01/24/2026
*Update: Marley’s is feeling like her old self again🥰. Thank you for the kindness and compassion in your comments and DM’s. Those amazing vet clinics saved my dogs life! 📸Photo of her progress in comments below.
This is a bit of a lengthy post but there a number of things I need to address and shoutouts to some really wonderful people in our community:
1. Our AMAZING team at Uptown Animal Hospital Salmon Arm (Dr. Taryn Cass, Dr. Nicole, Ashley De Vos, Maleah Dibblee & Robyn Binks) - those are only the women I’m linked into, there are many more behind the scenes and manning the phones in that incredible clinic.
2. The power of prayer, setting intention, letting go of control, facing your fears and digging deep.
3. Gratitude for wonderful friends/neighbors in Silver Creek who are like family.
4. Teamwork between Uptown Animal Hospital-Salmon Arm and Fairfield Animal Hospital-Kelowna.
Last week, we got a text from our dog-minders/neighbors/pseudo adopted daughters stating our GSD “wasn’t herself” and wasn’t eating. That is very strange behavior for my happy, well-balanced, lovely natured dog. They felt she needed to see our vet at Uptown. Our vet clinic whistled her in right away and it went downhill from there. Marley was not responding to treatment, we were coming into a weekend, my husband and I were in Central America (not due home for 4 more days) and our local vets (Dr. Cass & Dr. Nicole) really felt like she needed more care from a 24 hour emergency vet hospital. The decision was made and Uptown Animal Hospital loaded my dog into THEIR vehicle and raced her over to Kelowna (how’s that for outstanding customer service?!). They liaised with the surgeon there whilst we were on the line from Costa Rica (to ensure clear communication and that we were comfortable with the hand-off) and a plan was put into action. My pup was going in for emergency abdominal surgery at 10:00 pm that night.
I have cried an ocean of tears - this was horribly stressful and very scary for us. Being in a 3rd world country when crisis hits is awful. Handing over control (and your visa) and trusting strangers to save the life of your pup is distressing to say the least. Not to mention communication is at best, dodgy and challenging. The guilt and angst was out-of-this-world.
2 hours on the operating table and another call in the middle of the night to update us on her condition. She was very, very sick. They prepared us for the worst - the surgery was involved and she was septic. They cleaned everything out and stabilized her. I was vastly relieved and said as much to the vet, she was quick to correct me, “she’s not out of the woods yet”, she stated (which was a bit deflating) but at that moment I took the small wins.
There is a lot of power in spirituality and prayer. Warren and I have done A LOT of it in the past week🙏. I hit my knees in Costa Rica and begged God to save her, thankfully the ocean of tears and vulnerability worked.
For now, she is home, healing and very happy and back to being herself. My biggest fear was her dying alone in a cage surrounded by strangers thinking we‘d abandoned her💔.
My pup and I returned to Uptown today for a follow up appt, Dr. Cass and her team were very pleasantly surprised to see my GSD looking so “well”. They were/are deeply invested in this case and felt distressed that we were so far away at the time when this unfolded. They know our dogs (and us) well - that tends to happens when you have 3 of my breed. The care my dogs receive from them is exceptional💕
So HUGE shoutout and love to our wonderful team at Uptown Animal Hospital. Unfortunately oftentimes the vets and their staff take a lot of heat from upset/stressed owners and they dont get the recognition they absolutely deserve. The Gages are so very grateful for our team at Uptown and for the team at Fairfield in Kelowna❤️ Uptown literally saved our pups life by racing her to Kelowna. During that drive the abscess in her intestine ruptured, by the time they arrived in Kelowna she was septic.
Dr . Franzi Ruter the amazing vet Fairfield Animal Hospital saved her on the operating table. She was supposed be done her shift when she called us but stayed to open my dog up and worked a miracle in the O.R. (Again, outstanding service by another epic human).
Thank you Teresa Porteous and Curtis Porteous for raising such solid girls whom we love endlessly and trust with our home and animals❤️
Thank you Emily Alberts/Demilles for supporting Kayla and allowing her time off from work to deal with this whole debacle. And thank you to our wonderful patients who know about this situation and have shown such kindness and concern for our fur-baby🩷
Grateful for such top-shelf humans and outstanding professionalism in our local businesses that surround us in Salmon Arm/Silver Creek/Okanagan. 20 years ago we took a chance on settling in the Shuswap and opening our practice. We love our community and feel very blessed that we get to call this place “home”.
