Remortgaging to give my furry friend a chance

T was probably diabetes, serious but not life-threatening, the vet said as he handed my wee dog Jessie back into my arms. She had been sedated for tests. There was definitely something wrong with her. She had been drinking what seemed like gallons of water and peeing in the house.
Every time she did it, she looked sorry, her eyes wide with worry.

I knew by then that she couldn't help it, so there was no point in scolding her.

In the eight years since we had been together, she had barely put a paw wrong.

Jessie the west highland white terrier was the first dog I had owned as an adult and I loved her so much I also bought her a sister, Bonnie, to keep her company.

You never have a bad day when you live with a dog – or rather if you have the worst day in the world (Shock. Husband has girlfriend. But there's more. Shock, horror. Girlfriend is pregnant.) they always make it better. The husband was the loser.

Cheeky, intuitive, loyal. Their love is unconditional. Whatever happens in your day, they welcome you home with unsuppressed excitement.

Like my parent's westie, who lived for 18 years, I expected Jessie to live forever paid the vet's bill and he sent me off to see a specialist for more tests. Just in case.
Jessie was losing more weight but she could still wag her tail like a trouper.

The specialist also thought it was diabetes but suggested an ultrasound ($280), radiographs ($255) and a body function test ($165). More tests than any human in my family had ever had. Certainly more expensive.

He walked back into the consulting room with wee Jessie, groggy from drugs and with her fur shaved on one side. She had cancer, a tumour on one kidney.

It is rare in dogs but it could be worse, he said. Dogs can live long and happy lives with one kidney. He said they could operate and remove the cancerous kidney.

I didn't need to consider it. I booked her in for an operation and didn't even ask how much it would cost, didn't even care.

I paid the bill of $1117.05 and went home to wait. Four days later we went back.

I can still see Jessie's look as she turned her head and gazed after me over the vet nurse's shoulder as she was carried into the surgery area. Dogs are more intuitive than humans. She knew more than I did.

I left her in the care of the experts along with a $2000 deposit. They gave me a Take Home Information Sheet. That was a hopeful sign. She had her operation the next day and everything looked good.

The receptionist was very helpful. Of course I could talk to the surgeon, she said. They encouraged people to talk to them about their patients. But he never returned my calls.

Then Jessie died. Of course it wasn't as sudden as that. But as her condition deteriorated, no one said she would die.

You might think I would have worked it out for myself but I trusted the experts.

Two days after the operation I got onto the surgeon. I made notes as we spoke and have kept them. The cancer may have spread to her brain, he told me. She'd had a seizure – but I knew that, didn't I, he said. I think I would have remembered if I had been told.

The surgeon was totally offhand. Obviously he preferred dealing with unconscious animals than people who can talk back. I wanted people to know who he was but the lawyers would only have taken his name out.

It was touch and go for another two days. I hoped for a miracle. There wasn't one. The nurses called me in the middle of the night and by the time I got there Jessie had died.

I hugged her body, which was still warm. Four days' treatment cost me $11,767.60. Yes, it was a fortune. I had to remortgage the house.

I would have been happier if it had saved Jessie's life but I don't begrudge one cent of that money. I had to give her the best chance that I could while the vets were saying that she may have survived.

I cried for weeks. I report on horrific crime and do not cry. But I still cry as I write this. I'm not crying about the cost but, as time has passed, I have become increasingly bitter that perhaps the vet hospital strung me along to make money.

I like to think I was not keeping her alive for myself. If any of the vets had said there was no chance, that my dog was in pain and the best thing for her was to have her put down, I would have done it.

The only thing to do was get another westie to keep Bonnie company, wee Hinnie – a Geordie term of endearment, and she is living up to her name.

Folks who don't have dogs think we are completely mad. It's a shame as they don't know what they are missing.

Would I do it all again if my other two dogs became as ill? You bet. I would do anything to save their lives.

But this time I have pet insurance. All it will cost me is the $100 excess. And I would find a different surgeon, one who didn't bark and had a bedside manner.


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Cruel conman jailed for tricking consultant out of £350K

IT WAS an e-mail that was too good to be true.

For anyone willing to help a Nigerian transfer $300 million into a UK bank account they would receive up to half of the fortune.

But for leading consultant surgeon Fawzia Ashkanani the temptation was irresistible.

The breast cancer specialist remortgaged her house and borrowed thousands of pounds from friends and family to invest more than £350,000 in the get rich quick scheme which turned out to be an internet scam.

Nigerian conman Chinaenye Mokelu, 44, was jailed for five years for his part in the phishing spam e-mail which was said to have “ruined” the consultant’s life.

Describing the impact of the fraud on the surgeon at Dumfries Infirmary, Michael Fraser, prosecuting, told Basildon Crown Court: “She said how this whole episode has left her feeling upset with a huge feeling of guilt because she has let down members of her family and indeed close friends.

“She is struggling to cope with repaying the £210,000 remortgage.

“It has also had a profound psychological impact on her. She has considerable difficulty in relating and talking to her patients because this matter has caused her considerable embarrassment.”

The court was told “gullible” Miss Ashkanani saw the opportunity, presented when the e-mail landed in her inbox in August 2007, as a way to finance her dream of setting up clinics in the most deprived areas of Africa.

Mr Fraser said after making contact with the sender, she was asked to pay £4,500 to broker Mokelu, to enable the transfer of funds.

As part of the elaborate fraud, Kuwati-born Miss Ashkanani travelled twice to London to meet several of the gang of fraudsters – who have never been traced by police.

During one meeting in a Holiday Inn she was shown a suitcase full of fake $100 notes. In September 2007, Miss Ashkanani was told the sum of £210,000 was required to release the funds.

So desperate was she to get hold of the promised £75,000,000 reward she raised the amount by remortgaging her house.

The conmen even mocked up and dispatched a document which appeared to be a £150,000 transfer to her account purporting to be from US Citibank Group.

Then came a phone call demanding £750,000 in tax. When Miss Ashkanani said she could not find that amount, the court heard, she was told “raise as much as you can” and threatened with police investigation if she pulled out of the deal.

She convinced her brother to lend her more than £50,000 which was paid into a Lloyds bank account controlled by Mokelu.

The married father-of-two – whose wife and seven and 14-year-old daughters have returned to Nigeria – was arrested as he withdrew £20,000 in cash from the fraudulent account. When police searched his home in Grays, Essex, they found a suitcase full of fake cash and a counterfeit Nigerian passport.

They also found a mobile phone with Miss Ashkanani’s work, home and mobile numbers saved under the names “Miracle 1, Miracle 2 and Miracle 3”, the court was told.

During some 18 months, Miss Ashkanani handed over £352,937.

Mokelu was sentenced to a five-year jail term – four years for conspiracy to defraud and another year added on for using a fake Nigerian passport to set up a fraudulent bank account.

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