Third grader helps man’s best friend

PUPPY LOVE—Shyanne Roberts, left, and her cousin, McKenzie, cuddle with P-Nut, a puppy with a birth defect that requires expensive leg surgery. While on her way to rent a movie at a video store in Calabasas one Saturday last October, 8-year-old Lupin Hill Elementary School student Shyanne Roberts saw an 8month-old purebred Yorkie puppy named P-Nut in front of a pet store. A woman from Rescue Me Inc. was with P-Nut, hoping to find the puppy a home.

After a long conversation with the woman, Shyanne learned that the 4-pound P-Nut needed expensive leg surgery. Shyanne has since been on a mission to collect the funds to pay for the surgery. Shyanne would like to adopt the dog herself, but can’t.

“Shyanne currently lives with two Yorkies, so adopting P-Nut was going to be difficult because we already have two dogs,” said Tammy Roberts, Shyanne’s mother.

“Shyanne’s great grandma also has a Yorkie named Chloe. Grandma is very sick and Shyanne has promised her that when she can no longer take care of Chloe, she will bring her to our house and take care of her. We feel that will happen in the very near future, so we are about to have three Yorkies,” said Shyanne’s mother.

Shyanne and her family tried to imagine how they could take care of P-Nut permanently, but right now, their main priority is to find the money to pay for the puppy’s surgery.

“Shyanne has worked very hard for P-Nut,” Roberts said. “She put together a mailer for friends and family that live out of the area. She door-knocked around our neighborhood. She put an ad in her school newspaper, ‘Tiger Tales,’ and has told everyone she comes across about precious P-Nut.”

“I love puppies and I believe that every dog in the world has a soul and a spirit,” Shyanne said. “I want to help them because they have feelings, and I don’t think they should be tossed around like an old rag or something.”

Since October, Shyanne has raised about $800. She still needs $700.

“We have found a very nice veterinarian in Azusa who’s willing to do the surgery for $1,500,” Roberts said. The average price for the surgery is usually $3,000, she said.

“The dog needs surgery because it had a birth defect,” said Carly Nelson, Shyanne’s afterschool program teacher. “And now this little girl is going door to door, to friends and family, raising money to have this puppy get the surgery so the puppy can then go up for adoption . . . I think it’s great that she’s doing all this, especially since she doesn’t even get to keep the puppy . . . It’s a totally unselfish act.”

Shyanne hopes to find the remaining money soon so P-Nut doesn’t have to suffer any more pain.

“She has a bad leg with a knee that slips out of her socket,” Shyanne wrote in a letter that she sent to friends and family. “This means that she can’t play or walk and she is in lots of pain when she sleeps or lays down.”

For those interested in learning how to help, please call the Roberts family at (818) 3241701.

“It’s been a wonderful experience for Shyanne,” Roberts said. “She received money from family and friends, but she experienced amazing generosity from strangers when she placed the ad in ‘Tiger Tales.’ Families she didn’t even know sent her money in the mail.”