Hi everyone,

My name is Tyrone, and I’m creating this GoFundMe for my girlfriend Shelby and her baby boy, Hoodie.

If you know Hoodie, you love Hoodie. Shelby has had Hoodie as long as I’ve known her.

He is a six-year-old Staffordshire Terrier with the biggest heart imaginable. He loves people, children, cats, and honestly believes every person he meets is his best friend. Even the staff at the veterinary hospital have completely fallen in love with him. This GFM was a vet’s idea, who urged us to reach out for support.

Hoodie is the kind of dog that will walk laps around the dog park with a complete stranger. This has happened. He runs up to someone. They pet on him. And he spends the rest of his time hanging out with his new friend.

One of the reasons I fell in love with Shelby is because of how deeply she loves animals. Long before Hoodie became critically ill, Shelby spent years helping dogs & people on local reservations. She organized food donations, bringing straw and dog houses in the winter, contacting rescues, fostering dogs, helping get medical care for strays, and money out of her out of her own pocket to help animals most people overlooked. Shelby has been well known by the stray dogs at a local reservation. They run up to her car when they see her. Knowing she has foods, pets, a warm car to sit in for a while, and maybe, they’ll be lucky and she’ll have found a rescue placement for them.

Now, the dog that needs people to rally around him is hers.

Hoodie’s story with Shelby started in Fort Worth, Texas, in early 2020.

Shelby and her sister Hailey adopted him from an animal control facility for $50. As they were walking out with this tiny, sickly puppy, one of the Animal Control Officers stopped them and said, “Wait - you’re taking this one?” He reached down, cupped Hoodie’s jaw, tilted Hoodie’s face upwards to take a good look at him and said “Nice, a pitbull. Tell them Gary said you can just take him for free.” When the girls told him they had already paid and didn’t mind, he said “next time ask to adopt via donation. The dogs here don’t see any of their adoption money otherwise.

That little dog became Hoodie. Named after Hood County, Texas.

Shelby only had him for about 24 hours before he became critically ill for the first time. In order to take him from the pound, he had to be neutered. Unfortunately, he wasn’t healthy enough for this operation. He had been neutered while extremely emaciated and aspirated afterward, developing severe pneumonia.

The emergency vet at the time told Shelby, “Good thing you’ve only had him for 24 hours and aren’t attached yet, because he probably isn’t going to make it.”

But Shelby and Hailey were already attached. And told him so.

Shelby emptied her bank account trying to save him. She stayed in Texas until he was finally stable enough to travel home.

And he made it.

That has been Hoodie ever since: a fighter.

Unfortunately, Hoodie is also incredibly accident-prone and deeply food motivated. Like many rescue pups, he has never forgot what it felt like to be starving as a puppy. Last week, after chewing on a frozen organic marrow bone, he swallowed pieces of the bone itself.

That decision nearly killed him.

On Sunday, Hoodie was rushed into emergency surgery with sepsis caused by bone perforating his stomach and intestines. He went to 2 vets, each trying to stabilize him enough to get to the next one in time. He is now in the care of the incredible ICU & CCU (critical care unit) teams at VCA CARE Calgary.

Since then, he has undergone two major abdominal surgeries, spent seven straight days in critical care and ICU, battled repeated septic episodes, pneumonia, collapsed lungs, blood pressure crashes, transfusions, plasma infusions, oxygen support, and more.

4/7 nights Hoodie has been hospitalized Shelby has received calls in the middle of the night, telling her Hoodie is in need of more support, asking whether she wanted to authorize yet another plasma transfusion, a blood transfusion, another emergency intervention — each one costing thousands more dollars.

And every single time, I have watched her immediately answer “yes. Do it now quickly please.” Then drop to the floor to pray for both Hoodie and how she’ll make it happen on her end.

Because Hoodie keeps fighting.

The veterinarians caring for him have repeatedly said that this dog still has a spark in his eye. They have described him as a fighter. One of the ICU vets recently told Shelby that Hoodie is fighting hard, and she believes Hoodie needs more time — but that time in critical care is extremely expensive.

As of today, Shelby has spent approximately $50,000 trying to save the dog she originally adopted for $50.

She has emptied her accounts, taken out multiple loans, and said goodbye to savings that were meant for her future.

And still, she keeps saying the same thing to Hoodie: “As long as you keep fighting and figuring out the dog stuff, I will keep fighting and figuring out the human stuff.”

On Friday, we thought we were finally turning a corner. Hoodie improved enough that, for the first time, he was able to leave the ICU for a peaceful visit without being hooked up to his heart rate and blood pressure monitors. When Shelby walked into the room and said hello, while laying on his side, his tail wagged for the first time in days.

It felt like hope.

Unfortunately, later that same day, he crashed again and required another surgery on Saturday.

The good news is that the surgeons discovered his stomach repair had healed beautifully, and half of the intestinal repair had healed as well. They found the leaking section, repaired it, and he successfully made it through surgery… again. Hoodie is not giving up. He wants to be at home.

His recovery is still ongoing. He may ultimately require a partial paw amputation because of tissue damage caused by lifesaving blood pressure medications. He remains in critical care, but the vets continue telling us the same thing: Hoodie has never once stopped trying. He’s made it through every trial yet and still has a spark in his eye.

To quote Shelby “We have to keep going. When Hoodie is given resources, he gives us results.”

We are asking for help because we are simply reaching the point where we cannot continue carrying this alone.

Every dollar donated will go directly toward Hoodie’s medical care and recovery. We don’t know as of now what that will ultimately be. Hoodie is receiving the absolute best care possible and that comes with a cost.

If, by some miracle, funds exceed what Hoodie ultimately needs, every remaining dollar will be paid forward to another family fighting just as hard for their own animal.

We are also asking for prayers, positive thoughts, Reiki, meditation, healing energy — anything you believe in.

I have left my Bible beside Hoodie’s crib at the ICU open to Psalm 41:3 (“The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness, you restore him to full health”). We have prayed over him every single day. We go in twice a day. Friends, family, and strangers from around the world have been praying for him nonstop. People Shelby has never met are praying for him.

And through all of this, Hoodie keeps fighting to come home.

He is only six years old.

He still has so much life left to live.

We just need help getting him there.

His case is not hopeless. He continues to slowly heal. But he just needs the funds that provide the time necessary to do so.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for reading, sharing, praying, donating, and standing with Hoodie.

Let’s bring our boy home to his mommy.