Two weeks ago, my mom took our 14-year-old dog to board in a “luxury suite” at Evergreen for what she anticipated would be a 10-day stay while she visited my brother and I in California. Now our much loved boy is gone and we desperately wish we could turn back the clock and NOT TAKE HIM TO EVERGREEN as I am confident he would still be alive if we had not taken him there. Although Jake was not in perfect health, he certainly was not near death when my mom dropped him off at Evergreen – he hopped out of the car on his own when my mom arrived there. Fast forward to 6 days later: My mom cuts her trip short, we take a red eye back to HHI and head directly to the vet’s office where Jake is laying in the corner of an exam room extremely underweight (it looked as though he lost 10 lbs over the course of the week), with multiple open wounds (horrible bed sores) and is unable to walk on his own. I cringe to think that Jake may have spent his final hours in that very spot had I not been able to fly back with my mom and help her get him home. That evening, one of the wonderful vets came to our house and put Jake to sleep as it was clear “that moment” had come when it would be selfish to keep Jake here with us.\r
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I will assume that Evergreen did not intentionally neglect Jake but it was quite evident to me that he did not receive the care he needed and should have received while boarding at Evergreen – and I am well aware of the type of care dogs should receive while boarding at a place such as Evergreen considering I worked at a cage free daycare and boarding facility for over a year in California. No dog EVER would have left our facility in the condition Jake was in by the time Evergreen finally got around to contacting my mom and taking him to the vet’s office. Jonathan has provided plenty of excuses ranging from Jake being “too old to handle it” (then why on Earth did they agree to board him in the first place?), Evergreen doesn’t contact owners about “every little thing,” to the fact that Jonathan was not at Evergreen on Wednesday and, therefore, he called my mom when he arrived Thursday morning. We will never know exactly what happened but, according to Evergreen, Jake was “resistant to going out” on Tuesday…this would certainly lead one to believe that Jake lay in his room immobile, peeing and pooping on himself and developing bed sores for close to 2 days. With the vet’s office next door to Evergreen, I will never understand why Jake was not taken to the vet and my mother not contacted sooner. \r
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We will never be able to turn back the clock and get Jake back but, hopefully, sharing our painful story will prevent someone else from making the same mistake we did…if you are thinking about boarding your senior dog at Evergreen, please hire a pet sitter instead! (I believe you can find pet sitters at PetPals HHI.)\r
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