Nicki

Hi, my name is NICKI! I am a 1-year-old lab mix with tons of energy and lots of love to give. I am a true cuddle-bug and I so badly want to please my humans, I'll do anything they want to make them as happy as they've made me.

Unfortunately, I have spent the first year of my life trying to chew my way out of the cages I lived in at various shelters which resulted in me breaking almost all my teeth. I've had numerous issues that keep me from gaining weight. Recently, I was returned to the shelter for the third time with an excuse that I was not getting along with the other dogs in the house. Shortly after I met my newest owners when they came to adopt a shelter mate of mine but I lucked out and won them over instead! I was so happy when I got to their home and found a fenced-in yard along with lots of soft dog beds and a grandma with a little one of her own to play with. It was truly the best day of my life, these humans are awesome!

Two weeks later, my humans brought me to that scary place where people touched and poked at me. This led to another appointment somewhere else for some more poking but this time, my mom started to cry so I tried to lick her tears to make her feel better. It turns out, that the real reason I've been returned all these times is because I have a blockage in my heart (pulmonary stenosis) along with an abnormal type of growth over the other half of my heart. As you can probably surmise, my illness is terminal and without a very expensive surgery, I will not live much longer than a year. My humans want me to have the surgery but didn't anticipate the extra cost and can't afford to do it alone.

I'm begging harder than I ever have for help because I want to stay with these people and live a normal life. If you could donate anything to help my humans get through this, I'd be forever grateful.

Hi all, Andrew and Linda here. We are Nicki's latest and forever owners. If Nicki could talk, we believe her words above would ring true. After losing our last pup to a fast cancer growth unexpectedly, we finally decided it was time to give another pup a chance at an amazing life. We searched long and hard for our next pup and met Nicki by chance. She was sweet and lovable it was hard to resist her, especially after hearing about the abuse she was getting at her last home from the other pets. She was also emaciated, appearing undernourished. The shelter did inform us of her heart murmur and therefore, she was not spayed yet, but having heart issues and a murmur of my own I wasn't too concerned. When I brought her to the vet because she wasn't gaining weight, we learned that her murmur was actually a blockage. We are now 4 weeks into our adoption with Nicki and already $1600 out of pocket with another $8000-$10000 to go to save her life. We will never return her to the shelter and we are willing to go into debt to save her life. We are asking for some extra help with these expenses. Please help us with a small donation towards saving Nicki's life. Every bit will go towards her surgery and follow-up and anything left over will be donated to another pup in need.

We are extremely grateful for reading our story. Thank you in advance & Happy Holidays to all!

With sincerest appreciation,

Andrew & Linda Skinner