Lilo’s Cancer Treatments and Recovery
Donation protected
Lilo’s Radiation Therapy: Re-Opening the GoFundMe
Thanks to the amazing love and support Lilo was shown in June, we were able to take care of her TPLO surgery costs, her amputation and rehabilitation costs, as well as her prescribed six initial chemotherapy treatments and their related blood panels, meds, ultrasounds, x-rays, and consults. We shut down fundraising after only 48 hours because we wanted the money from the community who loved Lilo so much to go to other well-deserving GoFundMes, and gave the excess money we’d raised to the shelter we got Lilo from, Mikey’s Chance .
It was an incredible five months. By mid-July, Lilo was up from her amputation and moving around almost as good as before. By the end of the month, she was moving around better than she had all year. We went to the beach to celebrate Vasant and I’s anniversary in August (and to recover from the loss of a pregnancy—because 2019 has been a rough one), and Lilo was officially recovered. She was racing up and down the beach, jumping into waves, tunneling through the sand… I’ve only seen her that happy a handful of other times.
We’ve had a lot of great days in the last five months. We wouldn’t have gotten that without you all and we’re so grateful.
Sadly, Lilo’s cancer returned in mid-September, between her fifth and sixth dose of chemotherapy. Her oncologist tried to adjust her chemo schedule, adding more chemo doses onto her prescribed six doses, on a more frequent schedule. We are really lucky that my sisters, Emily and Claire, helped us cover the extra cost of chemotherapy, medications, and scans since this was beyond what we fundraised for in June. After three more doses of her regular chemotherapy drug, and an injection of an even stronger chemotherapy drug when those failed to slow the mass’s growth, her oncologist said that radiation, if we can begin right away, is now her best option for survival.
Radiation was recommended as our best bet for treating Lilo’s cancer in June, but because of how big her leg tumor was and the length of the waitlist for radiation therapy at the time, we had to pick an option: amputation and chemo OR radiation. At the recommendation of her vet, we chose to focus on amputation and chemo. So it’s not a shock that we’re here. We are heartbroken, however, that we have some hard choices to make.
We’ve met with a radiation oncologist at BluePearl, recommended to us by her regular oncologist at Bridge Animal Referral Center. Lilo is a candidate for treatment, if we can get her in before the tumor grows much larger. We’d hope to start this month, if we can raise the funds.
We know that the community shared such a phenomenal amount with us already, so we’re not sure what to expect a second time. We’re setting the amount for $43,855: that will provide us with $19,250 (over the amount that we raised earlier, because GoFundMe doesn’t let you reset the amount, and we didn’t want to start a new one without the attached history). This will cover her four radiation therapy visits, CT scans and blood panels required for these visits, medicine for these visits, and paying off the last month of additional chemotherapy treatments, tests, and medicine. As with our first round of fundraising, the receipts and cost estimates for these have been uploaded into the pictures for the fundraiser.
As with the first round of funding, once we reach the set amount, we’ll be closing the fundraiser, but donating any excess to Mikey's Chance Animal Rescue .
We don’t know what to expect, but Lilo is still full of so much energy and personality, we feel we need to try everything we can to fight for her, and if we’re unable to raise the amount to provide her radiation therapy, we’ll make sure that the end of her life is full of good snuggles, great final adventures, and as much love as we can muster.
Thank you all so much for the time you’ve give us with her. I’m hoping for more, but we’re all so grateful for what we’ve received so far.
With love,
Lilo, Sarah, Vasant, Claire, and Emily
PAST UPDATES:
June 14 2019 Update: Thank you all so much! All the extra money above the goal (minus the fees that GoFundMe withholds--they take about $1000 of the goal for transfer fees) will go to the shelter that Lilo was rescued from, Mikey's Chance .
Lilo's Cancer Treatments and Recovery Campaign
Lilo is our eight year old rescue dog and she's been with us through everything. We're doing our best to be there for her right now. She's had a rough 2019: injuring her knee, getting surgery, and now a cancer diagnosis on top of everything. We're seeing if we can, with the help of our community, continue to get her the care she needs in order to not only save her life, but keep her happy and healthy for more years to come.
Lilo's Cancer and Hope for Survival
Lilo has a rare and aggressive form of cancer, histiocytic sarcoma, that has popped up in the leg where she had her TPLO surgery. Histiocytic sarcoma is a cancer of the immune system, and that meant when she ruptured her CCL and had TPLO surgery earlier this spring, one of those traumas triggered a massive tumor that has taken over her knee on the injured leg. According to one of our vets, this is a 1 in 20,000 case of getting cancer after TPLO.
