Mike and Rachel Penman have 3 children. Rizzo, Hazel, and Moose. Rizzo is a Yellow Labrador, Hazel a Golden Retriever, and Moose Chocolate Lab. Less than a month ago the 3 siblings were playing in the yard and moose came in limping. Mike and Rachel took him to the local vet and the veterinarian thought it was possibly a torn ACL. They sent Moose home with medication and scheduled a follow up visit for 2 weeks later. Over the 2 week time frame, Moose went from limping to not using his back left leg at all. At the follow up visit the veterinarian did x-rays and found what they believed was cancer. Mike and Rachel could not believe what they were hearing, Moose is only 18 months old. They were scheduled to take him to Purdue Oncology Veterinarian for further diagnosis. Unfortunately, Purdue Oncology confirmed their biggest fear. Moose has been diagnosed with aggressive bone cancer and will need to have his leg amputated followed by several chemo treatments to survive or the other alternative that no animal parent ever wants to think of. The amount of money that I set the goal for is not even enough to cover the procedure and the chemo treatments. I promise, any bit of money that we raise will be greatly appreciated. 

 

All of the money raised whether its a little or a lot ($8,218.00 goal) will be used towards the Purdue Oncology Veterinarian bill that Mike and Rachel take on. 

Moose is having his procedure tomorrow 2/21/2020 and will need 6 chemotherapy treatments after. 

My wife and myself don't have any human children, but anyone that knows me, knows that I have always been a big animal lover. I will argue with anyone that I love my dogs as much as they love their children. This past September, our 12 year old black lab Jade collapsed seconds after playing fetch. I knew something was wrong, we took her to the emergency vet, and after doing test and x-rays we were informed an undetected tumor ruptured on her spleen. She had internal bleeding and we needed to make an immediate decision. They perform surgery that involved opening her up and getting the bleeding to stop followed by blood fusion or she had to be euthanized. The procedure would cost somewhere between 5-6 thousand and they weren't sure if Jade would make it through the procedure. If she did make it through, she could live a week, a month, or up to 6 months. That was the hardest decision I have ever had to make. We didn't have the money and I didn't know how we pay off the debt if we put it on credit cards. I will forever beat myself up for choosing to have her put down. I was too proud, too embarrassed, to uncomfortable asking others for financial help. 

Mike and Rachel consider their dogs their children. I don't want them to experience the same situation that I went through worrying about "How are we going to pay for this". Mike has always been one of my best friends and will drop whatever he is doing whenever I need a hand. Rachel is a nurse and will work late to make sure her patients are being tended to and cared for properly. They are both very caring selfless individuals.  

Moose is still a puppy. He is only a year and a half (Born 8-2-18. I made his fundraising goal his birthday, so his birthday can be his lucky day). Moose can recover from this procedure and he is going to. Thank you to anyone and everyone that can afford to pitch in towards Moose's operation and thank you for helping take some financial stress off of Mike and Rachel during this difficult time.