they are adorable good pups! please do consider a donation site.
Set up a GFM. Your story is great, their story is great. Ask the shelter that connected you to them to help by sharing your GFM link.
Or even see if you can ask the shelter to use their donation platform to solicit and collect donations for you. And if not, at least share your link.
If you try to find the most cost effective way to do it, add that info to the story.
You’ll get a big chunk from Dopers and the rest from the shelter’s fans.
I think that to link to a fundraising site or otherwise fundraise as such on the Dope you need to ask permission from the mods first. For something like this I’d expect you to get it.
That is the sweetest picture! You never know who dogs will like…it’s not always what you expect.
Our Fleury was our oldest rescue, and she came to us with the damage already done from her bad teeth. Heart problems, and she also had mammary tumors. And she turned out to be pregnant. We hadn’t had a pregnant dog since we were little kids and didn’t realize we were missing the signs until she was ready to deliver. She’d been so skinny when she came to use, we thought we were overfeeding her. Ha!
So, if Louise and Einstein are otherwise healthy, it’s not too awfully bad.
Poor little thing! I hate seeing any dog pregnant, but especially the older ones. Sounds like you completely transformed her life!
Louise and Einstein definitely strike me as having been loved and cared for, although it looks like their care had sort of gotten away from their owner in recent months or years. I’ve seen intentional neglect and dogs whose owners just didn’t really care enough to look after them properly and dogs whose owners maybe loved them deep down, but they just weren’t really capable of taking care of them or recognizing that they weren’t taking care of them. And these little dogs are in need of some TLC, but they’re well-socialized, spayed and neutered, and used to being handled, which tells me they were cared for.
Anyway, on the vet care front, things are moving along. The shelter vet quoted me a frankly ridiculous $200 for a dental including blood work (which they’ve just had, so may or may not need again), but they’re booked out til December. So Einstein has an appointment with them. Louise is going for the expensive option at my regular vet and has hers scheduled for Wednesday. She then has a grooming scheduled for next Monday, so she’s got quite the week ahead of her!
My plan for covering the bill is to sell some paintings (I do pet portraits, of course. They’re not high art, but they’re okay) and just to cut back on extras for a while. I decided I’m really not all that comfortable with asking people to contribute to their care without offering something of some kind of value in return.
Both dogs are settling in and getting into the routine! Einstein has discovered the toys, but he’s a shredder/defluffer. Marvin (my other dog) has a large collection of stuffed/squeaky toys because he doesn’t destroy them at all and we’ve had to have several toy funerals over the past few days. RIP big pencil and eraser. RIP stuffed cheeseburger. And Louise likes to sleep on my pillow. Which is great because my cat also likes to sleep on my pillow. So I have two pillows and the cat gets one and Louise gets the other and I find an unoccupied corner where I can.
OMG, their happy little faces! I love them.
They do look so happy!
I like your paintings, @SurrenderDorothy ! If we wanted one, could we send a photograph? And how?
Our Luc was the toy-destroyer. He had to get to the squeaker and kill it! At one time, we had a giant bowl full of extracted squeakers.
Our ‘little’ one (she’s still 68 lbs., but smaller than the older dog) is like this. She must rip it apart, but then she keeps the carcass for a LONG time - that becomes the treasured baby.
Aw, that’s sweet. Luc didn’t usually care about the carcass after it was “dead.”
I think she’s learned that the fabric shell makes a better tug toy than the full toy.
And before anybody asks, yes, we’ve tried every possible kind of rope toy there is. No interest whatsoever.
For REAL chewing, she loves the hard toys from Bark Box. We probably have 12-15 around the house. At least with those, both dogs love them. Power chewer doesn’t begin to describe those two goof balls.
Heh, dachshunds have bad teeth, so pulling/tugging is not so good for them. Good thing none of our dogs (all dachshunds, but one) were into it.