Without treatment, Lilo only has weeks to months left. In the last week since we've confirmed her cancer diagnosis, we've seen the surgeon who did the TPLO, our vet at Aerowood Animal Hospital, Lilo's wonderful holistic vet who's been overseeing her rehab from the TPLO surgery, and a veterinary oncologist. We've gotten several strategies of how to treat Lilo: chemo (which she started this week), radiation, amputation, and other therapies designed to give her a wonderful quality of life--not just an extension for our sake.
Lilo is only eight years old, and we believe that with the treatment strategies that our veterinary team advises, that she can continue to have adventures, fun, and live several more pain-free years.
What We're Funding
We're hoping to raise enough funds to both cover the treatments Lilo's team advises, as well as cover the expenses we've already paid for her pain and antibiotic medications, the chemo we just began, and all the tests we've taken so far to diagnosis her cancer.
If we can raise the full $12,000 then we can afford all the treatments: chemo, radiation, recovery and surgery for Lilo. If we can only raise $7000, then we can afford chemo, amputation, and recovery. If we can only raise $4000, we can amputate, but we might not be able to continue to afford her chemo therapy. If we raise less that $3000, we may have to say goodbye.
[UPDATE 6/14: We have passed the $3K mark! We can afford to treat Lilo. We're still waiting to see how much we can afford to do for her, so we're still not sure whether to do radiation or amputation (and it also depends on radiation availability versus how much time her leg has). We have, following the advice of others, decided to increase our funding goal to cover most of Lilo's medical bills since April. The financial goals for her care will remain the same. I will be posting documentation as I can gather it in the update section for transparency's sake (there's already one in there as of this posting.) There are several months and over eight different providers and pharmacies to gather information from, but we want you all to know we take your donations seriously. ]
[UPDATE 6/14... same freaking day: We have fully funded Lilo's current and future medical expenses for her cancerous leg. We've adjusted the amount to include all our medical bills for her from February, as well as putting aside money for her TTA on the remaining healthy leg, as her surgeon says it might have to get done within the next year. If we exceed our fundraising goal, all the extra money above the $24,605 (minus the transfer fees that GoFundMe withholds) will go to the shelter that Lilo was rescued from, Mikey's Chance .]
We have spent so much between March and June that we've taken this as far as we can on our own. Lilo's quality of life is the most important to us and far outweighs our emotional need for her. If we aren't able to afford to give her the treatments her team advises, then her comfort takes top priority, and any funds raised will go towards us giving her a comfortable transition.
Lilo's Story
Lilo came to us from a wonderful shelter called Mikey's Chance in Eastern Washington. She was born in October of 2010. Her mother was shot when she and her litter were only a few weeks old. Mikey's Chance did a wonderful job fostering her litter, and my sister and I discovered the puppies when they were a few months old.
A few months after we adopted Lilo, I lost my first baby. The miscarriage took months and I had severe health complications, along with the grief that both Vasant and I dealt with. Lilo immediately displayed the most empathic skills I've ever seen in a dog. She went from a bitey, frisky six month old to a calm, snuggly service dog whenever I cried or needed to lay down. She loved both of us back out of the dark place the miscarriage had placed us, and cared for me physically whenever I was alone.
As the years passed, Lilo became part of our film team. For those who have worked with us on our feature documentary, Promised Land , you probably saw Lilo on set at one point. Lilo loved traveling on set, and spent so many late nights with us editing.
Since my sister adopted Lilo's sister, Lilo and Penny have gotten to spend their entire lives together. Being half Husky (and a quarter Golden and quarter Shepherd), she loves the snow. This last February, she spent the entire snow storm that hit Seattle tunneling through the snow outside, and running circles around the snow beasts we built. She loves popcorn, pumpkin, and her celebrity crush is Eddie from Frasier (for whom, before her knee blew, she'd stand up on her hind legs for whenever he was on screen.)
Who We Are
V and Sarah are two filmmakers in Western Washington. Our first film was an award-winning feature documentary called Promised Land. We're currently in development on our next two films. When we're not filmmaking, we have a full service media production business that offers video production, storyboarding, script writing, graphic design, websites, illustration, animation, motion graphics, and more.
Lilo is our first child, and despite her being a dog, we love her like our own offspring. She is the world's best puppy, and while we're prepared for saying goodbye (no, we're not, honestly, but we're going to prioritize her quality of life), we're hoping that with help from our family and friends, we can give her more years, more adventures, and more happy days ahead.

