Karma's Just $85 Short of Her $1,200 Surgery

Debra D. Singletary is the founder/CEO Ga.AWA-Georgia Animal Welfare Advocates. She's used to helping local animals get healthy and find homes but this time she needs help with her own pet, Karma.

Debra is raising the money through http://www.gofundme.com and needs $1,000 for the surgery with the rest going to the website.

Here is the link to make a donation: http://www.gofundme.com/5fclyg

Here is Debra's story:

Well here I am....usually I am on here raising money for a kitten with upper respiratory, or a dog with kennel cough, or one in need of surgery, or a spay and neuter for pets out of the shelter; but this time I am on here asking for help myself...for Karma.

Here's Karma's story:
I met Karma 6 years ago. I ran a boarding facility and a family came in with this gorgeous reverse brindle Presa Canario and I fell in love! She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen! Well they were there checking out the facility to see if it would be a good fit for Karma.

As we talked I learned they had just rescued her from the Douglas County Animal Shelter. She had been theirs for just 3 weeks.
I found out that she had come from a very abusive situation and had just recently had puppies (no one knows what happened to them), and it was apparent she had been used for breeding....over and over and over.
Karma had so many issues because of this but her new family was willing to work through this.

So we began working with her, training her and gaining her trust. She was wonderful! She stayed at the facility a couple of times but it was evident that it wasn't a good fit for Karma. I was a petsitter at the time and told them I would take care of her for them. 

For the next 4 years I was her caregiver. I would walk her pretty much 5 days a week, every week, and would watch her when her mom and dad were out of town. Karma was spoiled and she knew love.

Well as fate would have it, their living situation changed and Karma would have to be re-homed. We worked on that for about a month and none of us was ever satisfied with any of the applicants. What happened next was the inevitable, she would come home with me....and she did.
We have worked through most of her issues and she has changed tremendously. She blossomed and came out of her shell. She has been such a joy and we love her dearly...I LOVE HER...

So now we've fast forwarded to today, November 22, 2013...Friday. I had noticed that Karma wasn't eating, just picking at her food on Tuesday, but for her that wasn't out of the norm...sometimes she would do that. Well Wednesday was a little of the same and by Thursday (yesterday) she didn't want to eat, which was very odd for her. I made chicken and rice and literally hand-fed her. She ate about half.

This morning I took some more chicken and rice down to her and she wouldn't touch it, I even tried giving her just plain chicken, again, nothing. I decided to take her on a walk, her favorite thing to do. I got out her leash and she tried to climb the stairs...she took 2 steps, yelped and wouldn't come up no matter what I did. I ended up taking her around the long way in the back yard so she didn't have to climb any of the steps and she seemed to do ok.

I called the vet just to be on the safe side and they told me to bring her in. When she tried to jump up in the car she couldn't do it and she cried. It took some doing, but my daughter and I made 2 slings and we were able to get her in the car, and off to the vet I went.

Dr. Leathers checked her out, did blood work, xrays, etc. and what he found wasn't good. She has a mass around her colon, could be a tumor, growth, mass, something....but regardless it has to come out....thus the reason for this...
She could have colon cancer but there's no way to know for sure unless she has the surgery. I can not put my girl down, not yet, she's not ready and can possibly live a long life.

I am here asking that you please help me help her. I am in hopes that there are some of you out there that will come to my aid as I have to yours...please, no amount is too small. Please help her.
And this is time sensitive, I need to be able to give the vet an answer by Monday, so again, please, help if you can. If you can't donate, please share to your friends, anyone...I would do it for you, please do it for me, do it for Karma...and as always, thank you so very much.

More about Debra and Georgia Animal Welfare Advocates

My name is Debra, animal lover, pet advocate and I am the founder of Georgia Animal Welfare Advocates. We are a group of people, pet lovers, that have banded together to help pets get out of the area shelters and into good homes. But we mostly help keep those pets out of the shelter. By working directly with pet owners we can help assess their situations to see if we can help keep the pets in the home by providing training, vetting (including spay and neuter), pet deposits, or food. Ga.AWA also helps with re-homing pets that are otherwise subjected to abuse, neglect or abandonment. We do what we can in the community.

Ga.AWA has had a good year thus far. We have been able to help, relocate or place more than 200 pets into good rescues or homes and have been able to assist with vetting with the help of wonderful sponsors. Vetting has included everything from general spay and neuters and vaccinations to surgeries to repair broken bones and remove damaged eyes, and I'm proud to be able to share that we have raised around $6,000 for vetting, $1,000 for spay and neuter, and another $2,000 to get pets into rescue, and again, this is all credited to sponsors and pet lovers, no grants or anything like that.