Claurice's Story!

Hello, My Name is Claurice. I was rescued 11 wonderful years ago from a shelter by the most loyal people! When I got to the shelter, I was a mess.

You see, my first owner neglected me and made me scared everyday. He would kick me and beat me just because he was angry and I was there so he took it out on me. I was left on the streets fighting for my life as a very young puppy eating out of trash cans and sleeping under cars just to stay alive. Left in the cold and harsh weather it is amazing I even survived. But somehow, God had a plan for me even though I was just a dog! When I came to the shelter I was covered with grease from sleeping under cars and i had ticks and fleas everywhere! The shelter said they thought my color was black or brown cuz that is what i looked like when they found me. They gave me warmed and real food and cleaned me up. I felt like I had been taken to a palace at this point. I was there for about 4 days or so and thought I might be euthanized cuz they were overcrowded and I knew I could not stay long. People came in and just passed me by and I was getting pretty scared!

Oh Please, Oh Please pick me!!! I can be a good dog! I Promise! I was a good dog before, really but my owner was mad at the world and for that he would take it out on me but please, I really am a good dog!!! HELP!!! Then, as if God helped me once again, there she was! This nice girl came in with her husband and when I saw them I sat right up real nice for them. She looked at me and I looked back at her with my big brown eyes that were screaming, RESCUE ME! She grabbed my paperwork on my kennel and told a worker at the shelter that she wanted to take me outside for a walk. I was very excited and jumped up wagging my tale. I knew I had to be real good cuz this was my chance to get out of the shelter cuz remember, they were going to put me to sleep, FOREVER!!!

This nice girl took me outside and I walked real gentle for her. When she walked, I walked and when she stopped, I did, too! Now remember I had no real training of this prior cuz my last owner was mean and would not teach me anything! I was a perfect puppy for this nice girl and she fell in love with me and I fell in love with her and her husband who was so very nice. They both came back into the shelter with me and said they were taking me home! HOME! I never had a home! The next day they came and picked me up after I was spayed and I got right in the car and sat and looked out the window the whole way home! I was soooo happy! I was moments away from being put down and now, I have a real home! The first couple weeks my new best friend taught me all kinds of tricks and helped me become UNAFRAID! I was terrified of a simple tennis ball cuz my first owner would WHIP it at me and it hurt real bad and I would yipe cuz it really hurt! I was also afraid of the basement stairs. You see, I was left in the dark cold basement for days on end without any sunshine and barely any food or water. I was skin and bones, too! Why could someone be so mean when all I ever wanted was somebody to just Love Me like I loved them? Well, this new girl and husband did just that! Boy oh Boy, I felt like ROYALTY! I mean, I got all new toys, I got to stay on the main floor of their nice house and I even got my very own doggy bed with my own comforter and my pillow was fluffed every single night for me! I got fresh food and filtered water every single day! My bowls were cleaned everyday! I got to go for long walks and my favorite was car rides! But not on hot days cuz my new BFF said she would never take me on those days cuz it would get too hot for me and that would be dangerous!

This family spent so much time with me! I was never left outside overnight and I always had room to run and play, I even got to play in the HOUSE! I was real good and learned real fast. I got the run of the house when they were not home cuz I was so good. I never went on their furniture or messed anything! They spent so much free time with me that I never had the need to do anything wrong! They called me the PERFECT DOG! But they never treated me like a "dog" so I never really thought I was one! My Mommy would have long conversations with me and I even tried to talk to her in doggy lingo, she somehow knew what I was saying. I LOVED MY FAMILY and they loved me! My Mommy would even give me massages every night cuz my legs would get stiff from standing on them and playing so much and it felt so good!

One day my Mommy took me to a BANFIELD Clinic for some routine shots and signed up for a wellness plan to help with vet costs for me. It was like a discount program for me.

BANFIELD kept changing vets every time I came in there it seemed somebody else was working with me or treating me. I mean how often can you go through so much help? One day I came in I was not feeling well and became lethargic, My Mommy said. She was real nervous cuz she loved me so much and she always knew when i did not feel good and I had lost some weight. The two vets their did not have a clue on how to help me, I mean I was dehydrated, GIVE ME SOME FLUIDS! They gave my Mommy something to help stimulate my appetite so I would eat and sent me home! Are you kidding me! I needed fluids!

