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Cooper is a 12-year-old male Basset Hound with primary hyperparathyroidism. One of the small glands in his neck that regulate calcium has become enlarged and is pumping out too much hormone, pushing his blood calcium dangerously high. Over time, high calcium damages the kidneys, forms stones, weakens muscles, and strains the heart. The fix is to remove the overactive gland.

While working him up, his specialists at MASH in Hollywood found two more problems: a mass on his spleen that needs to be removed and biopsied, and stones in his bladder that need to come out. Because he is 12, his surgeons want to do all three in a single procedure within the next two to three months, so he goes under anesthesia once instead of three times. He is eating, drinking, and happy, but his breathing has become labored, and he will keep declining until the surgery is done.

Roger has been watching this coming all year. Cooper’s regular vet flagged his calcium in January and tracked it until it was clear something was driving it. The referral to MASH and an ultrasound turned up all three issues at once. Cooper’s previous surgeries were done by a mobile clinic, but this one requires an overnight hospital stay, which pushes the cost well past what Roger has managed before.

Roger rescues Basset Hounds, specifically the ones in bad situations, and he searches Craigslist for them on purpose. Nine years ago he found Cooper there: a 3-year-old bought from a mall pet store as a kid’s birthday present by a family who could not care for him and left him in the backyard. He had been attacked by a larger dog, his tail was degloved, and he was covered in masses. Roger paid a $300 rehoming fee, drove to Norwalk, and took him straight to the vet, where his tail was amputated.

Since then Cooper has had 11 masses removed in one surgery and more in another. He is a big Basset, 78 pounds, and Roger says he fell in love on sight. Cooper shares the house with Charleston, 10, and Carlton, 3, both rescued the same way.

Roger spent his career in dental laboratory work until the pandemic pushed that industry to outsourced digital labs. He is down to two days a week at the lab and supplements it with a small online resale business. He made about $20,000 last year, lives in a live-work space in downtown LA, and relies on city and state assistance programs for food and rent.

He is still paying off Cooper’s previous surgeries on a credit card, plus funeral debt from his father’s death two years ago. He has no spouse and no children. The three Bassets are his family, and he has spent thousands on Cooper over nine years without hesitation. This one he cannot do alone.

Cooper is strong for his age, and each of these problems is correctable. Done together, the surgery gives him a real shot at comfortable years ahead. Donations will cover his pre-surgical bloodwork and imaging, anesthesia, removal of the parathyroid gland, removal and biopsy of the spleen mass, removal of the bladder stones, overnight hospitalization, pain medication, and follow-up care.

All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. Estimate is below, click to enlarge:

Rocket is a 3-year-old male Pomeranian with dental disease bad enough that he can no longer eat hard food. He picks up a kibble, spits it out, tries again, and gives up. Free to Chew Clinic in Lakeside, run by the nonprofit Lionel’s Legacy, examined him and rated him Tier 3: advanced extractions and more than an hour and a half under anesthesia. Their price is $959, already far below what a private clinic would charge. Frosted Faces Foundation, another nonprofit, has awarded a $500 grant for Rocket, leaving only $459.

Jessica noticed the trouble three or four months ago when Rocket started struggling with his food and switched him to soft. His breath got worse. Two weeks ago she got him to the clinic, where the exam showed why: diseased teeth that need to come out. Small breeds like Pomeranians are prone to this, and the longer infected teeth stay in, the more pain and the more risk of the bacteria spreading.

Rocket came home at 15 or 16 weeks old from a woman who was moving out of state and rehoming her dogs. He had a bigger brother in the litter; Jessica took the tiny one. He lives with Trixie, a 6-year-old Pom mix.

Jessica moved from Florida a year ago as a school counselor but has not been able to land a counseling job, so she substitute teaches in the Grossmont Union district. Substitute pay is irregular and thin, and she is raising a 13-year-old child alone as well. She has done the best thing, getting Rocket to a good non-profit and a grant! But now Rocket needs the last bit.

Donations will cover the remaining $459 of Rocket’s anesthesia, dental x-rays, extractions, and pain medication at Free to Chew. All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. Estimate below, click to enlarge:

Max is an 8-year-old male Husky and Shepherd mix with a tumor behind his right ear that has been growing for eight months. It started the size of a dime. It is now the size of a strawberry, he scratches at it until it bleeds, and it has gotten heavy enough that when he shakes his head it throws him off balance. His vet has recommended removing it and sending the tissue for testing.

Jesse found the lump while rubbing Max’s head on the couch. The vet’s first read was a common fatty growth, the kind older dogs get, and the advice was to watch it. It did not stay small. By the second visit the vet agreed it needed to come off. The family has been trying to put the money together ever since, and the tumor has not waited for them.

Max came into the family seven years ago, their little Chihuahua had passed six months before and one day, standing in line for lunch, Jesse just had a feeling he needed to go to the shelter. He left the lunch line and drove over. In the parking lot, a young woman was surrendering a year-and-a-half-old Shepherd-Husky mix named Lolo who had been kept outside with goats and not treated well.

