Willow puppy's broken knee surgery!

Our sweet, silly, playful puppy, Willow, who is 4.5 months old, broke her knee and is currently undergoing surgery to correct her fractured growth plate. We have arranged to cover as much of the cost of the procedure as we can, but are facing a larger bill than we can handle on our own, so we’re here to humbly ask for any money you could spare to help us and our little Willow.

Here’s what happened:

Her favorite place on Earth is Irving Square Park in Brooklyn. We regularly take her there and sit on benches near the dog run so she can watch the bigger dogs and socialize a little through the fence. On Friday evening, a larger dog aggressively rushed us from behind the way we were facing and majorly spooked Willow. She reacted by falling back towards us, but unfortunately her right hind leg was caught between the slats of the bench, causing her knee to break. The scene was awful: she yelped and cried enough that every dog in the dog run came over to see the commotion. We assumed the larger dog bit her, which thankfully was not true, but she could no longer stand on her injured leg, so we knew something was seriously wrong. We immediately took her to the Blue Pearl animal hospital in Brooklyn and after a bunch of hours of waiting we learned that she had broken her knee and would need corrective surgery. Unfortunately, the timing of her insurance waiting period meant that they would not cover any of the cost.

I’m writing this from a hotel room in Easton, PA, two hours from home in NYC. We took her to the Lehigh Regional Veterinary Surgical Specialty clinic to see Dr. Zeltzman, who took our call just last night and has been wonderful. LRVSS have been so caring, thorough, and professional and they could make the procedure happen for around $6,000. That’s a lot, yes, but considering Blue Pearl gave us an estimate of over $10,000 (putting the whole ordeal in the $12,000 range), this arrangement is clearly the better option. We’re still looking at a total of around $7,500 with all the expenses and visits included. Compounding the financial burden is the fact that I am out of work for the foreseeable future due to the WGA strike and am barely getting by, and Anna’s income can’t handle such a heavy lift on its own. We are pulling from savings, credit, and some help from loved ones, but we’ll still be short a few thousand dollars.

We’re confident that she is receiving world-class care as I write, and in fact we just got word that she has gone through surgery successfully. Now she’ll be resting at my apartment for the next six weeks as she heals. It breaks my heart that this energetic little puppy has to be confined to a pen until the knee heals, and I think the necessary downtime will be very tough on her (and us.) I’m sure she’ll be bored to tears and would appreciated visitors. The silver lining of my work situation is that I can be at home with her to take care of her and keep her as entertained as I can. She will probably go through a mountain of treats before we reach Halloween.

Any financial relief we receive will go a long way in making the next little while easier on us mentally and emotionally, and will be so deeply appreciated. We will keep everyone updated on how she’s doing as she recovers. We love Willow so much, and will continue to take the best care of her that we can. We’re very much looking forward to when she can go back to the park and safely see her friends - that day will be here before we know it!

Thank you so much,

-Tim, Anna, and Willow

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