Strangers donate $16,000 to woman who couldn't afford life-saving surgery for her beloved dog

Losing a loved one, a best friend or an animal companion can be heartbreaking. Humans and animals both fall sick and treatments for animals, like humans, are also financially demanding and not everyone can afford the costs. A young woman, Bellah Hambleton shared on TikTok how devastating it would be for her to see her dog pass away if she couldn't afford the treatment. In the video clip posted on August 9, she sobbed as she posted a picture of her dog, Alexa (or Lex) and wrote, "If 6000 dollars doesn't fall from the sky in two days I have to put my best friend down. I don't know what to do."

In the caption, she explained, "She has a ruptured disc in her lower spine and the only option is surgery which my family doesn't have the money for. I refuse to just let her go when surgery could save her. I hate being poor."

Others commented on the post in order to "boost" it to other viewers who might donate as well. Although TikTok has not confirmed this, it is widely assumed that the app's algorithm favors posts with a high number of interactions. "I'm boosting! I don’t have money. If I did I would donate as much as I could. If anyone reading this has a kind soul please help her poor baby," commented @ryvesssssss. "Just gave my last 5 dollars it’s not a lot but hope it helps," shared @kenzzzz1717.

Later that day, Hambleton announced the creation of a GoFundMe page for anyone interested in contributing to the $13,000 cost of Alexa's surgery and rehabilitation. Lex's GoFundMe page managed to raise $16,054 crossing the target amount of $15,000.

About Lex, she wrote, "We adopted her in 2018 and ever since then she has become the best part of our family. She recently had a medical emergency and according to the vet, she will need surgery to fix a disc in her spine. She currently cannot walk and since she is a big girl (78 lbs) it’s hard for my mom and I to carefully lift her. My mom is a struggling single mother and we do not have the funds for the surgery. We love Lex with our whole hearts and would do anything to avoid having to put her down. She is the biggest and most loving baby."

"Although she is not trained to be an emotional support animal she has helped me work through panic attacks and even comfort me when I was battling depression in 2020 due to the loss of a very close friend of mine. I’m currently a senior in high school and refuse to let Lex go down without a fight," she shared.

"I truly am so grateful and appreciative of the pure kindness I've gotten from total strangers," she expressed contrary to her TikTok username @idislikeallofyou1, adding, "The internet and human compassion is a beautiful thing." On her TikTok account, Hambleton has shared updates about Alexa's health, including images of paperwork estimating charges for the procedure, labeled as being from a veterinary emergency hospital, and videos and images of herself, her family members, and Alexa that she said were taken inside the hospital.