Aid Jon's Surgery and Cover Marmalade's Vet Bills

As many of you know, the past two and a half years have been rough for Jon and me. It started off with Jon obtaining a work injury... fast forward... being unnecessarily evicted before his first surgery... fast forward... Jon lost his job in February... fast forward... we finally have a final (hopefully) surgical date set for Jon (11/19). We've been counting on our little buddy, Marmalade, being his recovery doctor. We adopted her in 2013 after we first moved in together, and she has been such a good friend and support baby through thick and thin. Such a pure soul with so much unconditional love to give. She stayed religiously by Jon's side these past 2.5 years as his doctor -- making sure he was never alone or lonely.

Monday (10/7), our sweet baby angel started feeling unwell. When we noticed, the vet was closed. We got her into urgent care as soon as the vet opened Tuesday (10/8). The vets said her liver, gallbladder, and colon were all inflamed. With the vets, we made the decision to try steroid treatments overnight to calm the inflammation. On Wednesday (10/9), we received a call that there were no changes to Marmalade's health and that they believed there was a blockage preventing her organs from functioning. We went back to the vet's office to see sweet baby Marma-lady and talk with the vets. We were given the choice of putting her down or trying surgery to remove the unknown blockage (which could have been anything -- even a long human hair). She was purring, snuggling, giving Jon little head butts, and letting us know she wasn't ready to leave.

Not only do we love Marmalade dearly, but we were counting on her being there for Jon during his upcoming surgical recovery. We went ahead with Marmalade's surgery. A few hours later, we received another call; Marmalade had a cancerous tumor in her gallbladder. The vets removed the tumor, gallbladder, and gave us another call saying she was out of surgery and everything went beautifully. We were excited and relieved about the prospect of bringing her home for a few more months and spoiling her as she hung out with Jon during his recovery and saying our goodbyes to her. An hour later, we received another call -- Marmalade went into cardiac arrest. We had to let our sweet baby go.

We are devastated. We are lost. We feel broken. Marmalade has been our rock for 11 years. When times were rough (as recent years have been), she was always there for us. We were hoping to at least have a few months with her to say goodbye and let her see Jon healed after his upcoming double disc replacement surgery (lower back). This would have meant the world to all of us. She was so concerned about Jon's injury.

Instead, we lost our Marma-baby and have a huge bill to pay. We already paid the first $1,200. We have another bill coming our way that will be between $3,000 - $4,000.

I work for a tiny non-profit that is unable to pay much. As mentioned previously, Jon lost his job in February. In addition to my non-profit employment, I work as many gig opportunities as possible to pay our rent and keep food on our table. We don't live an extravagant life. This past week has been unbelievably unexpected.

We know times are hard for everyone right now, but if you are able to help us out even a little bit, it would mean the world to us.