12/04/2025
Escatawpa Animal Clinic
presents to you
“Matilda’s Story”
Since they are done with sentencing and the court case is over. We would like to make a couple statements about a case that is close to our staff and previous doctor’s hearts. We were presented with a scared, pregnant pitbull on 10/30/24 by her owner. He said he wanted her checked out, because she had been s*xually assaulted by his cousin the previous night. He said that his cousin admitted to s*xually abusing her for over a year. He said he had contacted authorities and his cousin was arrested the night before, but they left this sweet girl in his possession. He just wanted her checked out because she wasn’t walking and thought the assault had broken her pelvis. She was VERY pregnant. Probably about to give birth any day. We were very taken aback and called the authorities. They said everything was true. We were told to get a r**e kit on her. Something we never in the veterinary field ever thought we would ever have to do. We told the owners we were going to keep her here to monitor her until she gave birth just to make sure everything went okay. Upon further examination, we discovered she had intestinal parasites and heartworms. We treated the intestinal parasites. We kept this sweet girl happy, healthy, and loved until she gave birth. We donated our time and resources to her.
On 11/8/2024 the sweetest lady gave birth to 11 puppies. Only 5 puppies survived. At this time we spoke to the owner. We explained heartworm treatment and the costs of taking care of this many puppies. They agreed to surrender “Baby Girl” and her puppies to us! We knew that this sweet girl needed a better name for the life she was dealt. We came to the conclusion that “Matilda” was perfect. It means “strength and might in battle” and she very obviously showed both. We loved this sweet girl more than you could ever imagine as a staff. We wanted the best for her and her sweet puppies.
We were told by authorities that when the case came out on 10/31/24 that we would be included so we could receive donations for Matilda’s care and treatment along with the care and vaccination of her puppies. That was false. We have never been mentioned in any capacity. We advocated for Matilda and her puppies to get free heartworm treatment, vaccines, and prevention through one of our drug reps, who was more than willing to help us. If you are reading this, by the way, thank you so so so much for everything you helped with. Our rep donated the drug to treat heartworms and heartworm/flea prevention for a year for Matilda. She also donated DA2PP for the puppies' whole 4 booster sets and heartworm/flea prevention for a year. We put in our time, resources, facilities, and love for these sweet babies and their mama until they were 9 weeks old. We were very blessed in the rehoming process.We were never told that any of the authorities were going to adopt one. They only came to check on sweet Matilda twice throughout these 9 weeks. We, however, did end up finding families for ALL 5 babies via social media and clients.
As for Matilda, it was a little harder to find her a home. We were not public with what she had endured. We didn’t want her to be judged for her past. Plus it was very hard for us to let her go. She is the best dog ever with the sweetest disposition. We did, however, end up finding her a loving home. It even came with a big brother who she absolutely loves. She went through heartworm treatment and is now heartworm free! We also spayed her so she doesn’t have to go through child birth again. She is living her best life with her new family, loved and comfortable.
Since the case is over and articles have been published, we just wanted to make a statement about it. We thought that our staff and previous doctor needed some type of recognition for everything they did during this time. The amount of time, resources, stress, and love that went into this case was insane. We just wanted to show that a lot of things happen behind the scenes that you may not think about or know. We are grateful to the authorities for handling the human side of things and arresting this disturbed individual. We are so happy that he is receiving time and has to register as a s*x offender. Hopefully there is a contingency that he will never be able to own animals of any kind after his release. Thank you for reading! Have a wonderful day and Happy Holidays!
Here is the article released yesterday:
https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/crime/article313362089.html
