Help Zappa Heal: Support His Tail Surgery

My name is Charlie, and when I was younger, the only type of dog I wanted was a Husky. In 2018, I finally got one named Cayde. Cayde really needed a best friend to keep him company when my dad works long shifts, so in 2023, we went to the Humane Society with the intent to rescue a dog. Huskies are hard to come by because who would turn one in or let one loose without going out looking for them?! Well, this is Zappa! Cayde’s best friend and partner in crime. We found him with three overgrown coats worth of matted hair, malnourished and sick. He was nursed back to life, and as we began living with him, it became apparent that he had developed some mental health issues from his previous owners and suffers from chronic skin conditions. Though he looks like a puppy, he’s estimated to be around 10 years old, and we just want to give this old man the best life he deserves.

For the past five months, we’ve been dealing with a rash that kept forming on his tail with medication and frequent baths. This past week on 10/25/24, Zappa’s (undiagnosed) OCD habits and the rash flare-up caused him to chew and chew on his tail for relief until he eventually chewed about two inches of his tail off. The end of Zappa's tail is now raw, has bone exposed, and is cold and dead. Zappa requires expensive surgery to make sure his tail heals properly and doesn’t get infected, and we need all the help we can get.