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Help Daisy The Burned Dog

"When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem." -- Edward Abbey

It all started at the tail end of last week, when I received this rather disturbing email from a fairly new subscriber (he actually signed up on my birthday, ironically as that is...) I was a little skeptical at first, and I wanted to believe what he was telling me was too absurd to be true.

Unfortunatly, this is one of those cases where truth is stranger, and infinitely more cruel, than fiction.

And so I went to the website, looked at the pictures, read the story, and got pretty pissed off. And you know when I get pissed off, bad things happen.

http://www.hsnt.net

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/3591257.htm

In twenty words or less, Daisy is a 10 month old dog who was a'ramblin around her neighborhood and happened to wander into a neighbor's yard. Said neighbor didn't much appreciate Daisy's presence, so after a few unsuccessful attempt to shoo her off his property, he got another bright idea. And so, he doused Daisy with gasoline and set her on fire.

You know, because *that* seems a totally fucking rational thing to do.

Fort Worth Police responded to the scene, and called the Humane Society of North Texas, who took ownership of the dog. She was then transferred to a 24-hour veterinary hospital, where she remains, in very guarded health.

Her feet and lower legs must stay bandaged, except for swirling hot tub sessions. Dead and dying tissue has to be massaged and scrubbed from her body after it's softened by the sessions in swirling hot tub. Ointment that should stimulate the tissue to regrow and help fiight infection is applied, followed by yet another bandage. She's in such bad shape that even the lifesaving medicines she needs so desperately can cause her harm in the long run -- the antibiotics she is being treated with to fend off a lethal infection are so powerful she has to be constantly monitored for damage to her kidneys (renal failure). The fire burned all the tissue around her ears and eyes, including her cornea. The vets are still concerned that she may never completely regain her eyesight.

All because some ASSHOLE decided to set her on fire because he didn't want her in his yard. Like we don't have enough fucked up things in this world to deal with already.

As a testament to this dog's unbreakable spirit and willingness to please, less than two weeks after this encounter with unspeakable cruelty, Daisy is up and walking (on burned paws) under her own power, managing to eat and drink for herself, and even managed a tail wag from time to time.

I've been in contact with Jamey Cantrell, the operations manager for the Humane Society of North Texas since last week, and was able to speak with him regarding Daisy's progress, and her ever increasing bill for her care.

What else can I say?

There are many of you out there who don't agree with me on many key issues of the recent months -- our reactions to terrorism, hippies displaying flags incorrectly, the Pledge of Allegiance, just to name a few. In fact, plenty of you consider me an asshole, and that's okay with me. But I think we all can agree that you don't set a fucking dog on fire.

Those of you who are longtime members of EHOWA know that you can usually count on both ears the number of times that I ask you to reach into your own pocket for money. Those of you who are new, will learn this soon enough.

I am hereby adding Daisy to that list of things worthy of our focused attention.

I am personally asking each and every one of you, to please, reach into your pocket and donate a few dollars to the Humane Society of North Texas to help pay for the cost of Daisy's care. While it is too late to prevent Daisy from being attacked, it is not too late to help control the amount of lasting damage that was done. You can donate money to them via two ways...

1. The easiest of course is via Paypal using this link...

https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=hsnt@hsnt.net

or

2. Send a check via US Mail to...

If you do make a donation to Daisy, and I sincerely hope that you all do, please drop me a note to daisy@ehowa.com I'd like to keep a running tally of the amount of donations from EHOWA subscribers. I'll be dedicating this on EHOWA to keep everyone informed of Daisy's most current status and post any updates I receive from other sources.

My thanks to Brad for bringing this to my attention, and to veterinarian Dr K. Head (longtime EHOWA subscriber) for getting the inside scoop and breaking it down into "dumb speak".

I thank you all in advance for your generosity.

Ernie

Well kids, we did it.

I had a phone conversation with Jamey from the Humane Society yesterday evening, and I'm pleased to report they are completely inundated with donations, which is a good thing.

Just from people donating via this website, we've managed to raise $10,300 in just over 24 hours...even now we're closing in on $13,000. In three words, WE KICK ASS.

