Rally for Misha: Our Beloved Dog's Battle

Hello fellow animal lovers. My name is Scott and I live with my 14-year-old son Cody and our two dogs (Misha & Max) in Fort Collins, Colorado. Unfortunately, for myself, my family, and my pets 2024 was one of those years that we all would rather never happened or at least be able to forget. 2025 began with an unexpected series of positive and encouraging events that allowed me and my son to feel a taste of hopefulness we had not allowed ourselves to feel for quite awhile. However, in late January I finally admitted to myself that something was wrong with our rockstar pet Pomsky (Pomeranian & Husky) named "Misha". Misha is a six-year-old Pomsky who we rescued from a breeder when he was only 8-months old, and since then he has been our best friend, and over the past 14-months especially, our most cherished social and emotional support on this planet.

On January 21st I took little Misha in for a checkup at our regular veterinary clinic, and on that day we received news that we still haven't quite been able to process or accept. Misha was diagnosed with "Right Apocrine Gland Adenocarcinoma" and "Right Inguinal Lymph Node Metastatic Adenocarcinoma", and since that day we have been waiting for our appointment at the Colorado State University Flint Animal Cancer Center which luckily is right here in Fort Collins. Northern Colorado is world renowned for excellence in Veterinary Medicine, and the CSU Veterinary Oncology Facility is at the center of this prestige. However, prestige and excellence is rarely associated with affordability, and that is why I have created this page and began to apply for a handful of nonprofit grants and associated financial assistance programs.

Our appointment at CSU took place today (2/11/2025) , and essentially we have two choices. The first choice is to go straight to palliative care and hope we can have another 4-6 months with him. The only other option available is to try and get his cancer into remission through a complex surgery to remove the tumor and the affected lymph node(s), followed by ongoing targeted radiation treatment in addition to chemotherapy. The anticipated costs for these interventions is far beyond my ability to financially manage. However, this time last year I didn't see any way forward in my life that didn't involve losing my house and everything I have worked so hard for. So, in regards to Misha's care, I have made the initial decision to simply take things one at a time as they come, much as I have done for the past year, and hope for a similarly positive, and frankly miraculous outcome.

The nest step for my little buddy Misha is to get a full chest and abdominal CT Scan which will definitively identify and accurately measure any and all metastatic hyperplastic tissue which is a necessary step for any treatment options. The quoted price for this procedure was a little over $3800.00, but I will need to come up with a deposit of $2900.00 (See Quote Below) before I can even schedule the scan. I have set my goal on this GoFundMe page at $3000.00 because that will allow me to access step 1 of this process.

For those who may be concerned that I want to treat his cancer head-on no matter the consequences, I can assure you that is not the case. However, I simply can't give up on him when I know there is a vitally important test that will give me and his doctors the remaining data necessary to make the most medically-informed and humane decision for Misha.