Hello, this fundraiser is for our family dog, Cookie.

She is the sweetest, most loving, and mild-mannered dog and was recently diagnosed with cancer in her blood vessels. We are not in a position to afford another vet visit despite its necessity due to recent life events, and we need help with her medical costs.

Funds will be used to pay for her visit with our regular vet to get a second opinion on her diagnosis, clarification of any procedures, treatments, and/or alternatives, and a confirmation of the total costs involved. Funds will also be used to reimburse my brother for his out-of-pocket cost during her initial vet visit of $301.27; any remainder will be used towards additional expenses outside of vet visit and surgery.

The current goal is $5000 is based on the verbal estimate given of $3000 for surgery to stop her present bleeding and buffer for additional medications, treatment, and care. Depending on what the total costs are confirmed as, we'll adjust the goal as needed.

____

We adopted Cookie in November 2017, when she was a year old.

She quickly became a beloved member of our family and has grown up alongside our kids in the years since. She is very sweet and fiercely protective, yet not aggressive. She has been a source of love and companionship for everyone in our family and seems always to be right there when you need a hug. We love her so much.

Several months ago, we noticed she was bleeding from a small spot on her stomach, which soon healed, leading us to speculate that she may have been bitten or stung by a bug and had scratched at it too much. She seemed fine, had no change in demeanor, and didn't even pay attention to the area at the time, so we didn't give it further thought. Later down the line, we noticed she was bleeding again from the same spot. Tylor and I discussed it and thought perhaps she was scratching that area excessively out of anxiety and tried to address it as best as we could. The logic behind this was that she had previously licked part of her leg out of anxiety after her brother (Tylor's dog, Bouffi Papa) passed away. So we attributed it to anxiety and stress. We decided that she would need to go to the vet to get it checked out, but this was postponed several times due to finances.

We received notice that the landlord of the house Tylor lived in was selling the property, and he needed to move out by the end of July. This left us little room to squeeze in her visit before our kids and I went out of town earlier this month. We were out of town for the first week and a half of July while Tylor worked and started packing up the house. He later drove up to meet us towards the end of our trip, and it was on that day that we received the news.

My brother, Vince, loves Cookie just as much as we do and usually dog sits for us. He watched Cookie during our trip, and because her bleeding had started and seemed worse, he took her to the vet closest to him. The vet immediately diagnosed her with Hemangiosarcoma, cancer of the blood vessels, due to her sunbathing. It is common in dogs with short white hair, and sunbathing is one of her favorite things. We had no idea it would result in this. She was bleeding because the cancer caused that blood vessel to burst. Surgery was recommended to stop the bleeding, but the verbal estimate was $3000. Neither my brother, Tylor, nor I had that amount of excess funds available, so she received medication, some bandages, and styptic powder in the meantime. A timeframe or remaining estimated life span was not provided to us.

We intended to take Cookie to our regular vet so that we can get a second opinion on the diagnosis. We also hope to get more information on necessary procedures, treatment, and costs. Since having returned from our trip, our toddler Link got covid and we are now just recovered from - an additional delay. She is almost finished with her medication, but the bleeding is not getting better. We are starting to run out of the styptic powder, which is used to coagulate the blood and stop the bleeding.

We need to get her seen and treated as soon as possible, but we don't have the funds right now to do so. In between packing and working on Tylor's end, working both my day job and running my small business, and juggling the kids and Cookie's care, we don't have a quick way of acquiring what we need to get her to the vet and get surgery. We have insurance for her through Lemonade, but they only partially reimburse after a claim is filed and accepted. All out of pocket costs are on us handle up front. I am in the process of selling personal items of value and having sales in-person and online for my shop to try to garner funds, but that will take time. Time isn't something that we have a lot of.

Cookie is not yet six. In an alternate universe where she didn't have cancer, she wouldn't be leaving us any time soon. Because we don't have concrete information on how long she might have, I've tried to research as much as I could of her diagnosis.

What we know:

Below is the documentation/handout and receipt for the vet visit where my brother received the initial diagnosis. Because these photos are getting cropped, I am including a link to directly view the photos via Google Drive.

The funds will be used for the following, in order:

Facts About Cookie:

• Cookie was adopted November 2017 from the Animal Foundation.
  
• Cookie loves attention! She loves love, and will take any opportunity she can to get some from you.
  
• Cookie's favorite pastime (aside from sunbathing, which is a no-no now) is riding in the car with the window down. She'll put half of her body out of it if you let her!
  
• Cookie's best friend is Ollie, our younger daughter, who is the same age as her.
  
• Cookie loves to chase Tylor when he's running or on a skateboard.
  
• Cookie is the best cuddler.
  
• Cookie will eat any food left out on the table or counter the second you have your back turned, but knows it's wrong and will immediately run into her kennel when you ask her if she ate the food.
  
• Cookie's birthday was estimated around September, but we don't know the actual date. Because of this, we celebrate her birthday on Tylor's birthday, also in September!
  
• Cookie's favorite to-go treat is a pup cup from Dutch Bros. She loves the employees and when we pull into the drive thru, she climbs into the driver's lap (whether that be Tylor or I, doesn't even matter to her) and demand/require pets from them.
  
• Cookie is really an integral part of our family. We love her so very much, and if you met her, we know you would too.
  

Here is a link to see more photos and video of Cookie , from the time we first met until now. Please note that some of the photos are of her current condition and there is some blood (TW).

Thank you for reading this far. Anything helps, monetarily or not. Please help Cookie recover from this and continue to grow up with our family.