Hello All and Everyone,

Welcome to the story of Pepper and her owners, Abby and Nick. 

I want to start back in August 6, 2015, when I first took Pepper home with me as a 6 week old puppy. She was the cutest thing, small and round, with the sharpest claws and teeth. I knew she was the one for me as soon as I saw heron a Facebook post from a kind couple looking for owners to take their pets offspring to good and loving homes. I was so excited to pick her up, we had everything ready for her, leashes, collars, toys, food- everything! As soon as I put her in the car, she freaked out and clawed the living hell out of me. Eventually, she calmed down and layed down in my lap until she fell asleep. When we arrived home she met the rest of my family and our childhood dog Shadow. Pepper fell in love with Shadow the moment she saw him. She was a puppy and just wanted to play but Shadow was already a senior and really wanted nothing to do with her. We all settled in and soon realized I was perhaps ill prepared for raising a dog. I was in school at the time, getting my associates together for a Biology degree, the amount of sleepless nights she gave me were more than the amount of fingers and toes on my body. Regardless, I took the challenge head on and raised her what she is today. Besides the sleepless nights and troublesome activity she would get to during the day, I was soon becoming attached to her. My husband and I would spoil her rotten, buying her toys and treats when we didn’t have much for ourselves at home. We always made sure she had 3 meals a day while we had sandwiches (if we were lucky) thru out the week. That being said, we were admittedly the poorest we had ever been in our entire lives. We recently moved into our first apartment but we had both lost our jobs. Some weeks we had $10 dollar budgets to buy us food and her food. Things were not bad for too long, for we both eventually found jobs and we were able to spoil her even further. 

I just want to mention I suffer from severe depression and general anxiety, I had been in a bad place mentally prior to obtaining her and she was the help I needed to push forward. When I had really bad days, I could just look over at her and see life isn’t too bad and I just have to keep going. She was content enough having her ball thrown and eating a bowl of food. That taught me to be grateful for what I had and not focus on what I didn’t have. She taught me a lot of life lessons and shared my sorrows, pain and misfortunes. We would sit together, while I cried, she would lick my face and look at me with her beautiful deep brown eyes as if to say, “ Hey, it’s okay, I’m here.” Every milestone or incident within my life until now, she has been there, every step of the way. 

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, she had an ear infection that seemed to be bothering her enough to where she kept scratching at her ears. I thought maybe I can get some over the counter medicine and she will be okay. A few days later, her lymph node bellow her jaw felt hard and rubbery. I started getting concerned, lumps and bumps could mean anything, and I didn’t want to think the worst. I booked an appointment with her veterinarian as soon as I could. With the current state of the world right now, things are not as easily accessible as before,I was only able to get an appointment later in the week. Within that week, I noticed her other lymph node began to swell. Once we had the vet appointment, she confirmed she had an ear infection and not to worry about the lymph nodes for that’s normal. About a few more days later, I found more enlarged lymph nodes thru out her body. I was deeply concerned and worried, I took her to the Vet Hospital. They were very concerned all of her lymph nodes were swollen but she was relatively the same. She ate well, went to the potty well, and even played normally all thru out. Just to be on the safe side, they aspirated her lymph nodes to confirm it was not cancer. About a few days later, the test was inconclusive. This gave me a sense of hope and yet dread, “ what could be wrong? It could be anything. Diseases, infections, viruses- literally anything. ”I stayed positive for my baby, watching for any changes in her health. They recommended I redo the aspirate, and so I did last Thursday. Today I received the results that she is confirmed to have lymphoma cancer. 

Devastated does not even begin to describe what we are feeling. Cancer is scary and challenging, we don’t know when she’s going to get worse, we don’t know but, I do know I want to give her a fighting chance. I’ve been counting my savings and debt to see what I can do to give Pepper the best possible life I can, but I will admittedly say I don’t have enough. I’ve been applying to grants, loans, anything and everything to be able to afford her treatment but things are not looking good. For that reason, I humbly and respectfully ask of you to donate, share or pray for her. If there’s anything I can do, or am willing to do for her sake, I am going to do. I just wanted to take the time to thank you, even if you are just here to read, for listening and maybe even being generous and considerate in donating for her treatment. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. If I can get even a few hundred dollars, that could cover some of the expenses. I want her to live a long and happy life, full of toys and kisses. Thank you, again,

Regards, Abby, Nick and Pepper