Jesse told her it was exactly the dog he had been looking for, and she gave him to Jesse on the spot. He hid under the kitchen table for four days. Then he came out and became Max, the calmest dog any of them have known: never barks at the doorbell, never has an accident, bonded to every one of the seven kids, and so attached to the oldest son that when the boy came home from the Marines, Max lost his mind. Max goes everywhere with Jesse and has gotten him through some very hard stretches.

Jesse runs the office and manages the team at an electrical company. His wife homeschooled their seven children until the youngest reached high school and now works in the quality control lab at a bottling plant. Two of their sons are at Fresno State on football scholarships. Medical debt wrecked Jesse’s credit, so there is no card to put the surgery on. He would have done it already if there were.

Max is strong, healthy otherwise, and only eight years old! Donations will cover his bloodwork, anesthesia, surgery to remove the tumor, biopsy of the tissue, pain medication, and follow-up care so he can get back to shaking his head without tipping over. All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. Estimate is below, click to enlarge:

UPDATE: The Onyx & Breezy Foundation has pledged up to $350 toward Pica’s surgery, which is why the goal is now $550. 

Pica is a 12-year-old female Great Pyrenees with a large, infected growth over her left knee. It needs to be surgically removed, the infection treated with antibiotics, and the tissue checked to rule out anything worse. Left alone, an infected mass of this size keeps spreading, breaks open, and in a senior dog can turn into a serious systemic infection.

It started with an old injury. Pica tore the cranial cruciate ligament in that knee years ago, and the way she compensated, sitting and lying on the leg, built up a thick callus over the joint. About two months ago she started chewing on it. The chewing opened it up, the callus became an infected growth, and in the last three weeks it got out of control. Wendy took her to the vet, who confirmed it needs surgery. Wendy applied for Care Credit and was declined.

Pica came into Wendy’s life twelve and a half years ago when someone tossed a litter of puppies out of a car near Wendy’s apartment complex. The manager asked residents to take them. Wendy had just finished adopting another dog, Cookie, and took Pica too. Cookie passed in 2021. Pica is the dog she has had longest, and now the only one.

Wendy is a nurse who lost her job in May and has not found another despite searching since. She lives alone with Pica. Friends, family, and some government assistance are keeping her bills paid, and she is going without things she needs herself. There is no room for a surgery bill.

Pica is a big, strong dog who has already outlived most of her breed’s expected lifespan, and this is a treatable problem. Donations will cover her exam, bloodwork, anesthesia, surgery to remove the growth, biopsy, antibiotics, and pain medication. All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. Estimate below, click to enlarge:

Jakobe is a 12-year-old female Pit Bull mix with a mass on her belly that has grown to golf-ball size in the last three months and has broken through the skin and is bleeding. It needs to be surgically removed and the tissue tested. An open, bleeding mass is a door for infection, and at her age it needs to come off.

The lump was found two years ago when Jakobe was spayed. It was tiny then, the vet tested it and said it was not cancer, and the advice was to leave it alone. For two years it did nothing. Then it started growing fast. Cenola does not know whether it has changed into something worse, and neither will anyone until it is removed and sent to a lab.

Jakobe was a Christmas present. Cenola had lost her Pit Bull, Gucci, a year earlier and had been talking about wanting another dog. Her sister, who lives in a small town in Texas, had a neighbor whose dog had puppies born on Christmas Day. Her sister told her she had a gift for her but she would have to wait, then surprised her with Jakobe. She has been with Cenola for 12 years.

Cenola spent 20 years in child care, the last seven as a preschool teacher. After her son Hart was born, she was let go over too many absences for his doctor visits and fevers. She has been on unemployment for three months and now nannies six hours a day, but she has not been able to work the last three weeks because her mother was hospitalized and needed care. Her mother just came home four days ago. Cenola is a single mom to a 7-month-old, barely covering her bills, and Care Credit turned her down.

This is a fixable problem for a dog who has been loyal for 12 years. Donations will cover Jakobe’s exam, bloodwork, anesthesia, surgery to remove the mass, biopsy of the tissue, antibiotics, and pain medication. All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. Estimate below, click to enlarge:

Winnie is a 5-year-old female Chihuahua with a torn cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) in both hind legs. Her vet has recommended surgery to stabilize the knees. Without the ligament, the joint slips with every step, cartilage wears away, and arthritis sets in. With both knees affected, Winnie has no good leg to lean on, and the surgeries will likely be done one at a time.

Her owner Chanel first noticed Winnie holding a paw up in May. It stopped on its own, then started again, and that is when she took her in. The vet found the tears and pointed to the likely cause: Winnie is a jumper, on and off the sofa all day, and she had put on some weight, which adds strain to small joints. Chanel applied for Care Credit to pay for the surgery and was declined.

