Hi friends, family, and others, thank you for your time reading Willow’s story.

We rescued Willow from Paws N Claws on 9/11/2023. She is a great pyrenees breed and was the smallest in her little. At first, we thought she had pneumonia and we were worried she wouldn’t make it through those first two nights. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of her fight with her health problems. We started noticing that she had trouble using the stairs, that she wasn’t understanding potty training, and that she seemed very confused most of the time.

After taking her to multiple vets, we learned that she had bilateral back hip dysplasia (her hip sockets don’t fully cover the ball portion of her upper thigh bone, she has this on both sides). She is cognitively impaired, which means she has trouble with learning, understanding, remembering, and decision making. She has an arched spine and her front two legs are bowed due to (what the vet thinks) both of her front legs being broken when she was born and then healed incorrectly. She is unable to easily walk up or down stairs, she will never be completely potty trained, she can’t jump (but she loves when we lift her up), and she has some trouble eating with her underbite.

Willow has really bad anxiety, which stems from the confusion caused by her cognitive impairment. She is scared of everything, from the wind to the fans in our house or any loud sound. She can also become very aggressive without warning, again, due to her cognitive impairment which causes her to her unable to use clear thinking and decision making skills. She has also developed severe allergies, which cause her to scratch and bite herself until she bleeds.

Willow will need to be medicated for the rest of her life to control her anxiety, aggression, allergies, and for pain control. This does not include the supplements she needs for her bones, joints, immune system, overall health maintenance, and ones that help keep her calm as well. She also requires special dog food to help her keep her weight up as well.

Willow needs regular vet visits to monitor her health, and now they are wanting to refer her to a specialist in the Twin Cities of MN for further research into her condition. And due to her increasing anxiety and aggression, she will need to start seeing a dog behavioralist and will need to do more dog training.

We love Willow more than anything, she is not just a pet to us, she is a part of our family. We have been told that we could behaviorally euthanize her, but we refuse to give up on her. She is the sweetest, funniest, most loving dog, and she deserves to live the absolute best life she can, the life she deserves.

Which brings us to why I’m starting this GoFundMe. With all the vet bills for routine care and emergency care, we are not able to continue to cover the essentials for her health including her medications, supplements, and her specific food. We aren’t able to afford to take her to the vet in the cities that may be able to help find out the cause of all of her ailments and we aren’t able to afford to take her to a pet behavioralist and trainer to be able to address her anxiety and worsening aggression. She has tried to attack myself and my other dogs multiple times now, and I worry that it will continue happening without the training and medications that she needs.

As much as I don’t want to ask for help, I am asking because she deserves the chance to get better and to live a happy and pain free life. She is part of my family and I don’t want to consider behavioral euthanasia unless we have exhausted every single other option.

Please consider donating to help Willow get the care she deserves, and know that every donation will be improving her quality of life. Any amount helps, small or large. Or if you can’t afford to donate, even sharing her page helps. And if you’ve made it this far into reading her story, thank you, we appreciate you, and we love you all.