Tucker is a rambunctious, happy-go-lucky Golden Retriever who was living a perfect dog life when he suddenly developed a life-threatening problem. He was rushed to his local veterinarian where it was determined that he had developed a lung lobe torsion. He needed surgery and he needed it fast!

He was referred immediately to a specialist where things happened very quickly. Surgery was his only option, and it was going to be expensive. His Mom was a nursing student. She was going to school and working part-time jobs to support her way through it, but she managed to come up with the $13,000 to pay for his surgery. She borrowed money and used her savings, and luckily Tucker made it. It was a huge sacrifice, but the prognosis was good. Tucker did really well for the next 6 months.

Unfortunately, eight month after surgery he started to develop new symptoms. Medicine is not an exact science and sometimes there are missed underlying causes or complications to surgeries. We may never know what happened with Tucker, but the worst happened. Tucker developed a chylothorax, milky fluid built up in his chest making it very difficult to breath. Once again, his Mom was faced with a terrible crisis. He was barely 2 years old and his life was hanging in the balance again! His Mom had done everything in her power and more to help him live. She had every expectation that he would do well if he had the first surgery. Now, he needed a second one and she had absolutely no more resources. In fact, she was still paying off the first surgery.

Luckily she had a guardian angel out there … her veterinarian paid for Tucker’s CT scan so that we would know truly what the problem was AND how it needed to be resolved once and for all. He had an 80% chance of survival “if everything went well.” So Lucky Paw went to work creating a backup plan in case it didn’t. The cost of the new surgery was $9800. One donor stepped up and volunteered to pay for 3 days of complications and another volunteered to pay for 5 more days if needed. We wanted to make sure that if we all pulled together for Tucker, that no matter what the surgeon faced, we would be ready to give him every chance to make a full recovery. And, he did!!!

Tucker’s story exemplifies all that the Lucky Paw Foundation stands for. We are a community of incredibly compassionate animal lovers that value the relationship between animals and their owners. When things go terribly wrong … when owners do everything right … and the situation is dire, that’s when Lucky Paw works it’s magic!