Lilith, "Lily" Saska and family

On Monday October 2nd, 2023 after almost a week of hospitalization, we had to say goodbye to our senior black lab, Lilith aka Lily. To say that she was a cherished family member for the 4 years, 10 months, and 1 day that she was part of our lives is an absolute understatement. Lily gave us so much in her short time with us, and never met a person or other dog that she didn't like (or at least tolerate). She taught us so much and instilled a love of rescuing senior dogs, which I'd always wanted to do but was afraid of because of the inevitable heartbreak to come. Lily was my shadow, my soul dog, and Jezebel's unofficial emotional support animal. She was equal parts puppy playtime referee, mealtime alarm, food vacuum, professional cuddler, and best friend. Lily was one of a kind and life just doesn't feel the same without her right next to me. She fought what the vets suspected was antibiotic resistant/fungal pneumonia and pancreatitis for 6 days before taking a turn for the worse on 10/2 and we decided it was time to say goodbye. She gave us her all, and we owed it to her to fight until she told us she was ready to rest.

This is where our plea comes in - we unfortunately don't have the savings to cover what we'd expected our pet insurance to, and we are asking for help from friends, family, and our community. Our policy was meant to cover up to $8,000 in accident/illness vet bills after a $500 deductible, paying 80% of the bill with us paying 20%. We knew we'd gone past the $8,000 coverage limit before Lily took a turn for the worse, and we were prepared to figure out how to cover the $6,244.24 we thought we'd be responsible for. It came to light Wednesday 10/4 that our insurance considered Lily's previous bout of pneumonia in November 2022 a "pre-existing condition" and thus none of the bills related to that condition would be covered. So far, 4 of our 6 insurance claims totaling $4,434.52 have been closed, with a total of $517.42 being paid out. We still have $9,809.72 in bills waiting to be evaluated, but aren't hopeful much of this will be covered based on what insurance is calling "pre-existing".

We're asking for help in bridging the gap to cover what we expected insurance to. Any amount we raise will ease the financial burden we are now undertaking, and we appreciate every share and dollar raised. If we're able to raise enough funds to exceed our goal, we want to split these funds 50/50 between the rescue we adopted Lily from in 2018 (Labrador Rescuers based in San Diego) and Lily's Legacy, a large-breed senior dog rescue located in Petaluma, CA which shares Lily's namesake and how she was rescued (as a large-breed senior).

Thank you for considering our plea and for being part of Lily's incredible journey. She deserved the world and we tried our best to make her golden years as warm and full of love as she was.