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Help 2 yr old Harvey Get Liver Surgery

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JP and I are fostering one of the sweetest chihuahua mixes we've ever met! We have named her Harvey and are trying to fundraise for a simple surgery to help her liver function properly to prolong her life expectancy and improve her quality of life. She's been with us for a couple of weeks now and is settling in nicely - she's found her favorite spot on the couch, and loves snuggling with Stella under the covers at night. We would love to see Harvey's health and homelife stabilize - she started as a stray, then was adopted, returned, put on death row, and had 3 foster families already in her short life of 2 years. We need our friends and family's help in raising the funds to get Harvey surgery so she can be the princess puppy in the happy forever home (most likely ours) that she truly deserves. Any contribution great or small would mean so much to us.

If you want to read a bit more in detail about her life story and medical condition, you can see it below.


Harvey has had as many names as she has homes. Originally a stray found by Multnomah County Animal Services, it was immediately apparent that this little nugget of wonder named Lulu was a good candidate for a forever home and a family. A family did come along to adopt her - and named her Lily - but after only 6 months they returned her to Multnomah County. They had significant problems keeping up with her both because of her (at the time undetermined) medical condition and because of their own financial hardship. She was drinking water excessively (to the point of making herself vomit...and then drinking some more) and urinating just as much. After their vet ruled out kidney stones, the family brought her back to Multnomah County to see if the vets there could run more tests. Multnomah County determined that some of the blood vessels that should have been routing blood from her intestines into her liver were actually routing them around her liver, causing toxic blood to circulate to her heart. This also impacted her kidneys and ultimately created the urination and excessive thirst problem.

The family who had originally adopted her had the opportunity to take her back home with them, but after 6 short and challenging months they decided to relinquish her back to the care of the County. Harvey had nowhere to go and no family to care for her. Since she's not considered a "healthy" dog, she would have been a prime candidate for euthanasia. That's when Gail, a local animal advocate and foster coordinator, stepped in. She found a temporary foster who already had too many animals to care for. Another family stepped in to foster her and named her Lily Celene, but with two dogs and two kids of their own, the little pup was more than they could care for.

Then came us! JP and I were randomly at an open house our friend was hosting and a woman saw me with Stella and asked if we were in the market for another chihuahua in our family. JP and I had been talking about fostering a dog so the woman and I got to talking. She forwarded me the request for foster/adoption families that Gail put out and after seeing some pictures, JP and I knew that we needed to meet the pup. We knew right away that she is a special character and while her medical care is a bit of work, we felt strongly that we wanted to bring her into our home.

All of the adoption/fostering/medical issues craziness has taken place just since last July. It's been a wild 8 months for Harvey, and we think it's time she gets to settle down.

We're taking her to basic obedience classes and generally integrating her as part of our family. We would like to raise the money for this surgery, nurse her through it, and adopt her officially as part of our family. And we would be so grateful for your support in helping us to make that happen. We would like to see Harvey snuggling by the fire for many more winters to come.

Donations 

  • corinne beuchet
    • $20 
    • 10 yrs
  • Asher Wallis
    • $20 (Offline)
    • 10 yrs
  • Mikal & Irena
    • $250 (Offline)
    • 10 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $50 (Offline)
    • 10 yrs
  • Courtney
    • $20 (Offline)
    • 10 yrs

Organizer

Erica Aster Blume Bestpitch
Organizer
Portland, OR

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