It is with a broken heart I am writing this. I am still in complete shock. Anyone that knows me, knows I am a huge animal lover. It is in my soul, it is what makes my heart beat. I love all animals. Big, small, and in between. I am the first to step up and do anything I can for an animal in need. I was doing exactly what my heart told me to do. After losing Jax in July 2024, my house was not the same. The sound of happy paws on the hardwood floors, was no more. The house was just too quite. It took time after losing Jax, but I was ready to open my heart and home once again to a dog in need. I was looking for quite some time and I saw her. I saw the most beautiful girl. The cutest sad eyes I'd ever seen. She melted my heart and I instantly fell in love with her. I had to foster her. She needed me as much as I needed her. I had to help this dog, she had been in foster care way to long. She needed a chance. A chance to feel what it was like to have a home and to be loved by family. It was my intentions to give her a forever home and make her part of the family. I took her in knowing she was cat tested by previous fosters. I knew what it meant, I knew what I neeeded to do. Slow introductions. It would take time. I was set up for that and I wanted her to be my forever dog. Tragically, those close to me know, on Thanksgiving day I experienced the unthinkable. I accidentally left the gate open that separated my foster dog and my 2 cats. It will be a day I never forget. The image is forever burned into my memory. It all happened so fast, but felt like an eternity. My foster dog went after my cats. It is a dog's instinct. See cat, see cat run, chase cat. It was absolutely out of instinct and not aggression. The dog had no agressive bone in her body. She was an absolute sweetheart and I believe she saw it as a game. Dog vs cat, the dog wins. My gray tabby got away, my orange tabby M did not. I tried with every fiber in me to break M free from the dog. I couldn't, but my son was able to. I saw M drop to the floor and I knew instantly he was in bad shape. I wrapped him in a towel and rushed him to Grady's Animal Hospital in Cincinnati. I knew he had head trauma, but I was holding on for a miracle. A mircle that didn't come. I knew when we left him Thanksgiving night, the next 24 hours would be crucial. The goal was to get him to breathe on his own without being in the oxygen tank. Also to get his mouth closed. That had to happen so he could eat and drink. he point to close his mouth. He had so much bleeding and inflammation, the xrays didn't show anything. I left him Thanksgiving night and prayed so hard that M would be ok. M was 13 years old, but he still had alot of life in him. He was my baby, was a huge part of our family. Friday morning I got a call saying the xray now showed M had a fractured symphysis (lower front jaw). I listened as the vet said the surgery for a fractured symphysis had huge success. I agreed to the surgery. I asked so many what if's but remained hopeful. I hung up the phone and held on to a silver of nothing less than a miracle. I waited on edge for a call that the surgery went well. The phone finally rang and it was a call that I never wanted to answer. M had too much trauma and there was nothing the vet could do. I was devastated. My world was suddenly flipped upside down. That day I would not only lose M, but I lost my beautiful foster dog. I couldn't take the chance of it happening to Zoey. The girl that needed me as much as I needed her, was returned to the previous foster. I was beside myself. The experience of losing M was just awful, but to lose my beautiful foster dog on top of it... it wasn't easy. After everything calmed down I was trying to process it all. I had no regrets in trying to save M. M was just the sweetest, most loving, and known for loving his bathroom faucet water. He absolutely loved water from a faucet. The shock of what I witnessed was beyond terrible to say the least. I was then faced with a huge vet bill and his cremation. I don't regret trying to save him and I would do it all over again just to have him back. I wish for one more time for him to head but me and rub his head against mine. One more time of turning on the bathroom water and realizing hours later I forgot to turn it off. One more time seeing him run to the front door when I call M boy. He loved to sit at the front door whether it was open or closed. I will forever miss him. I am kindly asking for donations to help with M's vet bill and cremation that I was faced with. If you cannot donate, please keep me and his cat sister Zoey in your prayers. She, like myself is lost without M boy. One final thought... hug and love on your furbabies as tomorrow is not a promise.