Help this sweet puppy love and be loved

The vet has let us know we had two choices: to get him surgery or humanely euthanize him. So we've brought him home to give him the best time of his life and are looking for help to continue it. He’s not ready to cross the rainbow bridge yet.

This super sweet stray boy found his way to us this week. He was obviously in bad shape, but we took him home and gave him numerous baths to wash the dirt and stink of months, if not years, of neglect off of him, as well as spending hours cutting the massive mats of fur out. Turns out he is a white dog with tiny ears (who would have guessed??)! He appears to be a papillon/terrier mix, intact, and unchipped.

We were able to make an appointment with our normal vet for the same day, and after a full exam and an X-ray, they informed us he was in poor health. The vet estimated he is 8-10 years old, weighs only 10 pounds and has a mass the size of a baseball on his back right hind quarters, which was diagnosed as a perineal hernia. "One of the worst they had ever seen." He was completely backed up and a lot of his intestines were present inside the hernia. The situation wasn't an immediate emergency, but something had to be done quickly before it became one, which could be at any time. They let us know we had two choices at that point: to get him a $5,000 surgery, or humanely euthanize him. So we brought him home to give him the best night of his life.

Despite what the first 8+ years of his life presented him, this dog only wants to give and receive love. The first few hours in our home, he was best friends with our other dogs, wanted to be friends with the cat (but we know how cats can be), and was bouncing between our kids and us to get as many pets as possible. He was wagging his tail at everything, and had the BIGGEST smile on his face. And with some medicine, he is having so many BMs, we are convinced he has cleaned himself out. My husband and I looked at each other and knew this dog was full of life and had a spark - he was not ready to cross the rainbow bridge.

So we spent countless hours contacting people, resources and veterinary clinics to see if anyone could help us help this incredible dog. $5,000 is a lot of money in any situation. The 20th vet's office we called recommended Veterinary Surgical Solutions in Austin, and boy, did they provide some light on this dark situation! They are estimating this surgery for our buddy will be in the $1600 - $2000 range and once we heard that, we asked when they could make an appointment! They are squeezing us in early next week for a consult, and will be performing the surgery about 5 days after that.

We set up this campaign to help offset the costs of providing a surgery that can change this animal's life. He has so much life in him, and will make a family incredibly happy once he is healed. We plan on fostering him until he finds his forever family, and are only looking to get help covering this necessary and expensive surgery.

Please considering donating to save his life. Thank you for your generosity and compassion!