Hi friends,

Many of you may know my dog Pooka, a playful Spaniel mix that does nosework/search-and-rescue type competitions and loves belly rubs. I adopted her 7 years ago in San Diego after losing a pregnancy, and she has filled a huge void that came with that. In short, she's like John Wick's beagle in that she represents a person to me whom I've lost, and to lose her specifically would feel like double the loss.

It's Day 2 of her stay in the emergency vet. It was found that she has underlying Cushing's disease, which manifested itself in the form of calcium stones that developed in her bladder and kidney. The worst case scenario that could happen, happened, and part of me is so frustrated that the vet didn't think to do surgery the first time I brought her in with this issue. Now the largest stone has traveled down to an unmovable, unusual location down her urethra, making her unable to release urine and toxin build-up in her body by herself (so the vet has to manually remove the waste for her). The emergency vet is scrambling to find specialists with the special medical equipment needed to help her. But in this whole process, the hospitalization bill is racking up, and I imagine the additional specialty procedures will cost much, much more.

I've been able to manage financially for now, but am finding it harder and harder as the days go on, especially since I'm dealing with my own personal medical expenses right now with a rare autoimmune T cell disorder that's been affecting multiple organs. I feel bad asking for help, and honestly I never shared most of this information to anyone up until now. But dealing with the two simultaneously just feels overwhelming. Part of me feels like I should just let nature take its course for the both of us, while another still seems to have hope.

No pressure if you cannot financially support at this time -- we appreciate prayers, positive vibes, and shares to other people you know.

Thanks in advance to all!

Karla