Ear to the ground:

“Everyday, I do something I judged the day before.”
- Durango soccer mom reconciling her former, younger, partying self with her new, more mature, mini-van-driving self

Heart broken

Although technically, in the journalism world, puppies and kids are cheating, this is one heart-string puller we just couldn’t pass up.

Eva, a 7½-week old rez puppy rescued by local woman and dog crusader, Lisa Parker, needs help. Eva and her fellow five littermates were about to be euthanized in Chinle, Ariz., when “a kind soul” stepped in and rescued the five-day old pups and brought them to Parker, in Durango.

Parker runs “Lisa Parker’s Puppies,” a branch of Dogster’s Spay and Neuter Program that saves puppies and rears them until they are adoptable. Eva and her siblings were in bad shape upon arriving in Durango, requiring days of force-feeding and weeks of bottle-feeding. But after five weeks of intensive care, Lisa and her crew of volunteers breathed a sigh of relief that every puppy had miraculously survived.

Eva was adopted by a friend of Parker’s, who is also a vet tech. however, a few days after bringing Eva home came sad news. During an initial exam, the vet discovered that Eva suffered from pulmonary stenosis and an atrial septal defect, a serious heart problem that proves fatal without surgical intervention. The condition has already caused changes in her small heart.

But all hope is not lost. Veterinary surgeons at Colorado State University Veterinary school can perform the operation that would save Eva’s life, but at an estimated cost of $5,500.

“Unfortunately, the costs are beyond what any one person or organization can do,” read a post from Bath Lamberson, spokeswoman for Lisa Parker’s Puppies. “We have watched her grow; saved her from a horrid death and we cannot wrap our minds around losing her now.”

The $4,500 of the money raised will go for the surgery, while the rest will be used for travel to Fort Collins as well as follow-up care.

A crowd-funding page has been set up at www.rally.org/f/e8h9jHtW9yj. And in case you’re undecided, we’re going to sic the sad puppy dog eyes on you.