Lila’s rescue story goes back a few years. In 2022 Lila’s owner lost her job and contacted Westie Rescue of Missouri (WRM) and stated she had lost her job the year before, and she was unable to find a new job. Lila’s dry eye issues had been diagnosed a couple years earlier and she had provided the prescription drops her vet recommendation but was unable to afford her meds. She was also unable to afford food for Lila. She wanted to release Lila to WRM. The owner was truly distraught, and she had been doing her best to care for her.
At WRM we always try and work with owners who really love their Westie, and we try to offer suggestions on what they can do to try and keep their pet. Suggested to Lila’s owner that many food pantries will also provide people with dog food. Could she afford Lila’s eye drops if she didn’t have the expense of food? She said yes, she could. We followed up a few weeks later and she stated she was able to get dog food from the local food pantry and thanked us for WRM help. About a year later Lilia’s owner contacted us again and said the local pantry no longer had dog food to give. We suggested she could home cook but must follow a well-balanced veterinarian approved diet. We supplied her with such a recipe, and she said she could do that and was still able to afford Lila’s eye drops.
About 6 months later she contacted us and said she didn’t have the right ingredients to make the balanced diet given by the vet and had been feeding Lila just tuna she got from food pantry. We agreed to take Lila immediately into rescue but then she refused to answer or calls and text messages. A few months later she called again heartbroken, but she knew releasing Lila’s was in her best interest. We set a time and date to pick Lila up immediately but when we arrived she again had changed her mind she couldn’t bare to let her go. We tried to reason with her and asked that she please reconsider. She would not.
About 6 months later she contacted us again this time saying she was still feeding Lila 1 can tuna a day and admitted she had not been giving Lila her prescription drops and was using an OTC. We moved immediately on it to get Lila but she again changed her mind to release her when we arrived.
A couple months later another call same story. WRM dropped everything and went directly to her home immediately to pick Lila up before owner changed her mind again. I volunteer for WRM for 13 years and was looking for an older Westie to adopt. The owner told me she needed to be an only dog and would fight other dogs. I could not keep her as I have 2 other rescued Westies who are old now so I took her to another WRM volunteer to foster.
After a few days I got a call from Lila’s foster mom telling me how sweet she was, and she got along very well with her other fosters. I picked Lila up from her foster home the next day and she is the sweetest Westie ever not a bad bone in her she gets along perfectly with my old Westies.
I feel bad for Lila’s owner as she loved her, and it was just terrible hard to let her go.
When I got Lila, her eyes were severe from years of not having the correct medication and her health itself wasn’t good from eating a diet of just one can of tuna a day. We love her so much we are thrilled to have Lila as a part of our family, and she has the most beautiful personality and Westie woo-woo ever.
Sue Alley