Last month Peppur and Matt were faced with every pet owner's worst nightmare, a medical emergency that required immediate surgery to save their new pup's life and which continues to require ongoing post op care.

On March 18 their newest addition to the pack, sweet, energetic, and goofy one year old Ozzie, started acting sick out of the blue. After vomiting a few times in the morning, he was acting lethargic by the end of the afternoon, unsure if it was a true emergency their vet told them to monitor him and come in the next day. He continued to get worse until they had no choice but to take him to an after-hours emergency vet later that same day.

Once they started running tests it became clear he needed exploratory surgery (a laparotomy) to determine the cause of his deteriorating condition, with their initial assessment pointing towards Ozzie accidentally ate something that was causing a blockage. When they got him into surgery they found part of his small intestine had telescoped back onto itself, cutting off the blood flow and ultimately killing that part of his intestine (see intussusception). They resected the damaged portion and started him on intense antibiotics.

The good news is he made it and has been on the mend with continued medical care and in home supervision and love.

The bad news is those after-hours emergency clinics aren't cheap and it cost them well over $12,000, on the spot, to save his life. Scariest part, the underlying cause of his condition was never determined beyond it not being a bacterial infection. Left with a final bill but no real answers.

Like I said, every pet owner's worst nightmare.

To add insult to injury, Matt and Pep started their own business last year and anyone that's done that knows it takes a lot of equity up front, physical and financial, so when it came time to get pet insurance for Ozzie (like their other two dogs have), they budgeted it in for April.

He got sick in March.

Because as Peppur said in her text to the family that night- when it rains it pours.

I'm reaching out to friends and family or anyone out there that's been through this and feels their pain, to come together to shelter them from the impact, even just a little. When I offered to throw some money towards their horrible ordeal I quickly realized I alone wouldn't make much of an effect with $100, the bill was just too big.

Though if enough people can join me in contributing to this fund, it WILL make difference.

Let's help them recover from this unexpected financial burden so they can focus their attention and energy on helping Ozzie heal- and getting back to business!

With love, Val

(Matt's little sister)