Well, My Mommy was not convinced and got mad so she took me to the only other clinic under this wellness plan in the area and this other vet took one look at me and said I dont see a problem with her weight or her demeanor! ARE YOU SERIOUS, DUDE!! My Mommy left there and gave me some of my favorite treats to try and help me get some nourishment that night. I ate a little and drank a little water but I was still sick. The next day Mommy and Daddy took me back to the first clinic and this new vet (cuz, they were always changing) did not have a clue either. He was just going to send me back home again when my Daddy spoke up and said aren't you going to give her some fluids!!!! This vet said, oh yeah I guess we can do that! Duh! He took me in the back and it hurt cuz my Mommy could hear me yiping but I tried to be good and they gave me a bag of fluids under the skin. Not a slow drip IV which is what i desperately needed!!! I was really dehydrated!

So I went home with my family that day and this was a weekend, so by tuesday my Mommy took me back in cuz I still was not feeling well! The vet who treated me before and knew a little more (not much) than the other 3 vets immediately put me on a slow drip IV for like 5 hours!!! When my Mommy got me back that day I was like a brand new dog! This all happened in like September of 2009. Then in October I came back in and had my annual radiographs done and some bloodwork, it was all routine and on this wellness plan. On the xray it showed a small mass near my abdomen and also a mass near my heart. The vets were all inconclusive to what they thought it was and an ultrasound was done. the ultrasound said it could have been a tumor or neoplasia (CANCER) but here is the fun part - the report from that ultrasound was sent to this clinic and not to my Mommy.

They never told me Mommy or did any further testing to see if it was indeed cancer! Now the mass was real small in 2009 and was treatable. But my Mommy never knew anything about it cuz the vets and ultrasound lady never did a needle biopsy nor was it ever mentioned that it could be done. My Mommy never knew it even existed!! Ok, here is the good part - I got sicker and my Mommy would take me to the clinic like every other week and everytime, they would check for fecel to see if I had worms, which on a couple occasions I did and was treated for that cuz we had rabbits in our yard so that's how that happened. But the bloodwork, remember that? The bloodwork white blood counts and some other stuff came back adnormal or below normal. The clinic told my Mommy I had an infection and gave me medicine, oh how my Mommy hated medicine cuz she knew it destroys the immune system so much that when you get real sick you cannot fight anything off!

She believed in herbs and feeding me a real organic food! Yes, it was more expensive but My Mommy said I was worth every penny! Anyway, the bloodcounts and abnormalities were not an infection at all! The clinic never went further when those readings came up and they always gave me something i did not need for what was really going on with me. they said i was not eating cuz i had food allergies, then they said it was an infection and then they said it might be worms! All of which were not true! Now all this time, my Mommy is coming in every other week saying there is no change for the better and please help my dog she is still sick!! They kept checking the feces samples even though it kept coming up negative for any problems of worms. Oh yeah, for about 2 months now, I have had blood in my stool, a clear sign that leads to cancer. My Mommy told the vets this and you could see it in my stool real good, but they kept saying it was an infection of some sort and prescribed a medicine for it even though they did not know what kind of infection I had. How could you give medicine for something when you dont even know what you are treating!!!?? My Mommy would cry alot but she tried so hard to not let me see it but i knew her well and knew when she was sad and she knew when i was sick too!

So Mommy finally got so fed up cuz this went ont for like months and nobody was helping her. She went to these vets cuz they are suppose to offer solutions or advice or referrals or whatever to help me, but they did not!It is a wonder I held on so long the way I was, i mean I lost 15 pounds in like 4 months which is a lot for me! She went in one day in May 2010 and took all my xrays and reports and paperwork out of this clinic and took me to another vet (not in any wellness plan) and they spent a great deal of time with my Mommy. He looked at the original xrays in October 2009 and saw the mass as clear as day! He also did a full physical on me and felt a very profound mass under my abdomen (this clinic in the wellness plan never ever did this) He said we need to do something for Claurice and take a ultrasound to make sure that is or is not cancer. he also said we can do a needle biopsy to make sure as well! So the ultrasound was done at another clinic cuz this vet did not do them there and the findings were now confirmed that the original mass that was seen in october of 2009 had now grown and spread to more organs and was multiple masses! My Mommy was told by the vet who did the ultrasound that the small mass in october could have been treated!!!! I was given 4 to 6 weeks to live. I had become so sick that when I went to the wellness clinic March, I weighed around 42 pounds. Back in October I was 54 pounds!! By May I was 35!!! You see, I was still healthy and full of life even in january though losing weight. In October of 2009, they could have operated and saved me! June 15th, 2010 I said goodbye to my Mommy! She cried real hard, I thought my Mommy would never be ok again!

