This 4-6 year old Sammy boy arrived at the shelter with injuries consistent with being hit by a car, but his indomitable spirit and cheerful disposition have him on the mend now. Marshmallow's life is no longer in imminent jeopardy, but he does face a difficult and expensive surgery and recovery. Marshmallow is being cared for by Northern California Sled Dog Rescue.

Marshmallow's hip is fractured, but since he languished in the shelter with the injury for so long, surgery right now isn't feasible. He is mobile, and being kept comfortable with pain medications, but his movement for the next 4-6 weeks will need to be strictly limited. Marshmallow's foster family is great - he has 24 hour care, his foster dad is a stay at home dad, so Marshmallow is well supervised and cared for and won't be allowed to overdo. Ultimately, this sweet boy will need corrective surgery, a Hip-Femoral Head Ostectomy. This surgery should increase his joint movement and reduce the amount of arthritis he will have, making his quality of life much more comfortable. He will face a brief recovery period post-surgery, followed by physical therapy. Then he'll be ready to look for that perfect forever family that will be so lucky to have him!

Marshmallow presents our greatest challenge to date. The estimated cost for his surgery is $2000. We are working together with NorSled, the Northern California Sled Dog Rescue to try to raise enough money to finance Marshmallow's surgery and treatment. Can you help Marshmallow so he can run and play like a young Sammy boy should?

Cathy's Marshmallow Update - March 18

Marshmallow's been doing very well, he's not taking any pain medication. (except yesterday, it was very cold here and that seemed to bother him). He is putting some weight on his bad leg while "doing his business". He gets upset when the other two dogs in the house get to go for a walk and all he gets to do is go down the ramp to the back yard... poor guy, he wants to go for the walk too. He was groomed last weekend--so now he's a clean marshmallow. One of our fundraising ideas is to have a large water container-3 gallon filled with small marshmallows. People can take a guess for a buck at how many marshmallows are in the container..:)-we haven't come up with a prize yet, but we will. THANK YOU ALL so very much for the assistance in Marshmallow's care.

Cathy's Marshmallow Update - April 15

I just thought I'd give you an update on Mel from his new family. This is part of a note from the new family to the family who was fostering Mel.

Thought I would let you know Mel continues to do just fabulous. I'm crazy for this fella and he knows it. We've taken to giving Mel a cookie in the morning and then moving his main feeding to evening with another milkbone portion before bedtime.

Michael continues to dote on his new "friend" and insisted on sleeping next to his mattress on our bed last night. Stephan made a hit of his own with Mel by sharing his post breakfast cereal milk. Mel lapped it up before I could cross the room to interrupt it. So now Stephan has had the talk about not feeding Marshmallow from our food.

Thank you both, so very much, for entrusting Mel to us. We just love him.

Cathy's Marshmallow Update - April 18

Here's what Henry-the foster dad said about Marshmallows visit yesterday to the vet.

Today's visit was a good one for Mel. He weighed 85.5 pounds, down 6 pounds from last visit. We learned that he has healed up a lot, and is still healing. The bones are not in the correct place, but he should continue to improve for a time, and then the arthritis will come and he will likely need surgery. This could be in 6 months to 2 years. He would like to see him again in 2-3 months to monitor progress of the healing. Dr. Walls is unavailable the 1st and 3rd weeks of July, however. The news is better than he thought it would be. Dr. Walls said that it was time for him to resume walking to build up muscle and the right scar tissue. He also wants Mel to do physical therapy/hydrotherapy. He describes the exercise as running a treadmill in a pool, where they can control the water level and how much weight he is carrying. The therapy could reduce the severity of the needed surgery or postpone it, plus it can help with his weight loss, which needs to continue. He should also swim for exercise, if a pool is available.

Marshmallow Update - April 24

Good news - Marshmallow has been given a reprieve and may not need to have surgery! SamUrgency will pay the remaining vet bills with the donations that we have received in his name and NorSled will take over from here, with a place on their web page allowing people to donate the cost of individual hydrotherapy treatments. Cathy's note from 4/23/02 is below:

The vet recommended aqua treadmill physical therapy - this should postpone any needed surgery for up to 2 years. It seems as though he is getting along very well. He'll have another vet visit in 2-3 months. Mueller Vet Center has been contacted about the aqua therapy, visits are $30 each. His mom has already made an appointment. It seems she'll make sure that Mel receives all the appropriate care he needs. Thank you for all your help and support. The best thing, of course, is that Marshmallow is loved very much by his new family and they are willing to see he gets the best and most appropriate care he needs. He is a lucky dog!

Sincerely, Cathy Bullard, NorSled

Cathy's Marshmallow Update - May 17

Here's an update on Marshmallow. I spoke to his aqua therapist yesterday. He is definitely improving in his weight baring status and his range of motion. The therapist thought another month of therapy would be good for further improvement. Here are two pictures of Mel running on the treadmill in the water. He also does excercizes on land. Marshmallow seems to be coming along very well--thank you everyone for your support.

Cathy's Marshmallow Update - July 24

I saw Marshmallow's mom this weekend and asked her for an update. Here it is:

He is up to 22 minutes on the aquatherapy treadmill plus doing PT exercises outside of the water. His next MD appointment is in Aug, she expects they will delay any surgery needs indefinately--he is walking and running fine without any discernible limp (Yippee for the mushmellow fellow) He has actually lost a few more pounds and is now down to 78lbs. It seems the aqua therapy has worked wonders!! What a great success story this fellow is! I will let you know how his appointment goes in Aug. By the way he is great at jumping up on the couch too.

Thank you all so much--please check out our website to see what our new project is--the Woodland 12--if its not one thing its another. www.NorSled.org

If you would be interested in helping with the expenses of other sammies like Marshmallow that meet the SamUrgency guidelines, please contact us at

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If you would like to read more about Marshmallow visit the NorSled web site at http://www.norsled.org/marshmallow.html.