McDonald’s Puts Together Special Meal for Terminally Ill Rescue Dog

An Oklahoma girl has revealed how workers at McDonald’s made her canine’s day by serving to put collectively a particular meal for the terminally unwell pet.

Stacey Herriage, Oklahoma State University PhD pupil and educating assistant, has adored Gooby from the day her people first adopted the animal from OK Save a Dog rescue heart in Prague, Oklahoma, again in 2018.

“Our household has adopted a number of dogs from there, and the girl that runs the rescue known as my mom to ask if she can be involved in adopting this little dachshund who had been returned to the shelter as soon as already after which surrendered to the pound in Oklahoma City,” Herriage instructed Newsweek.

Gooby, or Goob for brief, rapidly struck up a detailed bond with Herriage, thanks partially to her love of meals and going locations. The canine splits her time between dwelling with Herriage and her mother.

“When she’s with me in Stillwater, the place my college is situated, she loves going for walks on campus, particularly across the pond to see ‘her geese’. There’s additionally a dog-friendly pub on the town known as Stonecloud Taproom,” Herriage mentioned.

“When she is at my mother’s in Grove, she loves going for rides within the golf cart and taking walks across the ponds within the neighborhood there. She additionally enjoys going for automobile rides, particularly those to go get ice cream.”

Regardless of the place she is, Goob is at all times a dependable cuddle companion who loves nothing greater than curling up on the sofa to observe a film, particularly if popcorn is on provide.

Sadly, final yr Goob began to point out signs of getting a difficulty that her vet initially thought was a liver downside. After months of experimenting with new diets to no avail, in July 2023, a specialist delivered the heartbreaking information that Goob had inoperable liver most cancers.

“Over the following few weeks after that, she simply saved getting worse, to the purpose she truly had an appointment to be put down as a result of she was so sick and in a lot ache,” Herriage mentioned.

The lack of a pet is usually a heartbreaking expertise, in each sense of the phrase. In 2017, the New England Journal of Medicine detailed the case of a 61-year-old girl who was admitted to ER, having skilled extreme chest ache.

It was concluded that she had Takotsubo, or stress, cardiomyopathy. This is sometimes called “broken-heart syndrome” and had been introduced on by the demise of her beloved Yorkshire terrier.

For Herriage, issues got here to a head, the night time earlier than Goob was as a result of be put to sleep after weeks of steadily declining well being.

Herriage had a convention whereby she would feed her mother’s two rescue beagles Cheetos. She needed to do the identical for Goob however was instructed by her mother “not too many as a result of they will make her sick.”

“I misplaced it,” Herriage mentioned. “I cried about the way it did not matter and I used to be going to feed her the entire rattling bag as a result of it wasn’t going to make any distinction at that time.” With tears in her eyes, she recollects feeding Goob the entire bag, figuring she might as properly get pleasure from one thing whereas she will be able to.

The subsequent morning, Herriage wakened anticipating to have to scrub up one thing horrible however was as a substitute met by one other shock. “Goob was perky and alert as she ever had been,” Herriage mentioned. “She had rallied and it was wonderful.”

The household made the choice to cancel her veterinary appointment for later that day and simply dwell within the second. “The vet mentioned that may very well be any day, so simply get pleasure from on daily basis together with her that we nonetheless have her,” Herriage mentioned. “We have been additionally instructed that she will be able to have no matter she desires as a result of, albeit whole hypothesis with precise proof, that is what truly appeared to assist.”

That’s what led to them ending up on the McDonald’s on the Cimarron Turnpike at a truck cease in a neighborhood known as Lone Chimney. Herriage was making the three-hour drive to take Goob and a few of the different dogs again to her mother’s home and determined to cease in on the drive-thru for one thing to eat.

That was the place Herriage got here up with the “McGooby Meal” tailor-made made for Goob’s distinctive tastes. “They thought I used to be in all probability a surprisingly explicit mum or dad or perhaps had a very choosy child,” Herriage mentioned.

“I ordered the Happy Meal with the nuggets, however no sauce, and a plain hamburger with out the bun, additional apple slices, and water in a cup with no ice. It wasn’t till I acquired to the pay window that they noticed Goob within the entrance seat subsequent to me, and the man on the window simply smiled actually huge and appeared to immediately know why my order was just a little uncommon.”

Even higher than that, the employee who greeted them “threw an additional nugget in for the highway.” Goob was one very glad buyer by the top. “She very a lot loved her meal,” Herriage mentioned. Goob is just not the primary canine to benefit from the Golden Arches.

Newsweek reached out to McDonald’s for remark through electronic mail.

Herriage later shared a submit detailing the expertise to Facebook as she “thought it could be a cute various to the everyday meals evaluate submit.” She has been blown away by the supportive response and the “variety of those that have mentioned how they relate to the state of affairs.”

Herriage might not understand how lengthy they’ve left with Goob, however she is ensuring she enjoys each final minute of it: “I’ve plans to take her for a coney, which is a sizzling canine with chili and cheese on it, after I rise up there subsequent time.”