Bombay's Story

I hope I'm not making a mistake by "going public" with this, but I'm pretty desperate. A treasured member of my animal family, beautiful Bengal tigress Bombay (in the photo above), needs to have an expensive surgery in order to save her life, and the way things are going, I don't know how I'm going to pay for it. Because of the wretched economy, my credit card limits have been drastically lowered and are therefore maxed out, and though visits to cowboycoolcanine.com are higher than ever, sales have dropped significantly over the last several months. I totally understand... times are tough-- at the very least scary-- and let's face it, nobody really HAS to have a new collar/leash for their dear dog, no matter how cool it is. The problem is, my animal family depends on Cowboy Cool Canine to put food in their very big mouths...

Why on earth do I have a tiger? Well, before starting Cowboy Cool Canine (CCC), I was a wild animal trainer for the entertainment business for 30 years. The treasured and pampered "left-overs" from that career are now retired 17 year old Bengal tigress Bombay, 12 year old African lioness Thika, and hairy black old man/son, 25 year old Minky the spider monkey. Perhaps you saw Bombay in the charming 1994 live-action version of Walt Disney's "The Jungle Book", or in the follow-up "Jungle Book 2-- Mowgli's Story", or at the beginning of any Mandalay Film, or in a commercial or TV episode over the years...

I ask that you please suspend any PETA-fueled disapproval regarding wild animals in captivity. These animals mean the world to me... I have been with them since their birth, am completely committed to caring for them and giving them the best/longest life possible, and will (God willing) be there to usher them into the spirit world when the time comes. Be assured I have all the necessary/proper permits and training, and that after the sublime pleasure of knowing and working among them for as long as I have, I know how to keep them SAFE and HAPPY.

Back to Bombay: last week, on the heels of the stress/trauma of evacuating my home & my animals during the MONSTROUS Southern California "Station Fire" last month (and running up a $1,000 monkey vet bill because of it), I took my still-vibrant and beautiful Bombay into the vet because she had seemed "uncomfortable" for a few days of the prior week. (Dammit... don't you SO hate that animals can't just tell us what's wrong?!) Though she was definitely feeling better in the days leading up to the scheduled vet visit, I opted to get her checked out anyway...

Once under anesthesia, my long-time and trusted vet, "Dr. B", felt a mass on her spleen. Unfortunately, nothing definitive showed in x-rays, and a biopsy would be too dangerous because of the heavy blood supply to the spleen. To make matters worse, no portable ultrasound machine/technician could be located to further check out/determine what he felt, see how her ther organs looked (ie: if it looked like metastasized cancer), etc. There was nothing to do but wait and see if her blood showed anything.

The next day, her blood-work looked pretty good... good enough to do an ultrasound and remove the mass/spleen IF the ultrasound showed no obvious involvement/deterioration of other organs, etc. It's about a 50-50 chance that it could be just a benign mass or hematoma. Even if it is a malignancy/cancer, with any luck it might still be confined to the spleen...

At this moment, she is doing great and seems to feel fine. I have scheduled the ultrasound and possible surgery for Wed Oct 21. There are no guarantees and some obvious risk, but I truly feel that this "mass" was discovered so that it COULD be taken care of and she could hopefully live another few years. She still looks and acts like a happy cub and she means the world to me. If I don't do anything, whatever it is will rupture at some point most likely causing her to bleed to death internally. At this point in her life, I feel this would be a premature death...

The ultrasound/surgery will be very expensive (estimate of $3000), so combined w/ her initial visit and still-outstanding $1000 monkey bill, I'm facing @ $5000 in vet bills due in the next month...

MY PLEA IS THIS: if you're here because you like my products and are considering buying, PLEASE BUY ASAP! If you know anyone else who might like them, PLEASE EMAIL THEM THE WEBSITE LINK, http://cowboycoolcanine.com , OR EVEN THIS PAGE, http://cowboycoolcanine.com/help_save_a_tiger.htm. If you are a retailer who's been considering carrying CCC, please jump on the CCC stagecoach NOW! I'm hoping that knowing you are helping to "save a tiger" might be the nudge you need to go ahead and BUY!

If you can't afford to buy anything right now but are moved/inspired to help anyway, please click the "Donation" button on this page and do whatever you can... anything will help!

THANKS FOR LISTENING AND FOR WHATEVER YOU CAN DO... WE SINCERELY APPRECIATE IT!

home designer dog collars tooled leather dog collars concho studded dog collars dog leashes customer gallery

Wholesale Info Waggin' Train Chicken Jerky Tenders sizing info

alex@cowboycoolcanine.com

07/25/2010