Help Save My Puppy LIF

The universe has thrown me an unfortunate curve ball this weekend. I would like everyone to meet my 9-month old boxer puppy, Quorra:


me with her last christmas when we first got her, she was my fiancee's christmas present, and here she is a couple weeks ago:


this past friday she started walking funny, we thought maybe she hurt her leg from running around/wrestling with our other dog Ludo. Saturday, we were having a big bar-b-q at our house, and she was starting to fall over. She couldn't even stand on her own. We rushed her to an emergency hospital and told us that she needed to get an MRI as soon as possible. Turns out she has lesions on her brain, and they still don't know the cause. I'm over my head in medical bills for her at the moment, and there is still more testing than needs to be done.

This is such a crushing moment in my life. Me and my fiancee lost our first pet we got together as a couple a few months back, a cat, who was tragically killed by a dog. Our little girl dog means the world to us, and we are trying to do everything we can to raise money to help with saving her. We've reached out to family and friends for support, and I'm reaching out to this community that I've become a part of for any support you guys can offer. I've only been into craft beer for about a year, so I don't have some amazing box to put together to be raffled off on here. I did put together a box of:

1 Westvleteren 12
1 Ommegang Iron Throne
1 La Senne Manneken Penn
1 Founders Rubaeus
1 Flying Fish FU Sandy
1 Dogfish Head World Wide Stout '10

we're doing $10 donations for each entry into the raffle. even if you can't do that, even $5 will go a long way into helping us.

As i've said before, I'm glad i've become a member of the BA community. Even though I haven't done any reviews yet, I've just started trading, and meeting local BAs, and frequent the forums (reading at least) on a daily basis. This is a great community, and I see the help that you guys have given to others in need. I have a very generous BA who i've met and drank some beers with before who is getting together some beers for me for another box. I will update this thread as soon as i get the exact info for the second box, i'm sure it will be equal to, if not be better than what i could come up with. To any south jersey locals (Philly suburbs) i am organizing a local fundraiser with some bars/liquor stores in the area. I have a few generous friends donating some bottles, and that box will be raffled off at a venue around here, i will give you details for that as well.

I'm not expecting too much from this, but every little bit helps. If by some miracle we raise enough to cover all the bills and treatment needed to give our little girl a shot at pulling through, any extra funds raised will be put right back into animal rescue/saving animal lives. Me and my fiancee actively foster both cats and dogs through South Jersey Animal Rescue, and the Philadelphia Shelter, so the money will be funneled right back into saving animals lives.

I want my little girl to have a chance to become an old grumpy boxer dog. She is such an awesome dog, who loves running around and playing with other dogs. This is such a heartbreaking experience to see her go from running around with toys in her mouth and playing with my other dog, to her laying on the ground, not being able to stand on her own, knowing all she wants to do is get up and play but she can't. To some of us who don't have kids, are pets ARE our kids. And this just hurts so much.

If you're in the south jersey/philly area i can accept donations in person, or i'm accepting through my paypal, which the address is:

[email protected]

please include your e-mail address, phone number, and BA screen name in the message section.

I'm promoting this raffle in the local area as much as i can (bars/stores), however the box of beer i'm receiving, the one being donated by a BA on here, will be exclusively raffled off on here. Every $10 donation from BA members on this site will get you an entry for both boxes of beer. Feel free to message me with any questions you have.

Thanks so much for listening, I will update as soon as i get any more info on the second box, and any progress Quorra is making.

Cheers,
Matt

 

I just got the list of beers being donated by a very generous BA, who is donating anonymously. Box #2 will contain:


08,09,10 Vertical Epic
Bitches Brew (2010, first run)
Positive Contact
Pearl Jam Faithful
2 xLife and Limb 2
Collaboration before Litigation
Delirium Nocturnums
Brux
Smuttynose Zeinke

I cannot thank him enough. As mentioned before every $10 gets you an entry into both boxes, this box #2 is specifically for BAs only, and not being promoted through my local beer community like the first box is. We've already received some generous donations and can't thank everyone enough.