Comfortable that Daisy's medical expenses will be covered, Jamey reports that it's okay for people to hold off on further donations for her at this time! He also reports that any donated money left over after Daisy's bills are all settled, will be used to fund their Cruelty Investigation Unit, and hopefully keep other Daisy's from happening.

I would suggest however, for any of you who still feel the "need for speed" and have to scratch their their donation-itch, you donate whatever you had earmarked for Daisy, instead to your town's local Humane Society. Remember they all are funded completely off donations.

As of yesterday, the docs were starting to remove the bandages around Daisy's legs, and were very pleasantly suprised to see new tender pink tissue already growing. Thanks to a aid of a pain patch that is sewn into her skin every 72 hours, she isn't feeling much of the agony she would otherwise feel from her burns. And while she's certainly not up and chasing balls, she is moving aroud without too much discomfort. An additional positive sign is she is beginning to open her eyes when she's moving around and walking around objects (as opposed to bumping into them when she first arrived) which is a good indication to her improving eyesight.

In short, things are certainly looking up for our poor barbecued dog.

The vets say, with the exception of some ugly scars, they expect this poor pooch to make a full and complete recovery. And since she has so many people willing to help out, she won't be marching down that long road alone. What she needed desperately needed to survive when this whole ordeal began was money, care, and time. We all certainly took care of the money, the staff at the veterinary hospital are providing the care, and well, time is time.

Reports of Daisy's progress will be frustratingly slow going from here on out. As much as I'd like to, I won't be able to say that by this time tomorrow she'll be up and dancing, unfortunately. Nay, instead Daisy's progress will be something to the effect of, "Daisy walked around for 10 minutes today before getting all tired out and having to be carried back to her kennel, where as three days ago she could only walk for 8."

And so with promised weekly updates from Jamey at HSNT, I'll be updating this page with the same frequency. Suffice to say for now, we all can be very pleased not only with ourselves but with Daisy's recovery. Thank you all.

Oh, and one more thing... if anyone in the Dallas/Ft Worth area can find out when Robert Aretz Lindsay's court dates are, I'd be more than happy to post them here so we can arrange a "burn fucker burn!" cheering section during his trial.

Yeah I know, before I took off for the weekend, I asked everyone *not* to set their dogs on fire. It appears someone took advantage of my vague wording to find a loophole for other activities... Can I please get a collective "What the fuck is wrong with people?"

Okay, just got the following letter and picture in from our friends at the HSNT with an update on Daisy.. (sorry it wasn't posted sooner, but again I was away...

Okay, for those of you who want to see it, here's the picture. But be forewarned, personally, I found it a little more disturbing that the first ones we had of her...Daisy on 7/15/2002

Well, as promised, we're doing our best to get weekly updates on Daisy's progress.

This ones comes with good news; Daisy is doing well, and some very graphic pictures that really bring into focus the magnitude of the cruelty of what was done to her. Those weak of heart may want to skip the pics.

So without futher blithering by me, here's the latest email from Jamey from HSNT:

So there you have it folks. The little guy can really make a difference eveny now and again, eh?

And as promised, here are the pictures. Warning, they are increasingly graphic... the first one of a full size view of the thumbnail picture above. The second is Daisy's well done backside. And the third, which I must warn you is EXTEMELY GRAPHIC and I would NOT recommend viewing if you've got little kids in the room, is of Daisy's more than well done underside. Ow doesn't quite cover it.

I do have a few people working on getting court info for the guy who did it, so please, stay tuned.

Great news time two!

The first half, is Daisy will most likely be released from the veterinary hospital in about a week or so.

And on the second half, the worthless fuck who did it has been indicted!

Here's the latest email from Jamey from HSNT:

And yes, I am still working on getting the court dates. As soon as I do, I'll post em!

Robert Lindsay -- the asshole who set daisy on fire is scheduled to be in court on September 19 at 9:00am before Judge Joseph Drago III in the Tarrant County District Courthouse, courtroom 4.

Thanks D.G. for the info!

Daisy is international now. As translated the article net.nana.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=3721 written all the way over in Tel Aviv, Israel. Here's the (rough) translation into English.

A Final Word on Daisy

Can be found here. She is doing terrific! Thanks to EVERYONE who donated...we raised over $13,000!