TL;DR- For those of you without the time to read through my long story. Please scroll to the bold sections to get highlights regarding our need for help. Thank you!

Hello beautiful friends, family, and all those amazing souls I have yet to have the pleasure of meeting!

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Brittany. I have called Colorado home for the whole 42 years that I have been on this earth. A mountain girl through and through. I have been a massage therapist for the past 16 plus years and have been drawn to healing for as long as I can remember. I do not have children, but instead have had a small, but beautiful little furry family. Their names are Tuck and Penny.

Tuck is a 5-year-old purebred European boxer. We drove to Kentucky for him, hence his name. A bigger-than-life personality, with love and joy and goofiness that never runs out. He is a 60-pound lap dog and spoons like none other. He may be lacking manners, but makes up for it in endless play and love and joy.

Penny is a 10-year-old boxer mix. She has been my soulmate from day one. We have always had a very special connection. She is the most empathetic animal I have ever known, always willing to be the loyal friend when life is hard. She is goofy and talkative, always more than happy to make you laugh. She is well-mannered, gentle, and such a beautifully caring and loving soul.

There are some seasons of life that are truly difficult and some life-changing events that make us realize how unbelievably helpless we are in changing time and controlling the outcome of many difficult situations we are faced with, especially when it affects the life of a soul that means the absolute world to us.

This story begins a few days after Thanksgiving when I noticed that Tuck had started bleeding from his mouth. Within a few days, after fighting him to let me look in his mouth, I discovered a large and shockingly painful-looking tumor just inside his lower jaw. I knew in my bones that this was something bad. Painfully, I watched the tumor grow right in front of my very eyes. Every. Single. Day.

We got the tumor biopsied and within a week the tumor had grown back over his bottom teeth, ulcerated, and smelling like rotting flesh. I couldn't believe what was happening. This couldn't be my life. This couldn't be happening to my sweet Tuck. My brave boy still found joy and happiness every day, but the light was quickly dimming and he was fighting to hide the pain. For such a big personality and lover of life and everything and everyone in it, it was heart-shattering to watch his light dim and to see him be unable to do many of the things that brought him joy. Dogs do so very much with their mouths and his was being overrun by what seemed to be something truly awful. We rushed the biopsy and when we found out the life-changing news that he had osteosarcoma, my heart absolutely shattered into pieces. Incurable and highly aggressive bone cancer which is not usually found in the mouth. My poor boy had probably been in pain for much longer than I knew or could see since it must have started in his jaw bone. I made the most difficult decision of my life and chose to help my sweet boy leave this world way too soon, but also before the worst of the pain and misery of that awful disease completely dimmed his oh-so-beautiful light. It was one of the most heart-shattering losses I have experienced.

Three days after losing Tuck, I decided that I would get Penny's newer bumps and lumps checked. I wanted to be proactive after going through such a painful loss.

To my absolute dismay and horror, one of Penny's bumps came back with irregular cells... the one bump I hadn't even realized was there. It came back as a Mast Cell tumor. Cancer, again, in my only remaining baby and finding out not even a week after losing my sweet boy. All I can seem to think at this moment is that life just seems so damn cruel!

This means more surgery and more vet bills that I can't afford and another sweet baby to try and save from death's door and cancer's cruel clutch. Mast cell tumors can be curative, though, so there is hope.

The day after Christmas I got news regarding her pre-surgery blood work. She had slightly elevated liver enzymes and an ultrasound was recommended. We did the ultrasound on New Year's Eve and found out that her liver is fine, but there is a smaller mass on her spleen. There could be about a 50/50 chance that it's benign vs malignant. The radiologist doesn't believe that it's a mast cell or lipoma, leaving the possibility of a different, more aggressive blood-based cancer or a benign blood-based tumor. Splenectomy is the recommended treatment regardless of what it is before the tumor has the chance to rupture, causing internal bleeding and lots of pain and confusion for her. Not to mention a very traumatic emergency experience for both her and me, which would most likely lead to her untimely death.

I can't say for certain that I can save my beautiful and loving girl, but I absolutely can't give up on her. Penny has been my best friend, my shadow, and my rock through all of life's worst challenges. She has been by my side through the earth-shattering loss of my mom 9 years ago to a rare form of dementia, to the unexpected loss of my husband, then my dad's early and quite sad diagnosis with Alzheimer's a few years ago, and then most recently the heart-crushing loss of Tuck, my sweet boy and her loving brother and friend. Her loyalty has been steadfast and I owe her the same in her time of need. She is my whole heart, my entire world, and I will do everything in my power to give her the best chance at surviving and living her best and healthiest life.

I have a tattoo on my wrist of a lotus flower. I chose the lotus to remind me every day that beautiful things grow out of the darkness and the muck and the mud. This is a reminder that has kept me going through all the rough roads. Life is still beautiful and full of light despite the pain and the darkness.

I choose to believe that the silver lining to Tuck's very short life and heartbreaking diagnosis is that we were able to find Penny's cancer early and were able to detect a mass on her spleen that very likely would have killed her without us ever knowing about it. I can't imagine living in a world where I have to lose both of my babies so close to one another, so I am choosing to believe that with enough love and positivity, Penny will persevere and get to the other side of it all… healed and happy, ready to bound back into life all 4 paws and a wiggling butt!

It is the hardest thing for me to have to ask for the beautiful generosity and kindness of other amazing humans, but here I am. I do it for Penny because she will always be worth every potential second of health and happiness I can give her. As a self-employed massage therapist trying to make it on her own, money has been super tight and tough even before these expensive vet bills, as I am sure many of us know quite well. Tuck’s bills cost me around $2000 and Penny’s surgery of splenectomy and mast cell tumor removal by a specialist is looking to be around $4500, not to mention the $1500 for diagnostics and appointments beforehand. I will be over $8000 in debt as well as missed wages. Thankfully, I have been the recipient of so much generosity already which is totaling about half of these bills. I am beyond grateful for all the beautiful and generous souls who love me and my sweet babies enough to help us get through this incredibly hard time. If anyone is willing and able to help a girl try to save the life of her best friend in the world, I would be forever grateful. Every little bit helps more than you know. We will also be grateful for donations of positive energy, good thoughts, and prayers where financial donations are not possible. I obviously understand being in a really hard financial situation.

Whether you are able to help financially or not, I would greatly appreciate help in sharing this fundraiser to help me help my sweet girl, Penny! Thank you so much for your love and generosity!!