You see My Mommy never saw me as a pet. I had a full family name, My real name is Claurice Marie Kumm. My Mommy never saw me as property she owned or something to just keep her company when she was lonely. She knew she had a responsibility to take care of a living breathing life! She saw me as a person. Do you know that vets can misdiagnose, do wrong surguries and there is no malpractice that can be done cuz the states see it as a pet is simply property and nothing more? So vets can pretty much do whatever they want and they are protected! What about me! What about my rights?? But now, My Mommy is helping my story come alive and she is actually going to legislators and congress to pass my bill! But this would be a bill for all animal lovers, not just me!! She is even going to write a book which will be very cool, though i cannot tell you about it now, you'll have to stay tuned here for more details! It is amazing how she has taken her pain and is using it to be pro active and fighting to make sure this does not happen again! Her goal also is to make sure that these vets who did not do their job, are stopped!! So they can never do this to someone else! So, I guess I really do live on, I guess I really did matter! I just wish that I could have been around to see My Mommy get these things done! You may think it was my time but don't tell my Mommy that! She will stop you in your tracks! She believes that i was wrongfully diagnosed and I was a vibrant happy dog in November, December and January and that I was suppose to stay for at least 5-6 more healthy years at least! I was a 12 year old 6 year old and had all puppy in me!! Had I gone to a different vet in even January, I would have been alive!!! So be careful what you say to My Mommy, cuz she will keep fighting and wont let anyone get in her way until this bill is passed! So my question to you is, what are you doing about it???? Your job is to sign the petition and remember, if you don't treat your animal like ROYALTY, then you have no business having one!!

One Voice- THE VISION

The absolute Vision for One Voice is to make everyone aware of the lack of rights that animals have. This is NOT another Animal Rights activist wanting to sound off. It is an actual petition based group that is geared to make sure that what happened to Claurice, never happens again! That she, along with many thousands and millions of animals never be left with this kind of fate! Also, we are determined to establish new laws that are more strict for those who decide they want to abuse or neglect an animal of any kind! We will make a difference one voice, one person, one animal, at a time!

This is not another Animal Rights Coalition or another extremist trying to simply be heard. This is a direct plan to Adopt a Bill strictly to allow animals real rights under the Laws of the State. Right now there are no real laws that truly protect an animal from cruelty, neglect or even malpractice, which by the way is one of the biggest problems yet!

Did you know that if your vet whom you supposedly trust with your furry beloved friend messes up or treats that friend badly or improperly, that your furry friend and you have no rights to sue that vet? I bet you did not know that? Or maybe you did and do not care! Personally, if you are one of the thousands who have pets and do not care, SHAME ON YOU! You should not have a pet at all! Sound harsh! Did you get offended? Good! This is a WAKE UP CALL for ALL OF US!

I admit, I could certainly step it up a notch or two myself, that is why I am so FULL SPEED AHEAD on passing this bill! I decided a long time ago that there are really only two kinds of people in this world, those that are for you and those who are against you!

Personally, I don't spend a whole lot of time with those who are against me, after all, they will always be there! Lurking, fuming, trying to find ways to stop you from doing what you know needs to be done. They are the ones who sit around complaining about how bad things are, how horrible there lives are or making fun of you because they know what you are doing is awesome and they are simply mad because they only thought about doing something and never did. Well, that is the fault of themselves and they, alone.

The ones who do something are those who have maybe tried and failed, but nonetheless, have tried. They are the ones with maybe little knowledge to those who have great knowledge and give it their all either way. They accept the challenges before them with joy knowing they will eventually reach the goal even if it takes a while. They don't sit around with a bunch of what ifs with a bad attitude to boot! They are pretty positive and are much happier than the former ones mentioned before! They take initiative and are motivated and find every opportunity no matter how small it may seem at the time. These are the people who make the difference.

This bill is not for the faint of heart or the weary! It's not for those who think their life is really all about them!