Ellie is a 1-year-old Shih Tzu- Yorkie in Oxon Hill, MD, who needs $2,000 for Gastrointestinal Surgery.

Ellie came into my life when she was barely 6 weeks. I bought her off of a family friend and she’s been with me since. She is now 1 turning 2 in August. Currently she lives with me and my mom but is mostly with my mom as I am an undergrad full time student at UMD. My mom is single so it is just us, she’s on and off jobs because she has a bad case of arthritis and asthma. I provide for Ellie alone.

Ellie is such an amazing family member. She’s friendly and loving with everyone in the household, including tenants we have who are renting a room in our apartment. She lays on her belly for belly rubs when she greets the tenants and everyone else she is familiar with. She sleeps with me in my bed and takes up all of the bed but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love coming home to a waggle tail

Ellie is such a cute, feisty, loving dog. She’s a guard dog by nature so she barks at anyone unfamiliar but as soon as she gets to know them, belly rubs away! She loves to give kisses and sit on laps. Whenever I come home the first thing she does is hand me her pink rope toy, she loves to play catch and tug of war. If I don’t pay her attention she cries, my girl loves attention 24/7.

Ellie is a really healthy dog. But as dogs do, she ate something she shouldn’t have which happened to be carpet string which is the worst. She had to have gastrointestinal surgery. I took her to the veterinary emergency hospital.

I am a first year undergrad student who only works on weekends because of my studies. I provide for Ellie alone and the surgery cost is too much for me. I had to use CareCredit and put about 7.3k and the remaining 1220 on my credit card. This will take me years to pay off.