Long-term commentor, Garden Chat/Recipe Exchange regular, and general friend-of-the-blog Satby has just experienced one more shock in a chain of nasty news:
Last night, I discovered a tumor under the jaw of my oldest rescue dog. And it’s a disaster, because I have no money for medical care for him, or even to put him to sleep if that turns out to be the merciful thing to do.
I’ve been an pet / animal rescuer for about 15 years. I’ve rescued, fostered, transported, and adopted out hundreds of dogs, cats, and the occasional wildlife baby in that time…
Along the way, I ended up with 12 loving and lovable hard to place or “unadoptable” animals, most due to medical issues. All of them were accepted by me at the last minute, usually on the day they were to be euthanized. All are great pets, none have aggression issues. I have 6 dogs and 6 cats. Three of the dogs are labrador retrievers with epilepsy, one of those has an autoimmune skin disorder as well. One of the cats also needed over a thousand dollars worth of surgery to correct benign tumors in her ears that recurred (now fixed, finally!). To house my gang, I moved from Chicago to a “farmette” in a rural area of Michigan six years ago.
Umfortunately, last December I lost my job in IT, which had allowed me to feed and more importantly, pay the medical bills that these guys have. I accepted the first job I was offered when my unemployment ran out after 6 months, and it’s insufficient to cover more than my mortgage and food for us all. I used what was left of my 401k to fill the gap, and now that’s gone. Though I continue to look for better employment, and have an Etsy shop and tutor on the side, it’s not enough. I need help, for my old dog to get diagnosed and treated if possible; and to keep these guys fed, immunized, on their epilepsy medications, and housed, especially in winter, when the heating bill for the kennel will hit hard. Can you help?
Her GoFundMe site is here (there are adorable puppy photos!). I just chipped in a mite, so I can attest that donating is easy & requires no complicated extra-registration process.
satby
Oh, AnneLaurie (and Watergirl, who I know tipped you off) thank you.
elmo
Donated (not much, but I’m tapped) and shared on FB. Suggestion – go post a diary at the GOS. They came through for me big-time when I had a sick rescue pup needing thousands of dollars of treatment for a bad infection.
elmo
Also can haz link to etsy site s’il vous plait? kthxbai
jacy
Tweeted and Facebooked. Will see if I’ve got some extra scratch after I finish billing clients this weekend….
WaterGirl
@jacy: Oh Jacy, I was just thinking of you last night, trying to recall… is your surgery this tuesday? Or do I have that all wrong? Do you know any more than the 15%, 30%, 55% thoughts the doctor gave you? (I may have the % wrong!)
satby
@elmo: link is in my nym. And thank you so much!
Haven’t been to the GOS in years, I would feel like a jerk showing up just to blog.
WaterGirl
thanks, Anne Laurie, for putting this up!
satby
@jacy: jacy, thank you. I was hoping to hear how you’re doing too. Been thinking healing thoughts for you.
PurpleGirl
First I have to pay my bills but by tomorrow evening I’ll know what I can contribute. I hope the medical problem can be solved and you have your companion a while longer.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@elmo: Click on satby’s blue name in #1 to get to her store. Lots of neat stuff there (I just ordered some, and kicked in a GoFundMe donation as well).
Hang in there, satby! Best wishes for your pooch’s prognosis and everything else. Things will get better – I hope it’s soon.
Cheers,
Scott.
donovong
I just lost my German Shepherd one month ago today, so this timing is karma or something. I sent what I could in his memory. I hope it helps.
satby
I have to drop off, but I am grateful to all the Juicers who help and pass the word, or even just wish us luck… this community has been my oasis of sanity. Don’t know what I’d do without all of you…
satby
Mainly because I’m crying…
jacy
@WaterGirl: @satby:
Thanks for the good thoughts!
I’m set for surgery 7 AM Monday morning. Oncologist is hoping to do it robotically if she can manage it, but I won’t know what happened until I wake up. I’m not really nervous yet, because it’s still pretty abstract — I figure about Midnight Sunday night I’ll be pretty jumpy. As soon as I’m able, I’ve promised everybody I’ll tweet or facebook or blog or something to let them know what’s going on. We’ll see how a morphine pump affects my ability to use the tiny little keyboard on my stupid phone…. I’m thinking I may go on a badly-mispelled, drug-addled tirade until I pass out…. (The faithless husband will take me to the hospital and sit through surgery and until I’m installed in a room, then go get the kids and bring them to visit, so that should be interesting!)
Mnemosyne
@jacy:
Fun! Also, no idea if the doc said anything, but if you don’t want them messing around with/shaving your … nether hair, you may want to do it yourself ahead of time. I woke up from my knee surgery and was like, Geez, what did you need to shave all the way up there for?! It was a little bizarre, because they never even mentioned it ahead of time.
ETA: It was especially weird because it was only on that one side.
