Bentley and Owen came to the PEI Humane Society in June. Both are 9 years young, making them senior dogs. They are a bonded pair and need to be adopted together for their comfort and mental health.

We knew when these boys arrived that they were having some issues with their teeth. Shih Tzus often have dental issues and when their teeth are not regularly monitored the situation can get serious quickly.

We decided to send the boys to the vet to determine just how bad their teeth were and to what extent they would need care. It was determined with the help of Southport Animal Hospital that both the boys would need to have around 50% of their teeth removed and a serious dental cleaning.

Dental procedures like this are not the same for dogs as they are for people. Dogs cannot sit calmly with their mouth open like we can to receive dental cleanings or have teeth extracted. For surgeries like this, dogs need to be fully sedated. Because of the nature of this surgery and the extreme nature of having half of their teeth removed, these boys will likely need a few days of recovery as well. Whereas for humans, a trip to the dentist can be completed in an hour-long appointment, this will likely be a long day of surgery for the boys and require quite a few days of relaxation and recovery after the fact.

We knew when we saw the quote for this surgery that we should do what we could to fund-raise for the costs. Bentley and Owen deserve to find their perfect forever home and costly surgeries like this can often cause the right family to reconsider adoption due to the costs involved. So, it was decided that we would try to raise a portion of the cost ourselves to help their new family out. We were not prepared for the generosity of our community, however!

We posted to Facebook on Saturday morning, hoping the post would earn some attention over the weekend and hopefully increase donations for Bentley and Owen. Little did we know that by the time we showed up for work Monday morning, we would almost have reached our goal! By lunchtime Monday, we had both surgeries entirely paid for! It was incredible.

We send our sincere thanks to Islanders far and wide. The Island opened its heart to Bentley and Owen and thanks to your generosity, these two can find their forever home!