Reuben's mama asks for your help

2nd update, 6:36 pm: We reached our goal in only 4 hours! We even gotted a little bit extra that we would like to pass on to our good dog friends Juno and Scout. Scout, a lovely dachshund like me, was missing for 5 days, during that time she gotted some broken toes and other injuries that needs major surgeries. This is Juno's Facebook page where you can see pictures of Scout in her little cast.

At this point I no even has the right words to says how many gratefuls I has. Mama's tears is messing up the keyboard though, so I has to go take care of her by licking her face. I love everyone who helped or even just read my story, or shared it, or sent prayers and positive thoughts. Thank yous from the bottoms of my heart!!!!!!

UPDATE!!! After only 2 hours we has already received 78% of our goal!  My mama has tears in her eyes. She knowed I has some very good friends, but she no expected this!!! *happy wiggle dance*

Hello friends, this is Reuben's mama. I didn't want to have to do this - I thought we would get by without asking for help - but Reuben and Hatfield's vet bills have caused some major financial problems for our family. My husband lost his job two months ago. I work part time, am in grad school, and have a 7 year-old daughter, and we were barely making ends meet before our beloved pets got sick. In the past two months we have spent $469.08 on Reuben and Hatfield's medical care. I would love to raise this amount to help us pay our bills after spending so much money at the vet, but I will be grateful for whatever amount we receive, no matter how small. Every little bit helps. I'm more than happy to post receipts if it would make folks feel better about contributing. Reuben has magnanimously agreed to send an autographed photo to everyone who is able to help us out in this difficult time.

Our senior dachshund Reuben recently had a dental performed at the vet. I decided to do this because he had fistulas in his gums that were obviously bothering him – he licked that area constantly; it was always wet. His temperament became more and more grumpy, and given his history of major mouth problems, brought him in for a dental cleaning where the vet would fix his fistulas and pull any sore and loose teeth if needed. I also had him microchipped. Luckily, Reuben got to keep all nine of his glorious teeth and had his fistulas sealed. Unluckily, he had a bad reaction to the anesthesia, and would not eat and barely even moved for three days. I had to bring him back to the vet for some fluids and medications. Now he is back to his boisterous self, but coming close to losing him was frighteningly awful.

When Hatfield went in for a routine checkup, the vet discovered that he had a heart murmur. I had suspected that something was going on – Hatfield had been eating even more voraciously than usual, but was losing a lot of weight. I learned that a lot of animals live for years with heart murmurs and have little change in their quality of life. However, based on this condition, the prominence of his thyroid gland in his throat, his advancing age (he is 13), his eating habits and his weight loss, the vet sent his bloodwork in for thyroid and kidney tests. His thyroid level was about three times that of a normal cat; happily, his kidneys were fine. Now we are managing his condition with daily medication, and he has gained a little weight. He’s become a lot happier too – for a long time he didn’t particularly want to be near me, which was heartbreaking since he’s been by my side since I was a freshman in college.

I love helping Reuben blog about his adventures and share his life with all the wonderful friends we’ve met on Facebook and Blogger. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you for all the joy you’ve provided us over this past year.