Our yellow Labrador, Tilly, started life out training to be an assistance dog for people with disabilities as part of the charity, Canine Partners.

Unfortunately, possibly partly due to lockdown disrupting her training but largely due to her own anxieties she failed to complete the training. She struggled in busy public places such as shops and going up escalators.

We were lucky enough our family got the first option of keeping her.

She is a beautiful family companion who has helped motivate me to get outside and walk more in spite of my ME/CFS. She helps calm neurodiversities in our house by

giving the best cuddles and can often be seen listening to a book being read to her.

But her very favourite thing to do is go on walks and never happier when she finds a huge, muddy puddle to splash about in.

We have often considered renaming her Peppa after the obnoxious little cartoon pig. Strangely enough, she’s not as keen on the water from the hosing down in the garden when we get home.

This week however, whilst trying to enjoy a much needed family holiday in the sun, she became very subdued and unlike her super bouncy self. No better way to tell there’s something wrong with a Labrador than for them to refuse food which she did at breakfast and dinner time. Thankfully, my mum decided it was time to take her to the vets. Initially it was assumed she had eaten something she shouldn’t have on a walk. Quite possibly a stick.

Then we got the shocking news that they think she may have a form of lymphoma cancer. Treatment has started whilst we await confirmation of what type, how aggressive it is and whether there is any hope that treatment may work. Now suddenly we are told that treatment has caused bleeding which urgently needs a blood transfusion.

We thought we were covered by insurance as well as a Pet Plan with the vet. However, it seems this will only cover the initial £5k and we are looking at a possibly £12k +

We want to give our beautiful dog a fighting chance. She is a big part of our family and deserves it. We will do what we can to cover the large majority of costs ourselves and will only follow the advice of the vets on whether it is fair to put her through whatever is needed. But if anyone is able to offer us even the slightest bit of financial assistance to help reduce the crippling costs we would be so completely and utterly grateful.

Thank you for reading to the end.

The Irvine family - especially our five year old pup, Tilly. xxxxx

Pupdates:

5th June 2024: Thank you so much to everyone who donated. With your help, Tilly was able to receive a blood transfusion over night. Thanks to that, we were able to get home to see her. It now looks as though we will be moving to palliative care for her.

8th June 2024: Thanks to the steroids and chemo, today we had a normal day with our Tils. We walked on the common & she splashed in her favourite muddy pond. Not content with that she joined in at Kitty’s birthday party barking for balls to be thrown & gobbling up any crumbs or leftovers (diets out the window!) Home to dinner of sardines (turned her nose up at her old dinner) & medicine, said no thanks to a pupcicle before going off to bed ❣️