I appreciate your desire to give in return for getting something, and your portraits are very cute - I especially like the dog, even though I am a cat person. I’d order one if I hadn’t just put a whole load of wall decorations into storage because there is no place to hang them (my current house is mostly windows, which is awesome, but limits what you can hang on the walls).
Which brings me to my next point, which is that if you’re stressing yourself financially, even if you sell portraits it’s still okay to do a GFM too, for a couple of reasons: one, there may be people who would be happy to help who don’t want to buy a portrait; and two, I don’t know what you sell your portraits for but I hope they aren’t too cheap - you have a lot of cost in time and supplies to account for. So maybe the cost of a portrait is more than some people can afford to donate, but they’d still like to give $20 or something. A GFM will capture that segment of people who want to help as well.
Anyhow, just a thought. You’re taking care of the dogs, others want to take care of you if you need it, so we can say thanks.
Thank you 
I really am okay! One of the shelter volunteers gave me a little to cover part of it, the vet gave me a friends and family discount (which my co-worker had been saying all week I should ask for, but I thought she was joking! I didn’t realize it’s a real thing til I saw it on my receipt) and all that brings it down to a more manageable amount.
Louise is officially toothless and handling it like a champ! Her appetite is good, she’s alert and doesn’t seem to be in pain, and she smells a whole lot better. What a relief!
Aaaaaand… in case you thought I had any marbles left, rest assured I do not. Another rescue (one I’ve never worked with) has a dog who was adopted from them and then turned into the humane society as a senior with bone cancer. They recommend euthanasia, but the rescue doesn’t want him to spend his last few days alone in a kennel and doesn’t have anyone who does hospice. I guess she mentioned all this to my vet, who gave her my name.
So dog number four, a lab named Jake, will be joining us on Monday. It’s only for a few days. He already has an appointment to be put to sleep on Wednesday. But his last couple days will be filled with hot dogs and pup cups and soft blankets and he’ll leave the world surrounded by love, even if it’s just for a short time.
Now I’m gonna cry a little bit. Thank you for making Jake’s final days a comfort.
It suddenly got dusty here, or is that pollen 
Brian
You don’t need marbles. You have something far more important than marbles.
I’m not a weeper, but that choked me up a bit. Poor Jake. I’m glad you’re making his last days cozy and loved.
You really are a wonderful human being.
So let me start with the best news:
Before today, nobody from the rescue who contacted me about Jake the lab had actually seen him, so they didn’t know much about his condition other than what they were told (same as me). So I went and picked him up today and had lots of questions. Will he be able to do stairs on his own? Do they have him on pain meds or will I have to beg my vet to see him right away to prescribe something to keep him comfortable?
So anyway, we’re sitting there waiting for them to bring us a dying lab and figuring out a game plan for helping him to the car, when the door opens and in bounds a happy black pit mix, pulling on the leash like an enthusiastic cart horse. After a moment, the lady from the rescue asks the question I had been thinking: “can you show me where this mass is?”
You guys. It’s a f’ing LIPOMA! It’s just a little fatty lump that old dogs get all the time. It’s not even a big one. I mean, we’ll double-check it with the vet, but… thank goodness we did get this boy out of that shelter because I would bet good money that he’s a completely healthy old dog.
Needless to say, we will not be keeping the Wednesday euthanasia appointment. We’ll use that time for a checkup instead. He’ll stay here til Saturday, when another foster will be able to take him. I was pretty clear when agreeing to this that I could only do a few days because, much as I would love to take and help an infinite number of animals, there’s a fine line between helping and hoarding and I’m already in over my head.
So anyway, Jake should be available for adoption soon! So far, he seems like a really good boy. Gentle and friendly. Not too worried about the other dogs or the cat (although I’m keeping a close eye on him). He’s a little excitable- pulls on leash and was given up for barking too much. But he’s a total sweetheart and I bet he’ll make someone a marvelous companion.
You know I don’t know this dog, and there are probably countless dogs in similar if not worse circumstances. However, I’m so glad he’s not at deaths door.