Sadie's Fund

May 2006- The Sheriff’s Department in Bunker, MO spotted a black and white pup walking down the road. She was quite thin, very matted fur and collarless.  The sheriff stopped and the pup cautiously approached him. She was then taken to the local rescue, “Diana’s Grove”. There, she was scanned for a microchip and they tried to locate her family.  With no luck finding her family, the Grove named her Sweetie Pie, cleaned her up and and had her checked by a vet. She was a sweet girl, loved being around people and other dogs. Everyone felt that she would be easy to place.

June 2006- I was online looking at a dog my dad was interested in as they had always had at least one dog, if not more.  While looking at the dog, I noticed a picture of this personable black and white border collie, who immediately stole my heart.  A week later, my parents had a pup and I had my Sadie!  She was the most laid back collie. To say she hit “the life of Riley” jackpot was an understatement; she had everyone under her spell.

November 2013- My sweet border collie, Sadie, was diagnosed with Nasal Adenocarcinoma. This type of cancer is considered a slow growing cancer which was caught early, but more testing was needed to determine treatment options. As a month pasted, she began showing symptoms; nasal complications, which led us to the University of Missouri Veterinary School, Columbia, MO.  There we met with a radiation/oncologist about options.  After researching and talking to my vet and the Vet School, I opted for radiation treatments, hoping for a few more years with my girl. With the cost of vet bills prior to diagnosis and treatment, my bills were close to $10,000.  I kept thinking how people could pay for this if they have families to support, do not have high salary jobs and cannot afford pet insurance. I realized that they would have to put their pets down and that broke my heart.  The radiation was not a cure for Sadie’s type of cancer, but because it was typically a slow growing cancer it gave her a shot of living up to an additional 6 years. 

January 2014- Sadie started Radiation; every week day for 20 treatments. We drove from St. Louis to Wentzville for her treatments (thank goodness for retired parents who helped greatly so I would not have to use all my vacation days).  After the radiation, the month of drops for her eyes and other medications, my friends approached me wanting to help with her vet bills. They wanted to set up a Go Fund Me page and organized a Trivia Night to help pay for the bills. To my surprise, they raised almost $6,000!  I am truly blessed to have such friends and family.

December 2014- Our hopes for a super slow regrowth of the tumor was short lived. The tumor was back with a vengeance.  Within days of her having a bloody nose, I was having to say goodbye. It was the most painful and difficult decision in my life. Sadie was not in pain yet and appeared happy and healthy though it was going to turn extremely bad quickly and I wanted to make sure that she never had a chance to suffer.  So, I had to say goodbye to my girl.

A few weeks had gone by and I was telling myself that if it wasn’t for the radiation, I wouldn’t have had an additional year and how grateful I was to have had family and friends helping 24/7. Wouldn’t it be great if I could somehow do for others what my friends and family did for me. I started sharing my thoughts and ideas with everyone. They encouraged me to look into making Sadie’s Fund a non-profit. 

After a few false starts trying to get through the legalese, I stumbled upon the Washington University School of Law’s Entrepreneurship & Intellectual Property Clinic. They were amazing and walked me through every step needed to become a federal 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

March 2016- We achieved our goal! 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Now on to our next goal-  raising funds so that we can start helping families get treatment that they might not otherwise be able to completely afford on their own. 

It is my hope that if you made it this far into our story, you would consider making Sadie’s Fund one of your charities of choice.  Any amount helps. We thank you for your consideration!