Bella is a 5-year-old Chihuahua mix in Lewiston, ME, who needs $1,000 for Extracapsular and Patella repair.

My dog's name is Bella, and I have had her since she was 3lbs and 8 weeks old. She is a Chihuahua mix. She is a tri color in the face and her body looks like a black and white cow. My partner has Bella's sister, her name is Luna. She does not have the same problem as Bella, and she doesn't look like me, she is tan with a brown mask. They both sleep with their human at night, keeping them safe and warm.

Bella before she got hurt used to run out the doggy door into the big fenced in back yard with her sister Luna who was usually ahead of her because Luna was a lot faster. We would go out and sit on the bench and throw small tennis balls so they could fetch them, but now Bella can no longer run and chase her sister or the tennis balls. And it is sad because she is still a fairly young dog at 5yrs old.

I am on Social Security and it is rough with this kind of bill. I need my baby back healthy and not in pain. It is hard to watch her in so much pain while she is waiting for me to do what should be done by a person that promised never to let her hurt. I am trying everything I can.

Her knee cap keeps coming out of place and this time it has torn her ligament that holds the knee (ACL in humans). My vet says I need a special kind of doctor to fix her knee and fix her ACL and that it will cost between $3,800 and $4,000. Dr. House is a traveling vet that specializes in this surgery. My Vet at Lisbon Animal Hospital will be where it is done and where her aftercare will be done.

Bella is a lover, she will wait for me to sit down to watch TV and she is right in my lap. I don't mean she just sits in my lap but she sprawls across my lap with no fear as to anything as long as she is with me. She stretches so far that her whole body is across the recliner, good thing I have a wide recliner.