Tiffany Memorial Fund

Letter From Tiffany Fund Founder:

My name is Coleen Gentile-Hyatt and I was blessed with my beloved dachshund Tiffany for 15 1/2 years.  Tiffany was always healthy and on a routine exam when she was 12 years old the doctors at The Roanoke Animal Hospital found a mass in her abdomen.   I was shocked!  I had no idea that I was going to hear that news on that day.  I was not financially able at that time in my life and her surgery was going to be $1200.00.  The Roanoke Animal Hospital and my family helped me as much as possible but I still needed assistance to cover the expenses related to her surgery.  I was not going to let Tiffany down.  She was going to have that surgery no matter what sacrifices I had to make.  I decided to have a yard sale to raise money for her and on the day of the yard sale something I never expected to happen occurred; people saw my sign with Tiffany's picture saying "all the proceeds from this yard sale are going towards my surgery" and the generosity poured in.  Some people said to keep the change from what they bought and others did not buy anything and still gave me a donation for her.  That night I decided that if animal lovers would do this for me, then they would probably do it for someone else.  I vowed that one day when Tiffany was no longer with me on this earth that I was going to start a fund in her memory for emergency situations such as mine.  Tiffany passed on August 17, 2004 but because of the generosity of others we were able to enjoy her for 3 1/2 years after her surgery. Two months later The Tiffany Fund was established.  We have been fortunate enough to assist dozens of needed pets since that time. 

The mission of The Tiffany Fund is to help pay unexpected or emergency bills {example,a broken limb} of long term clients of The Roanoke Animal Hospital who are truely devoted to their pets but are financially limited.  We are a charitable organization and donations are tax exempt.