Thanks to the amazing love and support Lilo was shown in June, we were able to take care of her TPLO surgery costs, her amputation and rehabilitation costs, as well as her prescribed six initial chemotherapy treatments and their related blood panels, meds, ultrasounds, x-rays, and consults. We shut down fundraising after only 48 hours because we wanted the money from the community who loved Lilo so much to go to other well-deserving GoFundMes, and gave the excess money we’d raised to the shelter we got Lilo from, Mikey’s Chance .
It was an incredible five months. By mid-July, Lilo was up from her amputation and moving around almost as good as before. By the end of the month, she was moving around better than she had all year. We went to the beach to celebrate Vasant and I’s anniversary in August (and to recover from the loss of a pregnancy—because 2019 has been a rough one), and Lilo was officially recovered. She was racing up and down the beach, jumping into waves, tunneling through the sand… I’ve only seen her that happy a handful of other times.
We’ve had a lot of great days in the last five months. We wouldn’t have gotten that without you all and we’re so grateful.
Sadly, Lilo’s cancer returned in mid-September, between her fifth and sixth dose of chemotherapy. Her oncologist tried to adjust her chemo schedule, adding more chemo doses onto her prescribed six doses, on a more frequent schedule. We are really lucky that my sisters, Emily and Claire, helped us cover the extra cost of chemotherapy, medications, and scans since this was beyond what we fundraised for in June. After three more doses of her regular chemotherapy drug, and an injection of an even stronger chemotherapy drug when those failed to slow the mass’s growth, her oncologist said that radiation, if we can begin right away, is now her best option for survival.
Radiation was recommended as our best bet for treating Lilo’s cancer in June, but because of how big her leg tumor was and the length of the waitlist for radiation therapy at the time, we had to pick an option: amputation and chemo OR radiation. At the recommendation of her vet, we chose to focus on amputation and chemo. So it’s not a shock that we’re here. We are heartbroken, however, that we have some hard choices to make.
We’ve met with a radiation oncologist at BluePearl, recommended to us by her regular oncologist at Bridge Animal Referral Center. Lilo is a candidate for treatment, if we can get her in before the tumor grows much larger. We’d hope to start this month, if we can raise the funds.
We know that the community shared such a phenomenal amount with us already, so we’re not sure what to expect a second time. We’re setting the amount for $43,855: that will provide us with $19,250 (over the amount that we raised earlier, because GoFundMe doesn’t let you reset the amount, and we didn’t want to start a new one without the attached history). This will cover her four radiation therapy visits, CT scans and blood panels required for these visits, medicine for these visits, and paying off the last month of additional chemotherapy treatments, tests, and medicine. As with our first round of fundraising, the receipts and cost estimates for these have been uploaded into the pictures for the fundraiser.
As with the first round of funding, once we reach the set amount, we’ll be closing the fundraiser, but donating any excess to Mikey's Chance Animal Rescue .
We don’t know what to expect, but Lilo is still full of so much energy and personality, we feel we need to try everything we can to fight for her, and if we’re unable to raise the amount to provide her radiation therapy, we’ll make sure that the end of her life is full of good snuggles, great final adventures, and as much love as we can muster.
Thank you all so much for the time you’ve give us with her. I’m hoping for more, but we’re all so grateful for what we’ve received so far.
With love,
Lilo, Sarah, Vasant, Claire, and Emily
PAST UPDATES:
June 14 2019 Update: Thank you all so much! All the extra money above the goal (minus the fees that GoFundMe withholds--they take about $1000 of the goal for transfer fees) will go to the shelter that Lilo was rescued from, Mikey's Chance .
Lilo's Cancer Treatments and Recovery Campaign
Lilo is our eight year old rescue dog and she's been with us through everything. We're doing our best to be there for her right now. She's had a rough 2019: injuring her knee, getting surgery, and now a cancer diagnosis on top of everything. We're seeing if we can, with the help of our community, continue to get her the care she needs in order to not only save her life, but keep her happy and healthy for more years to come.
Lilo's Cancer and Hope for Survival
Lilo has a rare and aggressive form of cancer, histiocytic sarcoma, that has popped up in the leg where she had her TPLO surgery. Histiocytic sarcoma is a cancer of the immune system, and that meant when she ruptured her CCL and had TPLO surgery earlier this spring, one of those traumas triggered a massive tumor that has taken over her knee on the injured leg. According to one of our vets, this is a 1 in 20,000 case of getting cancer after TPLO.
