Our sweet girl, Tika, had to make a trip to the emergency vet on Tuesday, April 15th. She and our other baby, Solvieg, got in a scuffle that resulted in serious injury to Tika, requiring many stitches and a drain to ensure the wound does not fill with fluid. She is recovering well here at home and the girls are back to being buddies. Those are the most important parts and Birna and I are so grateful!

The unfortunate reality is, Birna and I cannot afford to shoulder this unexpected expense. We were forced to put the emergency care ($1,800) on a credit card as we just don't have extra money right now. We expect several hundred more dollars in vet bills for getting her drain removed, stitches out, and refilling her meds. The addition of this debt will be very hard to shoulder due to our newly constrained budget.

As some of you may know, Birna recently went on long-term disability to recover from Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She was let go from her job as the disability insurance did not come with job protection. She will eventually be receiving 60% of her previous salary which will put us on a very tight, but doable, budget for our existing expenses. However, she will not receive her first full check until the end of May.

We are now in a deeply precarious financial position as we wait for those funds to come in. I work as an advocate for victims of crime and while it is my passion, and a great honor, it does not pay well. We are hoping that our community, and maybe even folks who don't know us, have the ability to provide some mutual aid. The stress of this situation weighs on us during a time where we were already struggling. Recovering from many compounding personal tragedies and navigating the world as a trans woman all while also worrying about money has not been easy on Birna, nor I as her partner. It is so hard to do the vulnerable thing of asking for help, but we also believe strongly in community support and providing mutual aid whenever we can, so we are challenging ourselves to ask.

If you have the resources to spare, we would be so grateful for your support. We would also deeply appreciate help with getting this ask out to a larger group of folks who might be able to help, so sharing this with your circles would be amazing.

We love you,

Haley, Birna, Tika, and Solvieg