BLUE'S SURGERY...and Artie wants treats ;)

Sandra Pruneda is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hello, my name is Sandra and I'm an RVT (animal nurse). I found myself at a young age loving and helping all sorts of animals and have been working with them for 35 yrs as a veterinary nurse. Over those years, I have taken in SO many pets. I worked Emergency for 15 yrs so many came to me there as dumps, strays or people would give them up. I am truly a sucker for animals! It is who I am and I will never stop helping these poor unwanted, neglected and thrown away animals.

Over the past several months, after losing my sweet old pitbull "Chubby", I decided I needed to help another pitbull and honor his memory. He was truly the best boy ever! Anyhow, I found myself scrolling on Instagram and saw a post for Blue and Artie on the Stand up for Pitbulls Foundation page. These two broke my heart as I knew they were coming up for euthanasia and I didn't see any real interest in them. They were picked up by animal control as strays and when the owners were located, they didn't want them back and turned them over to the shelter. Blue has sagging skin on her belly indicating pregnancies and with the amount of loose skin, I know there were many. And Artie was un-neutered and underweight. Two 80-85 lbs wonderful and bonded hippos!! As difficult as I knew it would be, and since I work from home in veterinary telemedicine, I decided to take them in and I have NO regrets! Don't get me wrong, they are 2 powerful animals with high prey drive and no training but in the 2 months I've had them, they have done so well and are learning beautifully to become house hippos! I could tell they had no idea what manners were and had no idea how to live in a home or walk well on a leash without wanting to attack any animal that crosses our path. But we're working on it! Since I have other pets, they are separated from them, which makes things difficult, but no worries as we are making this work!

When I met Blue at the shelter, I noticed some concerning skin masses on her abdomen. They are not big but knew they would need surgical removal. I had them evaluated and they are most likely hemangiomas (benign vascular tumors) or hemangiosarcomas (cancerous vascular tumors). I was not expecting this but knew that I needed to take Blue and Artie home. Hopefully, surgical removal of these masses is curative (and they are not cancer), but they may continue to pop up over her lifetime.

The reason I am here on GoFundMe is to raise funds for Blue's surgery and care. Any donation will go directly to her surgery and if there are any extra funds, it would go towards items for both Blue and Artie! I have never fund raised for any pets I have rescued (and there have been many) and since I am not a 501c3 rescue, I was unable to collect any pledges made towards Blue and Artie's rescue. A friend recommended I try GoFundMe so here I am. I have included an estimate for the surgery (~$2500) and the pre-surgical lab work (already done $325). The surgery will be in June. I greatly appreciate your time in reading our story as well as any donation you could give. Blue and Artie thank you too! I have been absent from my social media but will begin posting more about these two if you ever want to see how they are. Thank you again!

Sandra, Blue and Artie

My IG page: https://www.instagram.com/svpruneda/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandra.v.pruneda/

STAND UP FOR PITS FOUNDATION IG POST WHEN AT SHELTER:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4tZ0rsPKD9/?hl=en