Hi everyone! My name is Sofia. It’s hard for me to start this fundraiser because I feel bad asking for money but many of you were interested and encouraged me to so here we are! Yoda’s Story: Yoda was born with cleft palate on his soft palate. Milk would come out of his nose when drinking from mom so he had to be separated and only had two options, euthanasia or to give him to someone that could tube feed him and give him a chance at life. I took that chance on him. Ever since he was a day old he was a fighter. He wiggled and cuddled but most of all he fought so hard during feeding time, it was rough. In order for him to eat he had to have a tube placed in his stomach during each feeding and given milk replacer, he hated the feeling of the tube going down his throat and scratched me, tried to yank the tube out, made it as difficult as possible (classic Yoda.) But as soon as his belly was full he turned into an angel and slept until the next feeding. We did this for 3 weeks, we tried to do it longer but he actually began to have a gag reflex at that age and threw up and developed mild aspiration pneumonia which was treated and he made a full recovery, he was also weaned very fast onto gelatin cubes and fresh pet that we had to shove in the back of his throat so that he wouldn’t aspirate, HE LOVED IT! A week later he was eating on his own and even drinking water on his own. Until 3 months he did SO WELL. But I made the mistake of introducing a new treat for training that didn’t sit well with him. He threw up the morning of August 20th and immediately we knew something was terribly wrong. He aspirated so much of the throw up and bile from dinner. He wasn’t breathing properly, his organs would soon shut down if we didn’t rush him to the hospital so we did. I sat in the doctors room crying as he told me it would be an estimated of $3,000 for the 12 hour stay without much hope of him making it. I called my boyfriend and had to make a decision. Do I put my boy down that was perfectly fine yesterday? I can’t afford to keep him in the hospital for days. For a moment all three of us, Yoda, Chris, and I were all gasping for air. We couldn’t put him down, not without trying to save him. So we asked the doctors to just treat him for pneumonia with antibiotics and the oxygen tank, to not do the blood work or x rays to bring the total down, for the 12 hours it was $1,700 and he was doing a little better by 11pm but they said his only real chance to make it would be to transfer him to a 24 hr vet and have him on more oxygen, well we made it this far and shaved off a thousand from the bill so we went to the 24 hr vet still not knowing if Yoda was gonna make it. They did the same thing, antibiotics and oxygen. Yoda was there for another 15 hours and he was like a different dog by then, he was breathing without the oxygen tank! The vets were extremely impressed by him. They could not believe his turn around, they took an x Ray for free the night he arrived there (I thank them for everything they did for me) and showed me just how rough his lungs were, the doctor told me normally lungs should look black, his were entirely cloudy and grey. Yoda is back home, still has a very long recovery ahead of him but looks like he will make a full recovery if he keeps it up! The total for the second hospital was $1,900. We spent nearly $4,000 and have no regrets! We now want to raise funds for his cleft palate surgery so that he never ever has to go through this again. Cleft palate surgery is normally estimated to be $5,000-$10,000. We hope since it is only on his soft palate that it will be on the lower end. Thank you to everyone that liked, commented, shared, saved, reposted, and boosted my tik toks. Any money I make from the creator fund will go to Yoda’s piggy bank! I am calling multiple cleft palate surgeons today to see who has the closest appointment date to get the surgery done ASAP! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those that care, and please if you cannot afford to donate do not worry! The boosting and positive energy helps just as much!!!!!!!!!!!!