My husband Diego and I adopted Jeanie November 2020 when she was 7.5 years old. The second we met her, we knew she was going to change our lives. We agreed to a one week trial run, but by day 2 were in love with her and signed the adoption papers. Ever since we brought her home we have become strong advocates for people adopting and opening their home to senior dogs. In my eyes seniors are extremely overlooked in shelters, and I have made it my goal for a little over 5 years to show the world what life could be like if you took a chance on an old dog. Jeanie and I have an instagram account called URDOGCALLED and there is where we advocate for senior and shelter pups while also showing the amazing life Jeanie lives.

When I'm able to, I go to our local shelter in Mesa, Arizona (Maricopa County Animal Shelter) to walk the dogs and post them online to help them get seen and hopefully adopted. We've made tote bags that say "You can't buy love, but you can rescue it" and even stickers that say "I love crusty old dogs"

When I first made our advocacy page, I told myself I would share as many fundraisers as I can and as many dogs as I can that need homes. For years we've done exactly that. Now I am reaching out to the community we've built asking for help to raise money for Jeanie's sarcoma removal surgery.

Just two weeks ago is when Jeanie and I were on a walk and I noticed a bump on her behind. I thought maybe it was a blocked anal gland, and made a vet appt for a few days later. Her vet released her glands and the bump was still there, so he suggested a fine needle aspirate to get it checked out. 3 days later we received a phone call that it is a soft tissue sarcoma and they strongly recommend removing it. A soft tissue sarcoma is a malignant tumor of connective tissue so a type of cancer. we are unsure what stage hers is in, as we only did the fine needle aspirate to check cells. Her vet is strongly recommending removal and upon removal will do a biopsy to give us more insight. Her vet was very honest with us and said that there is no guarantee that they will be able to remove the entire thing plus wide margins considering it is near her anal glands. Their worry is that they do not want to risk hitting a nerve that can lead to issues with her going potty. Jeanie is a dachshund mix so she has a smaller area to work with compared to a large breed. We are praying that once they do the actual surgery, they are able to successfully remove it all and that it is a low stage sarcoma. If they are only able to remove most of it, we will accept the procedure as something that is meant to just give her a better quality of life. Her quality of life is extremely important to us and if that is all we get from this, we will be grateful for that.

I am a stay at home mom to our 18m old son, so with that means we are a one income household. An unexpected surgery such as this is very hard for us to cover financially, but we are also aware that as Jeanie's dog parents it is our responsibility to explore every option to ensure she gets the care that she needs.

We are very kindly asking for any donation amount to help us raise the funds for Jeanie baby to have her surgery. I know my baby isn't ready to leave us. The last thing I want is for her to have cancer cut her life short. Yes she is 14 years old, but being a dachshund mix, I strongly believe that she has a lot of life left in her. She still runs, she still plays, she still has silly time. She is an incredibly resilient girl and I know she will recover very well given the chance. She is truly a one in a million! Thank you so much for reading and donating to help our girl.

With so much love and gratitude,

Jeanie, Krystal, Diego and Xavier. <3