A little over 13 years ago, I received an email from Diana, a person at a dog rescue. They had a pet that they thought would be great for me. We already had a cat and a dog (Dave, a German Shepherd-Husky mix), but we were afraid that our busy schedule meant Dave was bored during the day, so we were seeking a friend for him.
That new friend was a 3-year-old rat terrier mix. On a visit to the family vet, his original owners were informed that he had heartworms. Being otherwise healthy, the vet informed his family of the (non-trivial) cost of treatment. They promptly said “No, thank you” and took the little man to a local dog shelter. In case it’s not obvious, dogs who enter a shelter with heartworms are nigh-immediately euthanized; treatment is slow and can be quite expensive. As he was an otherwise healthy dog, they decided to try to get him assistance. They called Diana and asked if her rescue org could afford to treat Skip for heartworms. She did, they did, and soon thereafter, I got the aforemention