A desperate dog owner is selling all her belongings in a bid to raise money for her beloved pooch’s life-saving treatment – a whopping £37,000.
Snoopy is a a yorkie-chi and was rescued from a shelter in the US nine years ago after he was found in a dustbin, abandoned by a family after Christmas.
Last month, Snoopy’s owner, Dolly-Ann Osterloh took the nine-year-old dog to be assessed after he developed breathing difficulties – he was diagnosed with mitral valve disease – meaning his heart had grown too big.
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Unless he has heart surgery doctors predict Snoopy will only have a few more months left to live.
Dolly-Ann told UNILAD:
At the moment I have to give Snoopy medication 11 times a day, so I set my alarm to go off at least 11 times a day and because he’s such a tiny dog, I have to split the dosage.
He’s doing well, he’s reacting well to his medication which means he’ll be a good candidate for the surgery.
We have a slot on the 19th September, in Paris. A vet is coming over from Tokyo to do the operation.
The surgery has been quite unsuccessful worldwide, except for this one surgeon, he’s the only one in the entire world who has this level of success – 90 per cent. Everybody else has 15 to 20 per cent.
After the surgery, he should be like a young a dog again.
As things stand, surgery to repair his mitral valve is the only way to decrease the size of his heart and his only chance to survive.
The surgery costs over £30,000 and while Dolly-Ann has already raised most of it through her own life savings, as well as a bank loan and money borrowed from friends and family – she still needs another £5,000 to £10,000.
To boost funds, Dolly-Ann will be opening her London flat to the public for 24 hours from 9pm on Friday and inviting guests to make an offer for any of her possessions:
I would never have expected so many people to be interested in my sale. Lots of people will be coming – I’m letting strangers into my house
I’ve no time to go through my things to keep anything aside, so it’s all for sale, nothing matters right now. Whatever they find they can buy.
Dolly-Ann says material belongings don’t matter to her – the bond she has with Snoopy outweighs the importance of anything else and all she wants is for her dog to be okay:
I’m sure many dog and pet owners will understand how much a pet means – they’re actual family members.
Snoopy is like a child to me! With animals, you connect so well to them and the older they get, the more understanding they get.
It’s a stronger bond than I can have with anybody, it’s unconditional love, and love doesn’t have anything to do with materialism, it goes over everything
I’ll give anything if this helps me save Snoopy’s life.
Dolly-Ann wanted to take the time to explain Snoopy’s condition to raise awareness so other people may have the chance to pick up on it sooner:
Nobody told me about the condition, it’s just a shock.
It can be common in some dogs – Snoopy will have had it a long time but because he’s had it so long now, he needs the surgery.
One sign is if your dog keeps coughing after drinking, you may think it’s gone down the wrong way but if it happens consistently, please go to the vet – it’s a symptom.
Around 1 in 10 dogs will develop some form of heart disease during their lifetime and approximately 80 per cent of the heart disease is due to mitral valve insufficiency – which is more common in small dogs than large breeds.
To donate visit Snoopy’s GoFundMe page or for more information on the big sale, visit Snoopy’s Big Heart website.
