Crow has Cancer.

My name is Kim Kowalski. Some may know me as "Mama Kim" or "Clever Kim" depending on where you hear it. My sweetest goofiest boy Crow just got diagnosed with a mast cell tumor today. It's a bit larger than a golf ball, and right under his front "armpit". My husband and I are experienced dog owners and have both had several dogs throughout our lives, and we thought it was simply a fatty lipoma. We let it go until it suddenly grew rapidly; unfortunately we were terribly wrong.

Crow is an incredibly happy, smart, sweet, athletic dog of 4 years. We adopted him when we first moved to Tucson from the shelter here (PACC) and we've always thought it was one of the best things we've ever done. Everyone who meets him falls in love with him. He loves everyone in the house- three other dogs of all sizes, and the six cats. He's even helped raise two of the cats from about 2 weeks old, and is very gentle with them. He's crazy about chasing and retrieving a ball to exhaustion.

You may be thinking "Why don't you just apply for Care Credit?" And- we did, we have had and used Care Credit for many years. Our oldest cat turned fifteen this month, and she recently needed a LOT of dental surgery; that's where the Care Credit went. We're still paying it back down. We even had savings for emergencies- and they went to help support my mom, who just went into ICU with sepsis last week (yes, the hits just keeping coming this month!) and my niece who lives with her.

If I'm able, I'll be posting a screenshot of the estimate from the vet so you can see where the money will go. Since I am self-employed and work from home, Crow's recovery will be spent literally leashed to my body so I can keep him re-injuring himself.

If you aren't comfortable donating through gofundme I'd be more than happy to give you the contact info for the vet so you can send money directly to them (though I haven't checked with them if that's okay to be honest, so that may change).

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. Even if you don't have the means to donate, it would mean so much to us if you could share this campaign! With the crazy way social media works you never know who might come across your post and be able to help us out.

Our family appreciates you and any help you can share with us.

Update on May 1: We are so thankful and deeply appreciative of all your help! We are already more than halfway there, and I scheduled his surgery for May 18.

Any overage will be spent on his follow-up vet bills, and on the sedative the vet offered us for his recovery. He's a VERY active dog, and he isn't going to love being tied to Mom for a month or however long recovery is. The tumor is in a very awkward place- directly under his right front leg (in the armpit if he were a person) so it's very liable to tear if we let him move around very much. That sedative will probably end up being a (his) lifesaver.