Bank sets up account to help pay vet bills for dog injured in fire
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Marty Goodrich sits with his dog, Cindy Lou, in the hotel they call home since their Morris Township house was destroyed by fire last month. Cindy Lou is recovering from injuries suffered in the fire.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Marty Goodrich smiles as his dog, Cindy Lou, shows signs of recovery after EMTs gave her oxygen following a house fire at 1734 Craft Creek Road in Morris Township Aug. 23.
Cindy Lou, a dog who was revived after a fire Aug. 23 at her Morris Township home, continues to recover, but after more than a week in a veterinary hospital, the bills are mounting.
A neighbor, Matthew Steele, saw smoke and broke a window to pull out the 20-pound dog.
“She was lifeless,” said Cindy Lou’s owner, Marty Goodrich, 44, eight days after the terrier was rescued from the burning home in Morris Township.
“I did mouth-to-mouth and compressed on her ribs and she woke up.”
The day after the fire, Goodrich took Cindy Lou to Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Care Center South, where he said she was placed on constant supplemental oxygen to help her scorched lungs function.
Her eyes also were scorched.
“She can see,” Goodrich said. “I’m sure it’s kind of foggy.” The vet outfitted Cindy Lou with canine contact lenses.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Cindy Lou gives her owner, Marty Goodrich, a high five Tuesday.
Cindy Lou also has had blood tests, which returned results in an acceptable range, and chest X-rays, her owner said.
Her intravenous line was removed Aug. 29, and at the animal hospital, she was able to eat canned food fed to her on a tongue depressor.
Goodrich said he is staying at a hotel and trying to apply for unemployment compensation for time lost from the construction industry job he’s been away from since his home on Craft Creek Road was destroyed.
He said Cindy Lou’s vet bill, as of Friday, had reached five figures or was “pretty darn close.”
He wanted to try to help his pet, even if there was just a slight chance she could be saved.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Marty Goodrich gives his dog, Cindy Lou, a kiss at Candlewood Suites Hotel in Meadow Lands on Tuesday. Cindy Lou is recovering from injuries suffered in a recent house fire.
Once her oxygen level returned to normal, Cindy Lou was “ready to go,” Goodrich said, and she was released from the hospital Sunday night.
She still coughs occasionally but, “She’s doing good,” he said Tuesday.
Cindy Lou was one of several strays dropped off on a hilltop in 2013. Goodrich thinks she may have been a year old when a neighbor asked him if he could shelter her.
“We just clicked, and we became best friends after that,” Goodrich said. “She’s just a sweet dog. You couldn’t ask for one better. I loved it when she gave me high fives. She had to be with me everywhere.”
Cindy Lou, unfortunately, was inside the house when the fire broke out, and Goodrich was outdoors to close up his garage while oil was heating in a pan on the stove.
“She was in that room that is totally gone, right there in the hottest spot,” he said after being contacted by the Observer-Reporter.
The Wesbanco branch at Trinity Point has set up an account to help with Cindy Lou’s veterinary care. The address is 1003 Trinity Circle, Washington, PA 15301. The branch manager said checks should be made payable to Marty Goodrich and directed to the Cindy Lou fund.