Hi everyone,

I'm Michael, Marty's dad. Marty is a sweet, well-natured, beautiful little former street dog. He loves nothing more than sniffing the ground, rolling in fresh grass, attacking my feet, chasing squirrels, and being held. Despite being dumped on the street as a puppy and needing to fend for himself, he has the best, happiest, and most loving demeanor out of any dog that I've ever met. He loves people, praise, playtime, and cuddles. In the few short months since adopting him, he's become my constant companion; I try to take him everywhere I go [I bought a backpack made for dogs so that he can come to the grocery store with me, on the Metro, and have a daily bike ride]. As I type, I truly couldn't imagine my life without him.

Unfortunately, a final hurdle needs to be cleared before he can relax and just be a happy and healthy dog, which is the point of this fundraiser. A month ago, Marty had an ultrasound to learn the source of his frequent UTIs. We learned that he has a liver shunt, likely congenital given his age (1.5 years), which has resulted in a bladder full of stones and crystallization on his kidneys. Essentially, his blood bypasses his liver with proteins entering his bloodstream unprocessed. Options included medication (one med to treat ongoing UTIs and another to take the place of his bypassed liver), putting him on a vegetarian diet (done, and luckily, he loves his vegetarian dog food as well as potatoes, beets, bell peppers, and ribbons of cabbage - because he is a good boy!), and surgery to tie off the shunt and remove the stones from his bladder. Medication is a temporary fix, buying us time until surgery.

The news was unexpected and difficult to process, especially given the price tag of the surgical treatment, ~ $8,000 [the surgery to seal the shunt and remove the stones ~$5-6,000; three-day hospital stay ~$800; CT-scan (done beforehand so as not to have any unwelcome surprises on the operating table) ~$1,200; plus, medications, etc.]. [Side note: pet insurance wasn’t an option. His history of UTIs constituted a pre-existing health condition and he wasn’t approved].

The option was floated to euthanize him, and it was something I had to consider, given my status as a grad student [MSc at Concordia University in Montreal]. I have decided that it is something I can not do. Marty is still a young dog with a lot of good years ahead of him. And frankly, however idealistic this might sound, to me the idea of ending his life over something as dumb as money is absurd. For whatever reason, or perhaps no reason at all, I ended up with Marty, gratefully, and will do anything possible to give him a good life…which, after a couple of friend suggestions, is why I created this fundraiser.

In the month since his ultrasound, I noticed he had difficulty urinating – very alarming. He had just ended one round of antibiotics [obviously multiple rounds of antibiotics aren’t ideal, but again, it’s all about buying time before the surgery can be performed]. Ideally, I would opt to have his surgery in Fall to give myself more time to find a contract or a job I could do while writing my thesis, earning some money to minimize the debt, but I don’t we can wait. He needs the surgery as soon as the vet hospital can have it scheduled.

Any money raised is so greatly appreciated. If you’ve read this far, thank you for your time. If you can’t donate, please consider sharing Marty’s story. Should the fundraising goal be reached [which would be amazing beyond belief] all additional funds will be donated to Marty’s original rescuers EUFAR [Egypt Unites For Animal Rights].

Thank you very much for reading our story. Here's Marty's instagram for more cuteness! Take care,

Michael and Marty