I’m all stocked up for my bowel-cleansing prep on Monday with more different kinds of clear liquids than I can possibly drink in a single day, plus fixings to make from-scratch gelatin squares. Fun fact: beer and wine are considered clear liquids! But they only recommend one serving.
Emma
We lost our cat early in the year and our potbellied pig a month ago. Both of old age. So I popped in a bit too.
scav
@jacy: All the best, and if you share the muddly morphine bits here, they’ll no doubt be very enjoyed (especially the ranty!) and you’ll have all sorts of backups for the parts you’d possibly rather forget.
Mary G
Could only give a little, but every little bit helps, I hope. Sending good thoughts and prayers your way.
cckids
Hopefully I’ll be able to give something on Monday. Best wishes to you.
OT, Bill Maher’s special from DC is pretty good. He has a line about watching President Obama coming out of a meeting with Boehner or McConnell, and
“saying nice things when appropriate. He reminds me of a really good special ed teacher”.
I laughed so loud, I scared the cats. Maybe because I’ve known many good Sp Ed teachers, and that is so apt.
jacy
@Mnemosyne:
I whined until they agreed that cran-apple was a “clear liquid.” I figure it wont be too hard to follow the clear liquid diet, because I stopped eating when the bomb dropped. I am sad that I can’t take a bath between now and then — only showers with a special anti-bacterial scrub that they warn “do not get on face or in mouth.” Yeah, that’s sound perfectly safe to scrub the rest of my body with…..
WaterGirl
@jacy: Thanks for bringing us up to speed. You have many, many people here who care about you and are wishing you the best.
Yikes, that soap doesn’t sound like anything you want to get on your personal private parts, either.
Wishing you the medical equivalent of safe travels, and “uneventful travel”, which is even better. Will be keeping an eye out on monday so we know how you’re doing. Maybe they will give you some fun drugs.
Years ago my good friend’s boyfriend had surgery and that was in the early days of what they called “twilight sleep”. We took turns staying with Ed for 2 hours at a time, and he was in his own little world where the 3 of us were having a threesome. It was probably wrong of me to be laughing, but we got a big kick out of it.
John Revolta
@Mnemosyne: Another fun fact: If you don’t let your glass get empty, one serving can be plenty!
Beeb
I’m in. Good luck to you and your furry buddies, satby.
Yatsuno
Payday is Monday. Hopefully AL can send a couple of reminder posts next week.
@jacy: Ahh…good old Chlorhexidine Gluconate. The stuff works but yeah definitely don’t want to ingest it.
Howard Beale IV
satby: what’s yer IT background?
roxy
Satby
I’m in. I also shared your request on my facebook page. I wish you all the best.
greennotGreen
I recently realized that I was getting so many duns from various nice, progressive causes I’ve donated to in the past that I was tuning everyone out, even to the extent of giving someone who just wanted some gas to get home and was offering a gas can only a dollar when I am such a lucky person and could have given far more. It is hard when so many are asking for help and those of us who aren’t in the 0.1% can’t help everyone, but it’s important not to forget to share our bounty at all. So I chipped in a little for Satby, and now I’ve got to write those checks to those other nice, progressive causes because, after all, I am a very lucky person.
FoxinSocks
Got some good news a couple of days ago. Happy to pay it forward!
Mnemosyne
@John Revolta:
I usually drink straight out of the bottle (of cider). ‘Cause I’m a classy broad like that.
Genine
I gave what I could; I wish it was more. I posted it to FB for you. Good luck to you and the critters!
Ramalama
@satby: I am literally cash poor being underpantly-employed but I’d like to post some of your products on another site that I co-dominate that has a wee bit of traffic. Would that be ok?
satby
@Howard Beale IV: Howard, I was an account workflow manager, or a service delivery manager, or a transition service delivery SME / business process engineer as needed. I was able to work from home most of the time. Sorry to be so late replying, I had to go to bed last night, I’m working this morning.
satby
@Ramalama: I would be very grateful, thank you Ramalama! Sorry I had to drop off last night. It was late and I was overwhelmed and had to get some sleep before work today.
satby
@Beeb: @Yatsuno: @roxy: @greennotGreen: @FoxinSocks: @Genine:
@ Everyone: You all are so very kind, thank you so much. I’m just awed and so very grateful. I rescued these guys to give what was left of their lives some love and happiness in a safe home, yesterday when I thought I was going to fail them I really was despairing. I’m normally an optimist, and faith restored. Thank you all, from all of us but especially my old guy. He was a seizure from a puppy mill where he had spent his first two years in a cage as a stud, he is one of my epileptic dogs too. I’m just so grateful that with all your help he can get care. Thanks again and again.
zippity
I chipped in a little…hopefully, you’ll end up with a bit of a cushion. I lost my 17 year old cat last month, and even with 5 other cats and a lab, there is still a big void in the house. Rescuing these unwanted pets is a wonderful act of love. Thank you.
Kristine
Donated and FB’d.