On Tuesday, Nov 18, Stevie, our sweet furry rock in this chaotic world, got suddenly very sick. He developed a very high fever, ultimately reaching 105.8, indicative of an infection. He's an otherwise healthy guy, a 4-year-old chihuahua/pomeranian-everything mix we adopted from Oregon Friends of Shelter Animals (OFOSA) in 2022.

We brought him to his vet (who we love), Grateful Heart, who kept him for hours trying to get his temperature down and kill the infection. 4 hours later, his fever remained high, and he was transferred to Tanasbourne Emergency Hospital to spend the night. We were devastated to have to leave him there alone, and it's so hard to function knowing he is there without us.

We have since learned that Stevie has aspiration pneumonia, but that he's having trouble fighting it because his white blood cells and platelets are extremely low. After lots of testing, it appears to be due to acute pancreatitis, which is shocking to us as he has never had GI issues. We're not sure what caused it, or how the two are related, but we really, really, really need it to go away.

We need your help to save our sweet boy. It is absolutely not his time to leave this plane, and we cannot save him on our own. After close to 2 days of continuous care, we have already paid almost $4500, and we are tapped. To continue the treatment to heal Stevie's pancreas and keep around-the-clock care to work on bringing down his fever, he will likely need 1 or 2 more days at the hospital at least. Stevie is strong, he is a fighter, and most importantly, he is still eating and drinking--he is NOT ready to go.

Neither of us comes from family money, nor do we have any secret stash or savings. We have nothing to tap into. We firmly believe Stevie can be okay with this continuous care, so please consider digging in to your pockets for this beautiful, empathic, goofball creature that gives us all so much love.

Thank you,

Nikki and Marcéo