Without treatment, Lilo only has weeks to months left. In the last week since we've confirmed her cancer diagnosis, we've seen the surgeon who did the TPLO, our vet at Aerowood Animal Hospital, Lilo's wonderful holistic vet who's been overseeing her rehab from the TPLO surgery, and a veterinary oncologist. We've gotten several strategies of how to treat Lilo: chemo (which she started this week), radiation, amputation, and other therapies designed to give her a wonderful quality of life--not just an extension for our sake.
Lilo is only eight years old, and we believe that with the treatment strategies that our veterinary team advises, that she can continue to have adventures, fun, and live several more pain-free years.
What We're Funding
We're hoping to raise enough funds to both cover the treatments Lilo's team advises, as well as cover the expenses we've already paid for her pain and antibiotic medications, the chemo we just began, and all the tests we've taken so far to diagnosis her cancer.
If we can raise the full $12,000 then we can afford all the treatments: chemo, radiation, recovery and surgery for Lilo. If we can only raise $7000, then we can afford chemo, amputation, and recovery. If we can only raise $4000, we can amputate, but we might not be able to continue to afford her chemo therapy. If we raise less that $3000, we may have to say goodbye.
[UPDATE 6/14: We have passed the $3K mark! We can afford to treat Lilo. We're still waiting to see how much we can afford to do for her, so we're still not sure whether to do radiation or amputation (and it also depends on radiation availability versus how much time her leg has). We have, following the advice of others, decided to increase our funding goal to cover most of Lilo's medical bills since April. The financial goals for her care will remain the same. I will be posting documentation as I can gather it in the update section for transparency's sake (there's already one in there as of this posting.) There are several months and over eight different providers and pharmacies to gather information from, but we want you all to know we take your donations seriously. ]
[UPDATE 6/14... same freaking day: We have fully funded Lilo's current and future medical expenses for her cancerous leg. We've adjusted the amount to include all our medical bills for her from February, as well as putting aside money for her TTA on the remaining healthy leg, as her surgeon says it might have to get done within the next year. If we exceed our fundraising goal, all the extra money above the $24,605 (minus the transfer fees that GoFundMe withholds) will go to the shelter that Lilo was rescued from, Mikey's Chance .]
We have spent so much between March and June that we've taken this as far as we can on our own. Lilo's quality of life is the most important to us and far outweighs our emotional need for her. If we aren't able to afford to give her the treatments her team advises, then her comfort takes top priority, and any funds raised will go towards us giving her a comfortable transition.
Lilo's Story
Lilo came to us from a wonderful shelter called Mikey's Chance in Eastern Washington. She was born in October of 2010. Her mother was shot when she and her litter were only a few weeks old. Mikey's Chance did a wonderful job fostering her litter, and my sister and I discovered the puppies when they were a few months old.
A few months after we adopted Lilo, I lost my first baby. The miscarriage took months and I had severe health complications, along with the grief that both Vasant and I dealt with. Lilo immediately displayed the most empathic skills I've ever seen in a dog. She went from a bitey, frisky six month old to a calm, snuggly service dog whenever I cried or needed to lay down. She loved both of us back out of the dark place the miscarriage had placed us, and cared for me physically whenever I was alone.
As the years passed, Lilo became part of our film team. For those who have worked with us on our feature documentary, Promised Land , you probably saw Lilo on set at one point. Lilo loved traveling on set, and spent so many late nights with us editing.
Since my sister adopted Lilo's sister, Lilo and Penny have gotten to spend their entire lives together. Being half Husky (and a quarter Golden and quarter Shepherd), she loves the snow. This last February, she spent the entire snow storm that hit Seattle tunneling through the snow outside, and running circles around the snow beasts we built. She loves popcorn, pumpkin, and her celebrity crush is Eddie from Frasier (for whom, before her knee blew, she'd stand up on her hind legs for whenever he was on screen.)
Who We Are
V and Sarah are two filmmakers in Western Washington. Our first film was an award-winning feature documentary called Promised Land. We're currently in development on our next two films. When we're not filmmaking, we have a full service media production business that offers video production, storyboarding, script writing, graphic design, websites, illustration, animation, motion graphics, and more.
Lilo is our first child, and despite her being a dog, we love her like our own offspring. She is the world's best puppy, and while we're prepared for saying goodbye (no, we're not, honestly, but we're going to prioritize her quality of life), we're hoping that with help from our family and friends, we can give her more years, more adventures, and more happy days ahead.
Fundraising team: Team Lilo (2)
S V S
Organizer
Kent, WA
Vasant S
Team member
