We adopted Aurora and Willow shortly after we lost our 13-year-old senior dog to bone cancer. They quickly became the best of friends and filled our home with joy and greatly inspired me to dedicate my life to helping animals. I soon began working for shelter I’d found them at and recently began training as an animal service officer in order to make an even bigger impact.
Both Aurora and Willow are now three years old and continue to leave a huge impression on anyone they meet.
Recently, Aurora began showing signs of distressed breathing, which led us to worry. We took her to the vet for X-rays and bloodwork, hoping for answers. The situation quickly became critical when the vet called to say her gums were turning purple and that she wasn’t getting enough oxygen.
We both rushed from work to get her and took her straight to a veterinary ICU, where they could put her on oxygen and run more tests. The X-rays revealed a large mass in her chest, and the vet recommended an emergency transfer to UC Davis for surgery.
We left immediately in the middle of the night with our poor baby in the back struggling to breathe. 2 hours into the journey we received a call from UC Davis informing us that they had spoken with the Vet in Fresno and repeatedly cautioned her against sending us to Davis as they didn’t have the capability to help her at the time. We were devastated.
With Aurora’s condition worsening, we frantically called as many places in the area as we could and finally found a hospital in Concord, California called Sage that could take her.
We made it just in time, and Aurora was admitted for emergency surgery. The doctors discovered the tumor in her chest was larger than her lung, and were astonished considering Auroras age.
Thankfully, she survived the operation and is now recovering with us back home. We are still waiting for the biopsy results to know if further treatment is needed but many signs are pointing to cancer.
The cost of Aurora’s surgery and hospital stay has been overwhelming for our family, and this doesn’t even include the potential costs of cancer treatment if the biopsy results are not favorable. We are pulling all our resources together to make this possible. Any help to ease the burden of these expenses would be enormously appreciated. Aurora means the world to us, and your support would help her continue her journey to recovery and give her the second chance she deserves.