A second chance for our angel, Willow Mozo.

Aloha, dear family and friends,

We come to you with hopeful and humble hearts. This past week our sweet girl Willow was diagnosed with IVDD (Intervertebral Disc Disease) and had to have a life-saving surgery. IVDD is a spinal disorder that follows from the herniating of an intervertebral disc inside the spine and is relatively common with Frenchies. Within 5 days she went from being normal, to body shakes and pain, to completely losing the ability to use her back legs or control her bowels. It was heartbreaking to see her suffer. The procedures and treatments that come with this condition are costly. To properly diagnose her, the MRI alone was $3,000. To repair the discs that are blown open and causing pressure on her spinal cord (causing paralysis) requires surgery which starts at $6,500. Her 3 day hospital stay after the surgery will be another $3,500. We know this is a lot of money. It’s more than we, and most people have in their savings account, but the other options to let her suffer or put her down, aren’t options for us. The Vet said Willow still has a strong, motivated, fighting spirit and lots of life yet to live. She gave her a 90-95% chance of recovery so we have made the decision to go ahead with surgery having faith that even though we don’t have all the money, we will trust the process and find a way.

We come to you with humble hearts to ask if you can help in any way with this Christmas miracle. Willow has been a gift from the moment we met her, gifted to us by the Saffrey Ohana at just 8 weeks old. She has been an empathic and supportive companion to each family member through our hard times and at only 7 years old, we still need her here with us. She brings so much joy and unity to our family and is more than just a “pet”. She is a certified Emotional Support and Service Animal and has done her job so well throughout her entire life. Her love reaches each and every single person she meets and she radiates joy wherever she goes. Though it will be worth every penny to do this surgery, it has put our family in a tough spot financially. Your love, prayers, and support have meant the world to us during this difficult, emotional experience. Our new obstacle and struggle is seeing it through financially. It’s so tough asking for monetary support in this situation, economy, and time of year. But we are desperate to keep our sweet Willow alive and pain free. We need your assistance to help cover the balance of her surgery and hospital stay so we can bring her home. We will need half of all charges to be paid when picking her up and the other half will be due just one week after. Then she will need 4 weeks of Physical therapy, in addition to medications and many other things. Any donation, small or large will not go unnoticed and is deeply appreciated from the bottom of our hearts.

Willow's latest adventure was moving to Utah with Yani and Hayden, who have been caring for her. Willow has cared for them too as her presence gave them comfort and peace while away from home. Willow misses running on the beach and sunbathing in her backyard and we are hoping that when all her treatments are done, she will be able to live out the remainder of her life finding big sticks on the beach with her ohana.

Mahalo nui loa for taking the time to read our humble request; and for loving our family over the years. We know if you have met Willow, you understand the reason for this plea. We are so grateful for each of you and send our deepest wishes for your health and happiness, especially at this special time of year.

With love, The Mozo Ohana