Tippy's Cancer Fund for Miranda Wade

Here's what Miranda has to say about Tippy and her current situation: 

"My heart hurts. Some of you may know that a mass was found in one of Tippy's anal sacs about two weeks ago. I decided to have some diagnostic ultrasounds and radiographs done to figure out if it was benign or not.
Tippy has cancer. It has invaded one of her lymph nodes. This type of cancer is generally quite aggressive so we are meeting with a specialist next week to discuss options. Surgery to remove the mass and affected lymph node will likely be over $5,000, not to mention anything like radiation or chemotherapy. This represents about 20% of my annual income, and Sameer and I do not have $5k lying around. At this point, I have not been on CareCredit to see if we qualify for a loan.
How do you measure the worth of a life?
Many of you have met Tippy over the years. She started as a scruffy, tick-covered puppy I crawled under a house in Texas to retrieve. At the ripe age of ~8 weeks, she had already decided that she was over humans. But we weren't over her. My mother and I spent days painstakingly removing hundreds of ticks from her tiny body and eventually found homes for her other siblings and abandoned mother.
Tippy grew into a vivacious dog that loved playing 'catch' with one of our horses and a jolly ball. She even learned how to herd the cats and would help 'send them home' at night when we called for them. While I was in my undergrad, my mother ended up needing to move to Nevada with my grandfather due to interesting circumstances I won't go into here. While overnighting at my grandpa's house in Wichita Falls, Tippy and another dog we had, Ursa, were run out of his backyard by the other people that lived with him. Through tireless searching, my great Aunt Jo found Tippy and Ursa after I had to leave to catch a flight back to Colorado, and my mother had to leave for the drive to Nevada.
Ursa, being the more outgoing of the two (an understatement, if you were a living, breathing thing that dog loved you), was rehomed. Tippy was very particular about 'her people,' so we decided to have her flown to my mother in Nevada through a shipping company. Through absolutely treacherous circumstances, Tippy missed her first flight and ended up in a crate for well over 36 hours before my mom was able to get her. She was traumatized but pulled through mostly intact due to time and love.
My mental health took a downturn during the latter portion of my undergrad, so I brought Tippy home to Colorado with me July of 2016. She spent the next year with us in Casa Crestmore (if you know, you know) and stole the hearts of everyone she met. We went on many hikes and adventures. She loved going on rides with Tommy my horse and still loves nothing more than barn time to this day.
Now we are in Michigan, where she hates wearing her winter blanket and boots during the cold months and constantly plays musical beds with the cat. We still like to go on hikes and long walks, but she is starting to slow as she is now 10. She is my Very Best Girl. I was just starting to accept the reality that she is getting older, and now a cancer diagnosis has landed in my lap. My heart hurts.
How do you measure the worth of a life? To me, it is worth all the money in the world to make Tippy better. But the reality is not so idealistic, and several thousand dollars in surgery is likely to be financially crippling. I have been tasked with what seems like an impossible decision.
Sorry for the long post, but I felt I needed to put words to my feelings and a way to share the news with those of you that know Tippy. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I will take every opportunity to remind Tippy that she is, and always will be, my Very Best Girl."