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Lana Chapman’s heart broke the first time she saw Cindy lying in the dirt outside a 7-Eleven, so fat she could barely move.
In the blink of an eye, Chapman decided to adopt the squeamish dog.
Little did she dream that this decision would inspire complete strangers to donate close to $50,000 to help Cindy.
An Australian living on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand, Chapman has been helping local street dogs for years and was determined to give Cindy a better life.
Weighing almost 100 pounds, Cindy had to lose weight and take daily thyroid medication before she could live a normal life.
Chapman shared Cindy’s progress online, where it went viral, and thought the sweet stray’s health was good when she suddenly stopped eating a few weeks ago.
“He usually runs around the house excitedly [but] it took her about two minutes before she started eating. It was really out of the ordinary,” Chapman told 9news.com.au.
There were also strange lumps on Cindy’s neck and after several visits to the vet she was diagnosed with lymphoma, a common cancer in dogs.
“We started chemotherapy the same day,” Chapman said.
“It was horrible because the vet didn’t think she would live for four weeks, but we wanted to try everything we could to help her.”
The initial tests alone cost nearly $2,500 and vets warned Chapman that Cindy would need at least 19 weeks of chemotherapy to survive.
In her mind, Chapman saw the vet bills piling up and knew she would never be able to afford them without help.
Pet insurance was not an option as Chapman said most vets on Koh Samui do not accept insurance claims.
Betting on the kindness of strangers, she started a GoFundMe in Cindy’s name asking for $10,000 to cover her care.
“$10,000 still wouldn’t cover the costs, but I thought it would really help us,” she said.
To see nearly $50,000 flow in for Cindy in a few days was just “smart”.
“People have followed her since the day she was rescued from the street, so they have a big soft spot for her,” Chapman said.
“We would definitely struggle to pay for this [without donations].”
Research shows that Australians are increasingly willing to spend big on veterinary care for their pets.
Younger Australians are willing to shell out even more, and Gen Z owners are happy to pay nearly $15,000 to save their pets’ lives.
People are also increasingly willing to donate money to help other people’s pets; more than 221,000 GoFundMe fundraisers were started for animal-related causes in 2023 alone.
Chapman hoped people who knew Cindy’s story would donate to her care, but he couldn’t imagine so many strangers would give their hard-earned money to help her dog.
He now hopes that donations of nearly $50,000 will cover all of Cindy’s cancer treatment with some money left over to help other street dogs on the island.
Chapman has been paying out of pocket for veterinary care and emergency treatment for local dogs for years and wants to continue helping the estimated one million stray dogs in Thailand.
Here in Australia many owners rely on pet insurance to help pay their vet bills and the average cost of a pet insurance policy is around $1233 a year.
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