Cheddar is a rescue dog who’s been through more loss in her short life than an innocent dog deserves. Originally found as a stray at the side of the road in Texas, she was rescued by Arklatex Animal rescue. In Texas, Cheddar was at the centre of a massive social media campaign to find her a home that could give her the boundless patience, intense training and unconditional love that she needed to thrive. For a while, it wasn’t looking good for Cheddar… until she became the lucky foster of Toronto dog trainer, Shaun Harnack.

In Shaun’s home, Cheddar blossomed under his guidance, and in May 2021, he formally adopted her, knowing that he was one of the rare people with the dog behaviour expertise needed to help a dog like Cheddar.

For a while, her life was a dream come true, living with her dad, being loved by him, and playing with all the dogs at his doggy daycare. Then, on May 26th, Cheddar’s whole world came crashing down when Shaun passed away tragically and unexpectedly at the age of 40. Just a week later, in the care of Shaun’s partner, Cheddar slipped her collar and was hit by a vehicle, shattering her hip and leg. She has since been surrendered back into the care of her original rescuers so that we can fund the surgery she so badly needs, oversee her complex medical care and help heal Cheddar, who was the love of Shaun’s life.

During his short life, Shaun helped so many people with his boundless compassion and willingness to do whatever it took to alleviate animal and human suffering. He fostered over 22 dogs in need, sending all of them off to their happy endings. Now, we are asking the community Shaun loved so much to step up for his dog, and help ensure that his girl Cheddar gets to hold on to her happy ending, too. At the moment, Cheddar has lost everything she ever knew, while enduring painful skeletal fractures to her leg and hips. No dog deserves a broken heart *and* a broken body, and we know that it would’ve meant the world to Shaun to see his beloved community step up to heal his “Cheesy Girl,” as he always called her.

At the time of this writing (June 16th), Cheddar has not received any surgical intervention. Rescuers have provided her with veterinary consultation, and are making arrangements to expedite her surgery with a specialist and get her on the operating table this week. The estimated costs are $15000 CAD at the high end of veterinary estimates, although we may change this goal amount in either direction as we get more information on Cheddar's veterinary needs, and we will keep you all appraised of the situation. To ensure full transparency regarding Cheddar’s medical costs, we will provide our donors with uploads of estimates and invoices from every stage of her veterinary care on this page. We will also provide you with regular updates about how she’s doing, No donation is too small, and shares of this campaign are equally appreciated. For those of us who knew and loved Shaun, this has been a heart breaking time. Please help us to make that heart break a little easier on Cheddar, and all who know and love her.