Hey everybody, January 2026 kicked off pretty hard for me and my dog, Shelby.

On the night of Wednesday, January 14th, I came home to Shelby having puked all over Living Room. We had tried out a new food topper to help her eat more of her food, and I figured that was the culprit. I clean up the mess and tucked in her into bed. At 6am on Thursday, January 15th, I woke up to crying from Shelby downstairs, and found another pile of puke in the living room, but this time there was a pair of socks in the middle. They were her old pair of grippy socks that she wore around the house to help with her mobility. They went missing several weeks prior, and I had figured I had misplaced them. I was wrong.

We immediately went to her primary vet that morning, and they conducted some X-rays to see if there were any more socks in her stomach since there were still two missing. They didn't see anything and ordered a ultrasound for the following week and told us that if she puked again to go to the ER. She puked later that night. We rushed to the ER, and they said that they couldn't order an ultrasound until the morning and sent us home with some meds to hold her through the night. She slept through the night, and we came back in at 6am to grab the first ultrasound appointment we could get.

Shelby puked again at the emergency room, not being to hold down even fluids. They conducted the ultrasound right away given that her health was rapidly deteriorating and found that the one of the two remaining socks was still in her stomach and the last one was in her small intestine causing both a massive amount of pain and damage to her intestines. Her ER Doctor took me aside and said that we could either to do a $10k surgery to remove the remaining socks or we needed to euthanize. I chose to do the surgery.

The surgeon operated on Shelby that evening and removed the remaining socks from inside her. They saw rapid improvement from both her stomach and intestines, sewed her back up, and kept her for two additional days at the hospital to monitor her vitals and help her recover. I was able to take her home on January 18th and have to keep a close on her for the next two weeks so she doesn't rupture her stitches.

Shelby means everything to me. I found her on the road 10 years ago when she was abandoned by her previous owners, and she's one of the best things to happen to me. She's my copilot on car rides, she's the greeter to everyone we meet on the sidewalk, and she's my heart. I would not be the person I am today if I had not found her. That's a fact.

I worked with the hospital to arrange a payment plan for the $10k bill, but it is a financial gut punch nonetheless. I know everyone is struggling with their own finances right now and helping a guy with his dog is not at the top of everyone's list. I get it. But if you can help support us with this, it would mean so much to both me and Shelby.

Thank you all and I will keep you updated on Shelby's recovery.