Help Grid and Julia fund Misha's Medical Bills

This past year has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs. In June of last year, Grid had their much awaited for gender affirming top surgery, which just so happened to coincide with when Grid and Julia closed on their house in NE Minneapolis. While we had financially prepared for a lot of things, one thing we could not have foreseen to prepare for was our dog Misha’s injury. When we took her to the vet to confirm the damage, we were informed that she had a full cruciate tear in her left leg, and looking at the x-rays, we discovered she was at risk for her right leg as well. We were informed that the course of treatment was to complete a Tibial-plateau-leveling osteotomy (TPLO) surgery. Thankfully, we have pet insurance and began the process of preparing for surgery. Misha had her surgery on 3/29/23 and we began the lengthy and time consuming eight week recovery. Both Grid and Julia had to take quite a bit of PTO, work from home, and significantly cut back on any outside activities to be hands on for Misha’s recovery, which included medication management, icing, physical therapy, comforting a sad pup, and finding ways to keep a very active dog inactive. Unfortunately, post surgery we heard back that only part of the surgery was reimbursable due to the prior treatment we sought to support Misha leading up to the surgery. Furthermore, we found that although the TPLO surgery itself was a success, the tightening of her knee cap was not, which caused her kneecap to slip out of place. As of this past week, we were informed that Misha will need surgery to correct the failed knee surgery which includes another major surgery with an eight week recovery. One last variable is that Julia has been preparing over this last season to transition from her current job where she was both salaried as a therapist and social work supervisor to an independent contractor role in order to find better work life balance. Julia had officially put in her resignation only to receive the news three days later that Misha would need another surgery, which will greatly impact her savings plan for this job transition. With this second, unforeseen surgery, we are looking at being at least 5,000 dollars in the hole. We are so filled with gratitude for all of the emotional and physical support we have had from our family and friends over the past year. For example, we had countless friends help us pack up and move, help with painting the house, people coming and keeping Grid company while they recovered from surgery, providing food and snacks (or more importantly for Grid, coffee!), and a shoulder to cry on when things were feeling tough. We have come to the realization that we are at our limit for navigating the financial aspect surrounding Misha’s current medical needs. In order to continue providing the care necessary and for our own mental, physical, and financial well-being, we have decided to reach out for financial support. …A little about Misha: As a lot of you may know… Grid is a big time dog person and has been working towards having their own dog in their adult life for a long time but with being a youth worker and having long, unpredictable hours, it wasn’t able to happen until suddenly everything was online and Grid was home all the time due to Covid-19. In spring 2020, Grid (with the help of Julia and Grid’s roommates) applied for and was able to adopt a little mangy looking puppy named Fruit Loop who later chose the name Misha. A lot of you probably know, but for those of you who don’t, Misha is quite a quirky little weirdo. With being a pandemic puppy, she often will make people prove to her they are worthy of her love while becoming the best of friends with any dog (or cat) willing to give her the time of day. Whether it is her greeting you with whatever is nearby as an offering of love, sitting on your lap like a toddler or snuggling up with you (and I mean SNUGGLING UP with you), or staring into your eyes, she makes it known that you are everything to her. There will never be enough pets, scratches or attention for her, but she makes it so that it’s never a chore and always about connection! She is also incredibly active and is always ready to be on the go for any and all adventures. Her favorite adventures yet are going camping, taking long car rides, swimming, playing with Zara (our other dog), hiking on or off trail, and stalking (playfully) squirrels or leaves, she doesn’t differentiate. She is such a sweet, one-of-a-kind dog and we are working hard on getting her back to what she likes to do best.