Take care,
Matt

 

One more quick update:

thank you to those who have donated so far, and to those who have simply spread the word. i am receiving another set of bottles from another generous BA, so it's looking like a 3rd box may be in order (and every $10 will get you an entry into all 3 boxes). at this time I'd politely like to say that I have enough bottles for boxes to be raffled off. i will list the 3rd box as soon as i get the bottles in. also i forgot to mention I will be doing a live USTREAM drawing of the raffles on friday August 9th, and will contact winners by e-mail or on here.

an update on Quorra: she has started steroids and antibiotics to help the the lesions. she has for the first time in days been able to stand up on her own, even walk around a little bit (she is still wobbly and falls over). we're not out of the woods yet, and with a couple generous donations that we have received we are now able to run a few more tests to try to find out exactly what is causing the lesions in her brain. it's still up in the air whether she'll make it or not, but i can't thank enough everyone who has already helped by donating either bottles or their hard earned money to help give her a good shot.

 

a few more donations came in last night/this morning, i can't thank you guys enough. another quick update on Quorra:

Dr from UPenn said her Neospara test was negative. This was good news, but bad at the same time since we still don't know what's causing her lesions. Her steroids are being upped to an immune suppressing dose (to see if it's something wrong with her immune system) and she's getting started on a chemo therapy type drug. He also wants to put her on a rather expensive really strong antibiotic while on the immune suppressor, so if she has an infection that we haven't been able to test for yet she'll have a better chance for survival. The donations we've received so far have helped us afford these last few tests/medicines she's needed. We still have a ways to go, and again I cannot stress how much your donations have meant to me and my fiancee, it's helping give our girl a chance to make it and helping keep us positive for recovery.

Cheers everyone,
- Matt

 

Quorra's recovery was going strongly until yesterday, she suffered from several seizures and had to spend the night at an emergency hospital. She was stable this morning, and we took her to her neurologist, who was going to try continuing treating her with different doses and keep a watch on her for any more seizures. However she had been coughing a lot and she is now being x-rayed to see if she has pneumonia, and has to stay in intensive care until tomorrow. The donations we have received helped us get this far, but we are at the point where in a day or two we will be completely out of money and options. If anyone else was thinking of donating, she needs it now more than ever. Thanks to all who have helped her get this far, if she can get through the pneumonia, her neurologist thinks there's still hope for her to make it. Thanks for your time and donations so far, i'll update when i get any more news.

- matt

 

Update: Quorra is finally home after spending several nights in the hospital. She did not have pneumonia. She has started an intense treatment of chemo meds, anti-seizure meds, an immune-suppressing dose of steroids, and a whole lot of antibiotics. As hard as it is to say, this is her last shot. If this treatment does not help get her on top of her issue that was causing brain lesions, which the doctor said is almost definitely now a degenerative immune-system disease, then she'll most likely not ever be able to recover(if this treatment doesn't work). So essentially, if this treatment doesn't work, we're going to have to say goodbye. The doctor said he is 'cautiously optimismtic', since she has responded so well so far to the meds and hasn't had any seizures in a few days. It's still a toss of the dice whether she is going to make it or not. The doctor said some dogs respond well to the treatment, and some relapse. So we're trying to stay as positive as possible. Because there is still a chance that she can overcome this and grow up.

Again, I cannot thank everyone who has donated enough. She would NOT be here right now if it wasn't for the support I've received from the BA's on here who helped and form the local beer community/friends in my area. thank you guys so much for helping keep my dog with us. we still need help, if anyone was thinking about donating, to make sure if something else pops up not related to what she's going through now, we'll be able to overcome it, and give her every chance she needs to survive and grow up. there's still a week left before i do the raffle drawing for the two boxes. i'll keep you guys updated with her progress. the next few days will be tough, not knowing what's going to happen the next day, but the support i've received from you guys has helped me stay strong, so i seriously cannot thank you guys enough. cheers.

