Still Zoe -The Montenegro Family Pooch

Hello all! Recently our beloved Zoe Bug was diagnosed with skin cancer when a small scar on her nose started growing and tripled in size in just a few months. Cancer is a growing health problem in dogs and cats, with over 5 million new cases every year. Unfortunately, the treatments are so expensive that most people, exhausting all other options before making such a hard decision, opt for putting their loving animals to sleep to soon to avoid pain and discomfort. Our Zoe, despite the growing cancer mass on her nose, is still full of life and energy! 

For those wondering why we don't just let her go, the answer to that is she is very much Still Zoe (as her doctor likes to say whenever she sees her). She is still eating enthusiastically (at times yelling at me if she doesn't get her dinner on time!), drinking normal, excited about her daily rides to drop Sol of at school, and MORE than happy when she hears the chains for walks. Sadly, last week Zoe woke to her nostrils almost closed because of the tumor almost doubling over night. We got in today with her oncologist who told us she has less than a month to live unless we add radiation and the more expensive yet affective chemo to her current chemo treatments. Zoe's cancer spread to her lymph nodes and possibly elsewhere. Feeling heartbroken, crushed and hopeless I remembered a friend had told us about You Fund and we thought "ok, well it can't hurt! We have nothing to lose! But we did have Zoe, a member of our family to lose if we didn't try.

Zoe will have to undergo 6-7 radiation treatments on her nose costing roughly $2,500 or $570.00 a week for 6-7 weeks. On top of that, she will have to continue with chemo treatments alternating between 2 different meds so as to avoid her becoming resistant. The rotation of the different chemos will come to $283.58 every 2 weeks using Vinblastine followed 3 weeks later by Lomustine at $367.11 a treatment to get the cancer in her body under control. After it's in control, she will be lowered to a smaller and less frequent dose of chemo. So we are basically looking at 700$ a month in chemo for the first few months, followed by 400$ a month once under control. A year of treatments are estimated to cost around $9,600. 

We are asking you, our friends and family who have had the pleasure of falling in love with Zoe's kind, innocent, and loving eyes; who have gotten to love her sweet-hearted personality; who have shared in the joy she has brought to everyone who has met her, to please help us in our quest to keep her on this planet until that happy tail of hers stops wagging not because of cancer but because of age! 

As for her prognosis based on the funds we raise:
-doing nothing will buy her weeks
-just chemo will buy her 4-5 months
-adding the radiation and more affective chemo rotation can buy her years!

According to her doctor, the next couple months with both the radiation and chemo will be tough for her but once the radiation is complete, she will be back to Still Zoe and ready for her trips to Michigan this summer, runs in Humboldt park, and belly rubs.  Please consider donating.  Even if it's 10$, or 5$, or even 1$! You have no idea how happy you will be making one family. And if you can't find the extra cash to spare, please share with animal lovers in your life!