Winnie was a gift from Chanel’s father. A neighbor’s dog had a litter in 2021, and he picked one out and brought her home for Chanel, who had wanted a dog since she was a little girl. Winnie was about six weeks old and Chanel calls her her baby. Her father, Sabah, was diagnosed with lung cancer right before Winnie arrived, and the puppy came into the house at the same time.

Chanel is 28. She moved back in with her parents when her father got sick and stopped working as a social worker to care for him. Her mother, Shatha, left her job as a hairdresser to help. Sabah, 64, spent his career in the auto glass industry and can no longer work. His disability check barely covers the household’s bills, and Chanel has only been able to work sporadically around his care. There is no money for one knee surgery, let alone two.

Winnie is young and small, which makes CCL repair straightforward and recovery quick. Donations will cover her surgical consultation, x-rays, bloodwork, anesthesia, the surgery, pain medication, and follow-up visits. All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. Estimate below, click to enlarge:

Eva is an 11-week-old female Yorkie puppy born without an anus. The opening never formed. Instead, her body found the only route it could, and she passes stool through her vulva. The condition is called atresia ani with a rectovaginal fistula, and it is correctable: a surgeon creates the opening, reconnects the bowel properly, and closes the abnormal passage.

Puppies who get the surgery go on to live completely normal lives. Puppies who do not get it develop blockages, chronic infection, and eventually a swollen, painful belly that cannot be relieved. Her vets have told Shelly that if the surgery does not happen, the humane option is euthanasia.

The timing is the hard part. Surgeons cannot operate on a newborn this small; the tissue needs to develop for six to eight weeks first. Eva has now reached that window. Every week past it, the risk of a fatal obstruction rises, and the surgery itself gets harder as scar tissue and stretching set in. The workup starts with a CT scan at Valley Animal Hospital in Rialto to map her anatomy, at more than $2,000, and the surgery follows immediately after.

Shelly noticed something was wrong when Eva was days old. Her mother, Nova, a 4-year-old Yorkie, delivered two puppies by C-section and never produced milk, so Shelly was bottle feeding both. Eva kept bloating. That is when Shelly found there was no opening and saw where the stool was coming from. Eva’s sister Biscuit is healthy. Shelly is keeping both and will have Nova spayed. More than one vet has suggested putting Eva down. Shelly cannot, because Eva is a happy, playful puppy who has no idea anything is wrong.

Shelly is the only earner in a household of eight: her husband, who is out of work after years in upholstery, her brother who has cerebral palsey, and five children. She works for IHSS, the state home care program, as a caregiver.

Eva is small, strong, and otherwise healthy, and this surgery has a very good success rate when done on time. Donations will cover her CT scan, bloodwork, anesthesia, the corrective surgery, hospitalization, antibiotics, pain medication, and follow-up care. She can have a normal life. She just needs it to start now. All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. Estimate for surgery is below, the CT scan is $2000 more (click to enlarge):

Update: Originally we set the goal at $1400 due to an error. We had the wrong amount from Oregon Humane, and also needed x-rays have not been done and are additional. The new goal of $2250 is correct. 

Mama’s is a 13-year-old female Shih Tzu and Chihuahua mix with a mast cell tumor on her lower belly, in the mammary area. Mast cell tumors are a common skin cancer in dogs, and the treatment is to remove them with a wide margin before they spread. Chest x-rays and bloodwork at the Oregon Humane Society came back clear, meaning no sign the cancer has traveled. The surgeons there say it should be a straightforward procedure with a good outcome.

Her owner Anjelique found the lump in August while Mama’s was lying on her back. A fine needle aspiration at her local vet confirmed mast cell cancer, but that clinic did not want to do the surgery. She took Mama’s to the Oregon Humane Society, where the workup was done on September 5 and the results came back clear on September 10. Anjelique has already spent more than $400 on the diagnosis and took out a $200 Cherry loan to cover part of it.

Mama’s has been with Anjelique her entire life. Anjelique’s great-grandmother had a Chihuahua who was pregnant when the great-grandmother passed away, and the litter arrived shortly after. Anjelique was 16 and took one of the puppies. Thirteen years later, Mama’s is the last living connection to her great-grandmother, and she has followed Anjelique from San Diego to Oregon and through every move since.

Anjelique teaches kindergarten through second grade at a private school in Oregon, where she went to college and decided to stay. Last year she had to go home to San Diego when her grandmother died, and she lost her job in the process. She was out of work for about six months until April of this year, and she is still catching up. She lives alone, and on a private school teacher’s salary with no cushion left, a surgery bill is not something she can absorb. We have worked with Oregon Humane Society numerous times, and they help people with financial difficulties get low cost treatment for their pets.

Mast cell tumors caught before they spread are very treatable, and Mama’s workup shows this one was caught in time. Donations will cover her anesthesia, surgery to remove the tumor, biopsy to confirm clean margins, pain medication, and follow-up care at the Oregon Humane Society. All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. Estimate and doctors report below, click either to enlarge: