“Dr. Anderson and Dr. White of Diamond W Equine
were on the way. In the meantime, we dried her off
and had a heater on her trying to keep her warm….
Everything we took out there was quickly soaked and
we needed more,” Sherry continued. “I was speaking to
Lewis on the phone, he told me to get our goose down
comforter off the bed. I told Brandon to go inside and get
it off the bed, he hesitated and said ‘Really?’… ‘Yes,’”
Sherry said. When Brandon returned with the blanket,
they wrapped her up tight and she wore it for the next
two days.
To get milk to the baby, they had to think fast. “I
remembered I just bought my grandkids a new bottle
set so I grabbed it along with a syringe,” said Sherry.
It worked, the baby was being fed. When Sherry was
thanking Lisa, Lisa said, “I knew there was a reason I was
supposed to come here today, I didn’t know what that
reason was, but now I do.”
They got Jazzy and Sandi to the Weatherford Equine
Center, but things did not look promising. Distraught,
Sherry knew she couldn’t make the decision alone and
although Lewis was jumping through hoops trying to get a
flight out of Alabama, he would end up having to drive to
Atlanta to catch the first flight home the following morn-
ing. They were both praying Sandi would make it. On his
way to the airport, Lewis was talking to God.
“I prayed and prayed,” Lewis said. “I asked God to
please show me a sign, anything … to tell me what to do,
I don’t know what to do! But then I thought, ‘How would
I trust to know that the sign was really him, knowing how
badly I wanted her to live?’ It had to be something else,
so I asked God to change the doctors’ minds.”
The next day when the doctors went to check on
Sandi, they were surprised to see her looking much more
alert and lively. Sherry had gone home long enough to
shower and change clothes and was back talking with
the doctors. Sandi’s vitals were stable and her lungs were
developed enough that she could breathe on her own.
Sherry was holding on to hope. Lewis arrived and listened
to the doctor’s update.
“I thought we were going to have to make a deci-
sion on whether or not we had to put her down, but the
conversation said otherwise,” he said. After explaining
the pros and cons of keeping her alive, the vets asked
what the Paulks wanted to do. Lewis asked, “What do
you think, because yesterday we were told she prob-
ably wouldn’t make it?” Dr. Qualls responded after some
thought, “I think I’ve changed my mind.” That was all
Lewis and Sherry had to hear, Lewis’s prayer had been
answered.
They met Damaris (Dee) Hochanadel, a registered
veterinary technician internal medicine specialist who
had last worked in California at UC Davis Veterinary
Medical Teaching Hospital in the Equine Neonatal
Critical Care Unit. She would start working with Sandi
right away. Because Sandi was born so early, she was the
only preemie checked in at Weatherford Equine. With a
Continued on page 90
Weatherford Parker County Animal Shelter
Giving Second Chances
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$1.65 Million Goal
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37