled with blood. I called the vet and immediately rushed her in where I was told she had an aneurysm. He gave her an injection and I was able to bring her home with instructions to give her prednisone once a day until gone and to keep her absolutely quiet. Three weeks later it came time for her second treatment. She seemed to deal with it better this time around but a week later I took her out for her walk after feeding and noticed that she was very sluggish and did not look well. I brought her back inside and immediately called the vet and she was immediately rushed back into the clinic. He gave her an injection and again I was able to bring her home. The next morning I took her for her walk and she was still very sluggish, had trouble holding herself up, was walking like she was intoxicated and had even stumbled over on two occasions. Again I called the vet and she was rushed in once again. He had said that she had another aneurysm and he wanted to put her on a drip. That afternoon I called and was told that I could pick her up. When I arrived at the vet and they brought her out I could tell that she was still having trouble walking and had trouble standing. They paged the vet who was on a house call and while waiting I kept an eye on Tara only to notice that her condition was worsening. She started to stagger and stumble over and even walked into walls.

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