Luca is a 1-year-old Chihuahua Mix in Olympia, WA, who needs $2,000 for Liver Shunt Correction Surgery.

I got Luca on September 29th of this year. He was going to be euthanized by his previous owner because they could not afford the financial burden of his possible medical issues, so I decided to take him in. He is only about a year and a half old and has been through a lot in his time with horrendous symptoms and many bad days.

I try to help as many dogs as I can and because of this we currently have seven other dogs in our home besides Luca! Luca seems to be best friends with my little Chihuahua mix named Iris as he plays with her the most! He tries really hard to make friends with all of his siblings and they have been very tolerant of his "puppy" mental state and shenanigans!

Luca is the class clown of the pack. There is never a dull moment where he doesn't make you laugh! He lays on his back or shows his teeth and sticks his tongue out while he's sleeping! He loves to bounce around and he rubs on the other dogs like he's a cat! He loves belly rubs and starting play on the bed, even giving the occasional love chomp on my nose! We love the rare good days like this!

Luca has what's called a portosystemic extra hepatic liver shunt. This means that everything he eats is bypassing his liver and going straight into his bloodstream, even the toxic elements that the liver would normally get rid of. This causes horrible symptoms with the worst being seizures. Thankfully, we have kept Luca from this type of symptom, but he constantly has nausea and vomiting.

Luca is young, and without this surgery, he will be lucky to see his 3rd birthday. It would mean the world to me to allow Luca to live a long and healthy life thanks to this procedure, as he lives every day like it's the best day ever and he brings the most special joy!