A "HOME RUN" FOR SUNSHINE
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

She was all alone, badly injured, and very scared of people. But the little yellow lab mix captured hearts all across the U.S., beginning with Consuelo Perales in San Antonio, TX. Consuelo knew the little dog, had seen her in the past playing in a neighbor's yard with numerous neighborhoods children. Then, suddenly, the neighbors were gone and, for a while, so was the little dog. Then the dog was back, either lying forlornly in the yard of the now empty house or roaming the neighborhood, shying away from people but scrounging for food. She had been injured and was limping, putting almost no weight on one of her back legs. Consuelo started leaving bowls of food and water for her under the front gate of her fenced yard. Over several weeks of trying to entice her to eat and drink, Consuelo called the little dog Sunshine II, after a beloved dog she and her family had taken in as a stray and lost to old age years previously.

As the days passed, Sunshine became more comfortable eating and drinking from the bowls Consuelo left for her. Consuelo and her husband kept their own dogs in the house to make Sunshine feel even more comfortable. They eventually opened their gate to try to get her inside their yard, but she would only eat and run, never hanging around if anyone came near.

Then Sunshine's tummy began to grow and her limp became more and more pronounced, an injury likely resulting from being hit by a car. Consuelo would stand on the porch and talk to her while she ate or drank. Slowly Sunshine seemed to relax and began lying down in the gateway, holding Consuelo's eyes as she talked to her.
Consuelo and her husband felt a great empathy for this injured dog who was obviously going to have a very hard time delivering pups. As time drew near for the pups delivery, Sunshine slowly allowed Consuelo and her granddaughter, Rebekkah, to get closer. The day the puppies started coming, Sunshine finally came into the Perales' yard and lay down on the soft bed they had made for her. They had taken in stray dogs many times before, but always had them spayed or neutered, so they had no experience with a dog giving birth. Fortunately, their granddaughter did. By evening, Consuelo and Rebekkah had helped Sunshine deliver and clean three puppies. Sunshine struggled and they could tell her injured hip and leg were causing her a lot of pain, making the births even more difficult. In a few hours there were three more puppies and, by morning, the last three had arrived. Now there were nine puppies and a very exhausted, bleeding mama who was obviously in a great deal of pain.
Consuelo's daughter Michelle saw the difficulty Sunshine was having. "The mother dog almost died during labor as her hip probably did not open enough to deliver the pups. She bled a great deal. We were afraid she would die so we took her to the vet. The vet confirmed Sunshine's hip was dislocated and, without x-rays, said that her leg would probably need to be amputated."

Believing that more diagnostic work was necessary but knowing that her family could not afford it, Michelle started looking for help. She found the websites for The Mosby Foundation and another group, LabMed, which funds vet care for rescued Labrador Retrievers and some Lab mixes.

"Please help," her email read. "My parents are elderly and disabled and on Medicaid and Social Security." Mosby founder Carole Adams forwarded the email to Sharon Dyer in Northern Virginia who had recently volunteered to take applications. After the teamwork of three generations of the Perales family, Sunshine's team was now growing.
LabMed board members gave personal funds to get a second opinion on Sunshine's hip and leg. The new vet felt the leg could be saved at the same cost the first vet wanted for the amputation, and believed the first vet had badly misassessed Sunshine's injuries. Mosby Foundation members went to work raising money for the surgery and LabMed agreed to contribute toward the costs. But the vet felt Sunshine first needed time to recover from the birth and that the puppies should be weaned before the surgery was done.

Michelle knew her parents were not able to care for the weak mother and her nine pups while Sunshine gained strength, and certainly not during her long recovery from the difficult orthopedic surgery. Sunshine wasn't feeding all the pups fully and, at the vet's recommendation, Consuelo had been helping by bottle-feeding the pups. But her degenerative disc disease made the bending and lifting to pick up and feed the pups very painful for her. And her husband's heart disease meant that he couldn't take on the constant work needed to care for the new family. Everyone started trying to find a rescue group that would be willing to take on the difficult foster of Sunshine and her pups.

Then Mosby's Sharon Dyer threw what she calls her "Hail Mary pass." She sent out numerous email pleas to rescuers, and the outgoing ripples of her plea fell on open ears. Within hours, Bonney Williams at Etosha Rescue and Adoption Center, an animal sanctuary in Seguin, Texas, responded.

Bonney agreed to take Sunshine and her pups and to get Sunshine through her surgery and follow-up care. She had done it all before, but her group was hard pressed for funds so she needed assurance that the money for the surgery and the dogs' care would come with them. Both The Mosby Foundation and LabMed were able to offer those assurances, and the transfer of Sunshine and her family took place about four weeks after the birth of the pups.

Within a few more weeks, the puppies were weaned and Sunshine had come through her surgery successfully. Soon all the puppies except one had been placed in approved forever homes, adopted by people Bonney had placed dogs with previously. And Sunshine's surgery clearly had been successful - - she was using her leg, even being able to chase after a delivery man! Sunshine and her remaining puppy, "Piper," are being adopted by one of Bonney's cousins.

The story of Sunshine is one of hard times, hard work and the results that a group of caring people can achieve. Abandoned, injured, pregnant, Sunshine was lucky enough to encounter the animal-loving Perales family, whose own situation made it very tough for them to give the unstinting aid they poured onto her. As Sharon Dyer puts it, "So often these Good Samaritans are themselves struggling." Then, through those Samaritans, Sunshine encountered The Mosby Foundation and its generous donors, as well as those of LabMed. Finally, Etosha Rescue and its stable of adopters graced the life of Sunshine and her little family.

Sunshine, a victim of her first family's hard times and abandonment, found her team that enabled her to make the run HOME.