 

Update: So I got a few more bottles donated to me (as mentioned before), so here is the 3rd box being raffled off (1 each of):

Box #3:
Center of the Universe - Barrel Aged Scotchtown
Dogfish Head - 120 Minute (2012)
Founders - Breakfast Stout
Sierra Nevada - Bigfoot (2012)
Birra Artigianale da Tavola - Bionda
Birra Artigianale da Tavola - Bruna

And as a quick re-cap just in case you didn't read all the posts, here are the other 2 boxes:

Box #1:
1 Westvleteren 12
1 Ommegang Iron Throne
1 La Senne Manneken Penn
1 Founders Rubaeus
1 Flying Fish FU Sandy
1 Dogfish Head World Wide Stout '10

Box #2:
08,09,10 Vertical Epic
Bitches Brew (2010, first run)
Positive Contact
Pearl Jam Faithful
2 xLife and Limb 2
Collaboration before Litigation
Delirium Nocturnums
Brux
Smuttynose Zeinke

Again, for every $10 donated you get one entry into all 3 boxes being raffled off. I'm pushing back the drawing to August 16th, since I've had a few more people interested in helping out who can't help until they get paid this friday. So on August 16th i will do the live u-stream drawing, and/or post the video on youtube, post the drawing video on here, and contact you guys through private messages on here.

Quorra is still with us, and seems to be responding well to the treatment she is receiving. I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for all of you who have donated and helped get us this far. Today she started running around for a brief minute. She has not run around since before this happened, and that's all this crazy little girl used to do. We still have to keep an eye on her progress, there are no guarantees, but things are looking good and we're staying as positive as we can. She still has a very long road ahead of her. Please still donate if you can, we still need help in making sure we have all the options still open for her. Seriously, thanks so much everyone, I'll update you again if any major changes happen. cheers!

 

Update:

Quorra is still on the mend; she has another session of chemo in two weeks, but so far she is back to running around and playing and almost her old self again. The doctor is very hopeful that she will continue to recover, and that soon we can lower her medicine doses and still keep her in remission. Thank you to everyone who helped donate on here. Without everyone's help we received on here and through my local beer community, she would not still be here. I cannot thank everyone enough. The drawing will be taking place tomorrow night around 11pm eastern VIA a live uStream video (if i can figure out how to work it), if not i'll throw up a youtube video of the drawing. Here is Quorra and the beer that is being raffled off:

Box#1:



Box#2:


Box #3:


As I said before, every $10 got you an entry into all 3 boxes. Box #1 is being raffled off from entries in my local beer community as well as BA donations, and boxes 2 & 3 are exclusively being raffled off on here and BA members only can enter/win them. If anyone was thinking about making a donation at this point in time, it must be in before 10:30 PM Eastern Time in order to be entered into the drawing.

Thanks again to the generous BAs who donated the bottles to make boxes 2 & 3.

My fiance and I just would like to thank you guys so much for helping keep our little girl going, she still has a battle ahead of her, but it's looking like she's going to come out the victor. Cheers everyone, I'll update you tomorrow night!

- Matt

...and as i was reviewing what I typed to make sure I got all the info on here, Quorra walks right up next to me and pees on the floor -_-

 

The raffle is set to go live at approximately 11PM eastern time, here is the link to watch the drawing:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/quorra-raffle

I will be recording it as well to throw up on youtube. I will be notifying winners VIA private messages on here and I will be sending a text message as well. Again thanks so much to everyone who helped out, it means more than the world to me. Cheers!

- Matt

 

i go live in two minutes, plenty of time to add you to the drawing haha, thanks so much, it means the world!

 

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/37405741

winners have been notified, and boxes will go out monday! there is the video link above...god i'm awkward as hell...but anyways, once again thanks to everyone who helped whether it was donating bottles or your hard earned cash. it more than means the world to me. cheers everyone!