Saving Jim Dandy

Meet our newest family member, Jim Dandy. In May, Jim was found by one of our amazing neighbors roaming the neighborhood. She hung up posters everywhere but no one claimed him. He was taken to Aurora Animal Shelter (a kill shelter) where he was held for another week or so while he waited for his owners to come rescue him. After the holding period, we went to meet him. The shelter told us that he had a heart murmur and that would make it hard for him to get adopted. So of course, we brought him home to join our family knowing that it might be a little hard. Well two months later, we are finding out exactly how hard it will be. We took him to the cardiologist yesterday and found out that he has a congenital heart disease called pulmonary valve stenosis. PS is a heart valve disorder in which outflow of blood from the right ventricle of the heart is obstructed due to malformation of the pulmonary valve. This results in reduction of blood flow to his lungs. If not treated, he will develop right heart failure and is at risk for other complications of severe PS. Even though we've only had him for a few months, we have fallen in love with him and will try anything to save him.
We were extremely lucky yesterday because the cardiologist we had was filling in for another one and happened to be from CSU. She told us about a procedure called balloon valvuloplasty that they can perform at the school to help relieve his obstruction to give him a good prognosis . Since it is a teaching hospital, we will get a little break but it is still going to cost us about $3,500. So we are reaching out to our friends and families. If you find it in your heart and would like to help us, please make a small donation. Any amount helps and would be greatly appreciated. We will keep you posted with updates as we go through this process.
Love to you all,
Robbie, Amber, Dakota, Taylor, Mokijoe, Marley and Jim