Esperanza’s Story

Esperanza (the Spanish word for “Hope”), is our worst neglect case since establishing Tiny Tails and Scales. Espi came into our care early January of 2025.

When Espi’s owner inquired about surrendering her, we were unaware of her condition. Once Espi and her cage mate (Mariposa) were in our care it became extremely obvious that they needed immediate care. It was late on a Friday night and our veterinarian stayed late to evaluate her condition. We learned that Mariposa was okay and we could treat her as all of our intakes. However, Espi was a different story. She was in severe pain, was unable to eat on her own due to lack of strength and overgrown teeth, and an extreme case of vitamin C deficiency. Not only could she not walk, she could not stand. After a long discussion with our veterinarian team, we decided that we would fight for her so long as she could fight.

Within a day of receiving medication we saw immediate progress. While she could not yet eat on her own, she was taking supplemental feeding very well. It was at this point where we began to see her personality, the sweetest, most gentile and social little girl. After a week we could see great progress, she began eating hay on her own and she could stand! After a few weeks in care Espi was walking, eating lettuce, and she found her voice. She would step out of her hide and yell when she was hungry. Whether it was supplemental feedings, hay, or lettuce; she’d let us know when she was hungry (which was extremely frequent!). We continued this path for several weeks, watching her happy smiles, health progress and boisterous requests for more snacks. While great progress continued - Espi was continually fighting an infection. Unfortunately, after many weeks of care and love her fragile and fatigued body could not continue to fight and we had to say good bye to our girl.

As a rescue, we see hundreds of animals per year and have cared and loved thousands of animals over the years. However, some just stay with you. Esperanza is one of them. While our time with her was short, we feel incredibly fortunate that we were able to show her the love she deserved.

Esperanza’s story, while heart breaking, is a reminder that neglect is avoidable and is not acceptable. We believe that with proper education, Espi could have lived a much different life. While she may not be with us physically, she is very much alive in the way we educate the community about proper care, medical treatment, and neglect.