When It Rains, It Pours!

When it Rains it Pours

Please help our friends Autumn and Jess and their family. What should have been a joyful time in their life has turned into a time of worry and financial strain on their family. Their beloved pug EmJay was to have puppies. Everyone was excited throughout EmJay’s pregnancy and looked forward to welcoming her puppies. The time came and EmJay gave birth to seven precious puppies.

Due to EmJay being a picky eater, which is unusual for pugs, she was not getting all the nutrients she needed, and she developed “milk fever”.  Milk fever, also referred to as eclampsia or hypocalcemia, is a condition in which calcium levels in the bloodstream drop in nursing mothers due to lactation. This is a life-threatening condition that progresses quickly and needs immediate medical attention. Due to this condition EmJay cannot feed the puppies.

Five days after giving birth they started realizing that EmJay was not able to feed the puppies enough. They had to start supplementing the puppies with formula and then completely transitioned them to formula only after ten days. During the time that EmJay was sick she had several trips to the vet. This was not an anticipated expense of her having puppies.

Then after hand feeding the puppies one of them started vomiting and had to be rushed to the emergency vet, another non-anticipated expense. The vet would like him to have an X-ray, but Autumn and Jess do not have the extra money to afford it. Up until this time they have been using their life savings to help their family.

Autumn and Jess have been saving up money so they can move to a bigger home and have Autumn’s father move in with them. Her father is 68 years old has been homeless since the passing of his partner of 25 years August 2019. He also has Lyme disease and debilitating depression. Autumn’s older brother died last August unexpectedly; it made her father go into a downward spiral. They asked him to move in with them and live out the rest of his life.

In March Autumn’s daughter and her boyfriend moved in with her and Jess’s one-bedroom apartment because they had both lost their jobs in Colorado due to Covid-19. Despite looking, neither of them has been able to find jobs yet, so they have been living off what Autumn and Jess have been able to give them.
Autumn’s hours at work went down during the pandemic from 40 hours a week to 16 hours a week. Thankfully, Jess is still working 40 hours per week.

Two weeks ago, Autumn was in a car wreck that totaled out her vehicle. During the accident she put her hand through the windshield. Like many American’s, Autumn does not have medical insurance so she now has an emergency room bill that she will have to pay back. Her car is negative in value so she will have to finish paying it off. Unfortunately, her credit is not particularly good, so she has no idea when she will be able to get a new car.

Fast forward to today. The kids are still not working because they cannot find any work. Autumn’s dad is leaving Minnesota tomorrow to drive to California to move into their one-bedroom apartment, which has four people and nine dogs living in it now. She has not been able to find another place to move into yet and has depleted about $4000 from their savings. That money was supposed to go towards finding a bigger apartment and moving expenses. They need a down payment for a vehicle.

They have not been able to give to the puppy the care that is needed. All seven puppies are still due to get their shots and be de-wormed. They knew there would be some expense in having puppies but never anticipating the domino effect that happened either with the puppies or just life in general.

Autumn and Jess do not like to ask for help. They are at a point right now where they do not know what else to do. They have to take care of these puppies until they find their forever homes and they have to find a new place to live and Autumn has to be able to put something down on a car otherwise she will not be able to work. She just found out that they did not add Gap Insurance to her loan and she still owes several thousand dollars for a car that is totaled and can’t be fixed

If you can please find it in your heart to help our friends, we would really appreciate it. Any amount you can spare will help. If everyone who reads this can give something it adds up. Please help change this family’s luck around.