Handsome Dan was rushed to the emergency room on Friday after vomiting up blood.
His mom, Heather Gutshall, said on Facebook that he is in the intensive care unit, awaiting diagnostic tests. She said he will be spending the night at the vet’s office.
It is painfully poignant timing. This week marked the ninth anniversary of Handsome Dan and 50 other dogs being freed from Michael Vick’s dog fighting operation, Bad Newz Kennels.
Dan, and many of the others, have gone on to lead remarkably normal lives as well-loved pets—and in so doing, have proved to the world that dogs rescued out of fighting should be given the chance to really live.
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But the Vicktory dogs—as this incredible group is called—haven’t completely escaped the ramifications of what was done to them. Dan and other former Vick dogs suffer from a a blood disease called babesia, that can be treated not cured, and is linked to the horror of their early lives.
“I am beside myself with worry right now and ask that you all keep my best friend in your thoughts and prayers,” Heather wrote on Dan’s Facebook page.
We are all thinking of you, Handsome Dan, and your whole family.
