Help Give Jamie’s Service Dog Emma a Fighting Chance @Cancer

UPDATE: we are proceeding with amputation of Emma’s back left leg in order to mitigate any chance of the cancer returning. Her surgery is scheduled for January 22nd.

TL;DR: vulnerability time - we need some financial support

Hi community ~

Unfortunately we just learned that our angel baby of a rescue, 8 year old Puerto Rican street dog, aka sata rescued through The Sato Project, Emma, has a spindle cell tumor on her back left knee that will need to be surgically removed. We will not know the official prognosis until the tumor is sent to the lab, but we do know that this type of cancer is not known to spread throughout the body; it is locally invasive. There is a world in which she will need either radiation post-surgery, or even amputation. If it comes down to saving her leg or her life, we will 100% save Emma's life (I imagine she'd be the cutest tripawd around if that's what has to happen). Baby girl is still playing like she did when she was a puppy, she is not ready to go yet. The minute she tells me she is, I will 10000000% make that impossible choice. But we're not there until we can learn the prognosis.

We're lucky that we have great pet insurance that will cover her needs at 80%, and they can even cover that number in advance through direct pay to our surgeon. If we didn't have that, we'd be completely lost. But unfortunately these costs are likely to get up into the $20-50K range, and the 20% is still going to be a lot for us to cover while we're recuperating from our wedding and saving for our first home.

We can't catch a break right now, so our safety net is our community.

Nobody "needs" a dog. But Emma is unfortunately no longer simply my dog, she has become my service animal the last two years and is a major part of my medical team as I now have her task trained. She is not public access because that is not where I tend to need her support, nor does she have the temperament for that sort of work. But that doesn't negate the fact that she is literally part of what keeps me functioning on a daily basis.

On her 8th birthday in November of 2024, her and I agreed that she is going to give me 8 more years. Your support towards 8 more years of Emma is greatly appreciated <3