Archie's Surgery

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Archie Goes Back To Work

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Archibald Razz-m-tazz, better known as Archie, is a giant, gentle, loveable, Newfoundland dog who works as a therapy dog at Casa Pacifica – a crisis care and residential treatment facility for abused, neglected, and at-risk children located in Camarillo, CA. You might have read about him recently in the L.A. Times. Archie works with the children at Casa Pacifica in many ways - greeting frightened children who have suddenly been removed from their homes with his calming, gentle presence, or sitting and quietly listening as a child who has difficulty reading practices aloud to him (something they won’t do with a person), or simply sitting with a frustrated, lonely, sad teenager while he gathers himself to keep moving forward.

Recently Archie, Casa Pacifica’s therapy dog, began limping on his back right leg following some rambunctious play time with another dog, and it was determined that Archie had a torn Cranial Cruciate Ligament – kind of like an ACL injury in a human, except dogs don’t have the “A” part of the structure of an ACL. Archie had surgery this past June which entailed lessening the degree of the angle of Archie’s knee joint so that when the ligament was reattached, it wouldn’t snap again because the new angle of his knee wouldn’t cause too much tension on the ligament. Without surgery the inflammation of the injury would lead to arthritis and the possibility of becoming lame. Now that the surgery is done, Archie’s back leg is as strong as a human’s and he won’t have anymore trouble with it!

Unfortunately, Archie has now torn his CCL in his other leg. So Archie needs surgery again. So we are asking for your generous help, once again, to fund this unexpected and important surgery for Archie. The estimated cost of the surgery is $5,800. Though Archie has turned out to be expensive – what with two surgeries on his legs now – he is priceless to the children of Casa Pacifica. If you would like to contribute to Archie’s surgery send donations to Casa Pacifica (1722 S. Lewis Road, Camarillo, CA, 93012), attention “Archie Surgery Fund.” If you have any questions, please call the Development Department at (805) 445-7800.