
12/09/2025
We are so sad to have to provide this update. Senior Sanctuary Member Chrissy recently crossed over the rainbow bridge and gained her angel wings. Chrissy came to us in March 2024 at almost 11 years old. Due to some life circumstances, her owner just wasn’t able to care for her anymore. She was actually originally adopted when she was younger from Wyoming Dachshund and Corgi Rescue. The owner reached out to them about no longer being able to care for her. The rescue reached out to us since the owner now lived within our area to see if we could take her in so that she didn’t end up in a shelter. So we happily helped them out and took her into the rescue.
We got Chrissy into an experienced, quiet, no dog, no kid foster home. She came to us very anxious, stressed, and confused. It took her a while to decompress and settle in. But once she did, her personality started to shine through. She was very sweet and she liked to be pet, but only on her terms. She definitely enjoyed the company of her people. She was very much a velcro corgi. She came to us very overweight and her foster worked on her exercise and building up her stamina, as well as maintaining a healthy diet.
Chrissy went to the vet shortly after she came to us to get her updated on all her vetting needs. She got two vaccines and had a physical exam done. The foster noticed she had a sore near her mouth so we had that checked out as well. It started to become infected so she was put on a course of antibiotics. The vet thought it was due to environmental allergies, so suggested she take some allergy medicine. She wasn’t the best behaved at the vet and she was very anxious. So the vet prescribed her some anxiety medication to use as needed. She also had bloodwork, a urinalysis, and f***l analysis done. Her liver values were slightly elevated so the vet started her on a supplement to help lower her liver values. Her bloodwork also showed elevated lymphocytes. The vet felt this could’ve been due to varies reasons, including lymphoma, which she had been diagnosed with several years prior. When she was first diagnosed, she was given a course of steroids and was determined to be in remission. After talking with the previous owner, there was not much testing done to diagnose her with lymphoma, and that it was more of a guess. We had her bloodwork sent out to a pathologist for further review. The pathologist said the changes in her white blood cells was the most concerning for chronic lymphocytic leukemia or lymphoma. In order to make the best educated decision on the next steps for her, what our options were for her, and to determine her prognosis, we followed up with an oncologist.
After reviewing her lab work, the oncologist recommended a more specific blood test to help differentiate between leukemia and lymphoma and to help determine her prognosis. Her new lab work came back as chronic lymphoma. She also had elevated B cells, which the oncologist said was either due to a reaction to the elevated T cells or the lymphoma was transitioning to becoming a more aggressive cancer. Since we were worried about it being the more aggressive cancer, we opted for another blood test to help determine which cancer it could be. Unfortunately, Chrissy was on her way to developing an aggressive lymphoma, and it was just a matter of when. When it became aggressive, she would probably just have a few months. Chemotherapy was an option at that point, but it wouldn’t cure her and it would’ve only prolonged her life by months. Due to her age and everything she had already been through, we opted not to do that. At this point, it was just a matter of when it would become very aggressive, and we had no timeline as to when that would be.
Due to Chrissy’s diagnosis and her age, we decided to welcome her into our Senior Sanctuary Program. Chrissy’s foster provided her with the best care and was wonderful about taking her to all of her vet appointments. But, they weren’t able to care for Chrissy long term and they felt she deserved an environment that suited her better to live out the rest of her days. So, we moved her into a long term foster home. She moved out to the country, where it was nice and quiet. She loved it there and she absolutely loved just hanging out outside on a beautiful day. She enjoyed being the queen of her castle as the only pet in the home. Her new mom had corgis for decades and her last one passed away earlier that year. She was so happy to welcome Chrissy home and she loved having a corgi in the house again. Despite her diagnosis, Chrissy didn’t feel or act sick at all. If you met her, you never knew she had cancer. She was feeling so much more comfortable and her personality really showed. All the stress and anxiety that she came with melted away and she was a different dog compared to when she first arrived. She really settled in her routine.
For several months not much really changed with Chrissy. She had been handling her vet appointments like a champ, with the help of her anxiety medicine. She was getting monthly allergy injections to help with her allergies and her skin issues, which worked pretty well and it was keeping her paws and belly healthy and infection free. However, earlier this year her skin issues started to worsen. It was being closely monitored by the vet and treated topically, but there was not a whole lot we could do. She was getting routine medicated baths, she was put on courses of antibiotics, and she continued to get allergy medicine injections. We knew this was a result of her poor immune system due to the cancer. Her body wasn’t able to physically heal itself like it’s supposed to. Luckily, it didn’t bother her one bit and it didn’t change anything about her daily life.
Over the last few months her skin issues continued to get worse. It eventually got to the point that all of her treatments, both topically and medicinally, were no longer helping her. Her skin issues spread from just her face to over her entire body. It got to the point where we needed to evaluate her quality of life. There was not much more we could do for her skin, and we did not want to wait until she was in a lot of pain and suffering to make the decision to let her go. So, with her foster right by her side, Chrissy peacefully crossed over the rainbow bridge.
While all of us at East Coast Corgi Rescue are so sad that Chrissy has gained her wings, we are glad that she got to cross the bridge knowing what true love and care was. We are extremely grateful for her loving foster and the life she provided her. So, even though we are all sad and heartbroken, we are so happy that she got to enjoy the last year and a half of her life happy, loved, and treated like a member of the family. We are relieved that she is no longer suffering in any way. Here is a message from her foster:
“Chrissy came to me shortly after I lost my last corgi too early in her life. Being a long time and many corgi owner, a friend suggested getting a corgi rescue. So I became a permanent foster to Chrissy. She had Chronic Lymphoma and no one knew how long she had left on earth, maybe 4-5 months. She got here June 20, 2024. You would’ve never known she was sick. She seemed to enjoy life and had fun. I spoiled her too. She was great at letting me know she had to go outside. After the first of the year I started to see her developing skin issues. Eventually it was getting aggressive. But she just went on being a happy spoiled girl. It didn't seem to bother or stop her enjoying life. Unfortunately I had to let her go on August 29, 2025. Her ashes are on a shelf with several of my other corgis, watching over me.”
Thank you to everyone that has supported Chrissy and a huge thank you to her amazing foster for the love and care that she provided her. 🐾💜