Hail, Ceasar! Beware the Ides of Marching to the ER!

Our sister—or aunt, depending on which one of us you imagine typing this—has been dreaming of a big dog for years. Over many years of holiday dinner conversation, she's fine-tuned her dream plan for that eventual partnership between her and the mythical Big Dog.

So, recently, when she called us in a bit of a tizzy and said that an associate of hers had a not-quite-yet-fully-grown Bernese Mountain Dog in desperate need of a home—or at least a temporary one—we knew. The way she described it, she was going to “temporarily” take him in while things settled down for him. But anyone who’s ever fostered an animal knows: the temporary part of the plan is the only part that's really temporary.

Needless to say, there was a whirlwind of kibble comparisons, toy purchases, and feelings getting caught in every direction. And, as predicted, “temporary” turned into “forever.” It was heartwarming. It was adorable.

That was maybe two months ago, tops. Something like that. The facts aren’t on the tip of my brain right now.

This weekend, she came home and—there’s really no delicate way to put this—the house was covered in blood. Hallways. Carpets. Doors. The whole place smelled like it. Caesar, the sweet pup, was bleeding out of his muzzle and it just wouldn’t stop.

You can imagine how that went. It was scary. It was heartbreaking. She rushed him to the emergency vet, convinced she was going to lose him. His blood pressure had tanked. The bleeding wouldn’t slow down. It was a nightmare.

I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow. But it involved a lot of panic, a lot of urgent testing, and a lot of money—expensive medical tests that resumed the next morning when the bleeding started all over. CT scans. Tox screens. All of it inconclusive. Caesar’s now on a slew of medications, and for the moment, the bleeding has been stopped—he’s been stable for just over a day. But there’s still a long way to go.

The plan now is to continue testing through a regular vet (which is much more affordable than the emergency route), but things got financially brutal, fast. We're talking “talking to 401K people about early withdrawals” brutal. Like, “don’t know how bills or groceries are happening this week” brutal.

Thankfully, it looks like Caesar’s stable enough to switch to non-emergency care—but the bills are already steep, and it’s not over yet. We don’t even have a worst-case estimate, but a reasonable (if painful) guess is around $7,000—and that’s if nothing serious turns up and it all goes smoothly from here.

Caesar is a sweet-hearted, lovable goof. He’s not even fully grown—maybe 95% there—and he’s already a big boy. He’s just such a nice guy. He finally found his forever home with someone who was ready to love her first Big Dog, and this is a really crappy thing to happen right at the beginning.

Please help us turn this around. Help us make sure this bond goes the way it was supposed to—from near-tragedy to lifelong friendship—while also minimizing the financial wreckage.

We’ll keep you posted with updates (and more pictures of Caesar, because he’s a handsome fella).

Thank you for helping to make this story merely scary… instead of scary and tragic.