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Border Collie Skye's Appeal

Personal Appeal for Border Collie Skye's Fund

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Skye's Fund on August 2008 = £1010.31

A big thank you to all the kind people who bought her Fund greeting cards and/or donated to Skye.

A VERY special thanks to Mary Burke for all her hard work for Skye.

Hello!  I'm Skye little.	Hello!  I'm Skye bigger.	Me with my little sister Breeze	Looking for Squirrels
Doing my hydrotherapy.	Still looking for squirrels.	How do I get this big stick home?	Taking a break in the meadow.
Taking a break in the garden.	Breeze waiting for Skye	Borage waiting for Skye & Breeze	Skye Hunting
Borage posing	A bee which fascinated Skye	June 2008 - Skye Hunting again	June 2008 - Skye the Poser
July 2008 - Skye splashing	Skye watching the Guinea Pigs	July 2008 - Skye's friend Tufty the Guinea Pig	July 2008 - Skye's friend Tommy the Guinea Pig
Skye Paddling & Borage Jumping	Skye Posing again	My mum put the Guinea pigs down here for me to watch 'cos I'm bored lying here while my leg mends.

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend forever.
Author Unknown

Skye is a beautiful young Border Collie, born on a farm in the centre of England on 23 May 2002.  She was adopted at 10 weeks of age and went to live with a 12 year old boy, his younger brother aged eight and his father. However, the family were to find out, over the next few months, that the little pup had some major problems.

When she was a few months old, she started having increasing difficulty rising from a lying down position.  In fact she started to cry out in pain.  Eventually, if she really wanted to move, she sometimes dragged herself across the floor by her elbows rather than go through the pain of trying to stand.  She never sat down but, amazingly, balanced on her front legs while appearing to be adopting a sitting position when told to sit. Her difficulty in walking increased by the week and she gave up playing games. She was unable to climb onto the armchairs, never attempted going upstairs and never jumped up to greet anybody. She did not have to be trained into this behaviour.  It was just too painful for her to do these things. She was a young puppy lying quietly on her bed, like an elderly dog and she was so depressed.

Her Vet diagnosed that she has hip dysplasia in both her hips and prescribed some daily pain medication for her, and swimming therapy to enable her to build up her hip muscles without placing too much strain on her bad hips.

Even with pain medication, with the puppy's increasing size and weight, her pain was also increasing and Skye had to have a bilateral pendectomy operation when she was 7 months old.  This is an operation on both her hips to enable her to walk with less pain.  She was too young to have the full hip replacement operation. The pendectomy operation helped considerably and she started to play again.

Unfortunately, in December 2003, she gave a terrible scream while out walking and, it was discovered that she had dislocated her hip.  Then early in 2004 she dislocated the same hip twice more and at the age of 21 months, the Vet advised the family that she needed both her hips replaced.

This, of course, is where the problem lies.  Each hip costs about £4,000 and Skye's owner is a lone young dad trying to raise his two boys.  He does not have this kind of money but has made a promise to his sons that Skye will not be put to sleep.  He really wants to keep this promise so he is trying to raise enough funds to have Skye's hips replaced.

The family are saving what money they can and the boys are even saving their little bit of weekly allowance for Skye's operations. However, they cannot save much and it will take many years for them to save up enough to get Skye's hips fixed.

Please would you help Skye by donating whatever you can afford.  Even small sums will bring Skye's operation that little bit closer.  If you wish to donate by credit card via Isabel Clark Paintings, just click on the PayPal Donate button under Skye's picture above and follow the instructions. Please make sure you state that your donation is marked for SKYE'S FUND.  You may also send donations by cheque to:- Skye's Fund, c/o Isabel Clark Paintings, 24, Goodman Way, Tile Hill Village, Coventry CV4 9UF.  Please make out your cheques to Skye's Fund and please give your address for acknowledgement of your kind gift.

Thank you all in advance. Skye is a wonderful young Border Collie who has experienced constant pain throughout her short life.  She really deserves a chance to feel what living without pain is like.  To follow Skye's progress, please keep checking on the website. 

2006 - 2008 Update

Skye, whom we had been watching for some years during the day, stayed with us for longer and longer periods and now, it appears, is staying for good.  It is safer we have her with us anyway, as she dislocated her hip 3 times and that would have been disastrous if nobody had been at home.  As I work from home, I can check on her constantly.

In about May 2008, it was discovered that Skye has a heart murmur, which is rather worrying but the vet says it is slight.  We are hoping it does not get too bad.  She has enough problems to deal with.