Jarvis is a 1-year-old Toy Poodle in Belleville, NJ, who needs $2,000 for Thoracotomy & PDA ligation (open chest surgery).

Jarvis was an unexpected surprise. After meeting him, his sweetness and gentleness caught our attention and finding out that he had a heart murmur broke our heart. Originally, when we adopted him, his prognosis was not life threatening. Unfortunately a short time after we got him it worsened and after further testing we were told he needed open chest surgery.

Jarvis is loved by all of his extended family. He visits and spends time with his aunts, uncle, grandpa and grandma, sharing love with each one of us. He loves to snuggle and loves to give hugs, not just receive them. He's bought much joy to us and while we have been very worried and stressed about his health, we are thankful for having him in our life.

As soon as we adopted Jarvis we tried getting pet insurance but anything related to his heart would not be covered because of the heart murmur. Thanks to Frankie's Friends, The Mosby Foundation, Save US Pets, and family donations we are much closer to reaching the estimate.

Jarvis's diagnosis is PDA with secondary ventricular dilation and mild mitral and tricuspid regurgitation. His surgery is scheduled for this Thursday, September 24th, at River Bank Veterinary Hospital at Tinton Falls. He has a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Salmeri, who mentioned that most patients with this diagnosis do very well with surgery.

He is the calmest puppy I've ever met. He's sweet, attentive and quick to learn tricks. While he enjoys playing and running around, he also enjoys time just sitting next to us. He's only 18 weeks but acts like the most mature of all our collective family pets (belonging to our extended family). He barks to inform us if one of them is being naughty, rarely joining them in their mischief.