We understand!

We know how hard it is to have long working hours, hectic travel schedules, last-minute plans, newborns, and much more that can affect the time you have for your fur babies. Friendly Critters Club was created to help those and prevent surrendering pets. It was also created on the fact that the owner was gifted with “special” pets and wanted to help those that are in the same shoes.

Owner

Animals have always been a massive part of my life. They’ve helped me get through life and made me understand how precious they are. I am an aunt to one dog, four cats, one chinchilla, and one sugar glider. Most importantly, I have two adorable yorkies, the face of Friendly Critters Club, Princess and Rocky. They are the reason why I am majoring in veterinary and business.

My yorkies are “special” and I will tell you why.

Princess

This feisty, bossy, CRAZY, and emotional support (NOT a service animal) doggy came into my life at the end of fifth grade. She was the first dog that I could call mine and name.

I would take her anywhere I was allowed to and stayed home many times just to be with her. As she got older, Princess developed tracheal collapse and is at the beginning stage of kidney failure. My family and I had to stop taking her to the groomers because she ended up needing oxygen after her last appointment. Walking her is a process in order to prevent her tracheal from acting up. We’ve been administering medicine early on and she’s been living many years with no decrease in her health. My baby girl means the world to me. She is this special 5lbs dog that thinks of herself as a massive dog and becomes a protector when there is a stranger in the house or when one of is sick. She has been the rock for not only me but for my parents. She is the type of dog that will shower you with kisses when you are crying, in pain, feeling lonely, bored, or just happy. Even though she is 13 years old and has some health problems, she acts like a puppy and is no pain but a pain in the butt when it comes to brushing her teeth and grooming her at home. We give her the best life that we can possibly give her.

Rocky

This bow-legged boy came into the picture in April 2015. He was the opposite of Princess: shy, not so lovable, and cautious. As time went on, he started to open up and act like how a puppy should. He started giving us kisses, discovered his foot fetish, and stepped backward before coming towards us a majority of the time. He was getting along with Princess (she was the bully), and we were all beyond happy. It was June 2016 when his health suddenly declined after applying a certain flea and tick medicine. He started walking very slowly, and his energy was nonexistent. We took him to, at the time, our usual veterinarian. There wasn’t much the vet could do since she was uncertain of what was happening. I started looking up the symptoms to see what specialist we should take him to. It was decided that we would take him to a neurologist since he was showing many neurological issues. It wasn’t long until we had to urgently take him to a vet neurologist the moment he started having seizures (or what looked like them). We thought there was nothing that could be done since we couldn’t afford to get certain scans done for him to get the right diagnosis, BUT after I told the wonderful neurologist how many of Rocky’s symptoms matched encephalitis, he gave us an option, a key to a hopeful door. After explaining the side effects of the medicines, treatment without an exact diagnosis, and his very low survival rate (we weren’t even sure if he would make it through the night), Rocky was treated as if he had encephalitis. He was hospitalized for what seemed like forever and wore a bell to let staff know if he was having a seizure. After calling and visiting him every day, there came a day when he was discharged. He was skin and bones, his hair had to be shaved because of how matted he got, and he was relearning how to stand and walk, but we were elated to have him home. Even though he was discharged, he still needed 24/7 care at home and many visits to the neurologist for his medicine. I would spend many nights sleeping on an air mattress next to his playpen to make sure he was still breathing and clean up whenever he would defecate or pee himself. We knew he was a fighter when he stood on his own and took his first step.

As days went on, we started noticing something odd with his eyes, and he was immediately recommended to an ophthalmologist for animals. One of the medicines that he was taking had caused him to develop ulcers in both eyes. He went into surgery to graft both eyes, but we almost lost him since his body couldn’t handle being under for that long. We medicated the other eye until he fully recovered from his neurological issues, and he had to wear the cone of shame until it was alright to take off. His personality started to come through again, he was playing soccer and going nuts! We were ecstatic and felt we were on the right path! That happiness did not last long. It was late one morning when Rocky was playing soccer when he fell and hit his head on the floor. He was unconscious, and my mother had to give him CPR while my stepfather drove to our neurologist. He was brought back to life but had to be hospitalized again. He was discharged, and after being home for not long, we noticed his ill eye was worse. He was not ready to go under, so Rocky’s eye doctor prescribed a different medicine until it was time to graft the other. It wasn’t until the next day that we had to rush to our ophthalmologist’s second location for emergency surgery because his unwell eye was literally coming out of his eye socket. We had to take a risk. Unfortunately, that eye was unsalvageable and had to be removed. We cried so much and didn’t know how he would live with one eye and if he would recover from the possible encephalitis. About a year or more passed, and Rocky recovered from his neurological disease and could see everything with his one eye. We were elated again and incredibly lucky to have such a strong fighter. In 2019, Rocky started to create bladder stones that were too large to pass. He had to be operated on three times until we finally understood what needed to be done to prevent them from coming again. Rocky had defeated the odds against him numerous times! My parents and I contemplated putting him down many times because we honestly thought he wouldn’t make it until every single time he would show us that he wanted to live. He was named after Rocky Balboa and it truly fitted him. He is now incredibly healthy, and it has been several years since we had to take him in for any emergency. He is now a chunky boy who is food-obsessed, feisty, talks nonstop, awkward, and thinks he is a soccer player. He may be fully recovered, but he does have a few little quirks, and they are the following: a bottomless pit, drools when he sees food or when excited, extra cautious with his surroundings since he only has one eye, and his tongue turns purple in certain situations which means lack of oxygen, but we have learned how to help him in those situations.