When Chandler and Colton Casey found an emaciated, scared dog while hiking in Livermore, they never expected how costly it would be to save his life.

Kip had been struck by a vehicle, and by the time he was under medical care, his lungs were so full of fluid, his gallbladder and liver had been displaced. The open chest surgery would cost thousands of dollars.

That’s when Paws in Need stepped in, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance to dog and cat owners for veterinary care.

“It was super serious because that couldn’t just go to a general doctor,” said Lisa Williams, the organization’s co-founder, president and medical programs director. “It had to go to a specialist.”

For over a decade, the San Ramon-based organization has helped Tri-Valley area pet owners offset the cost of surgeries, like Kip’s, through small grants. But their objective as a non-profit has always been to curb the number of dogs and cats in overcrowded animal shelters to avoid “unnecessary euthanasia,” Williams said. And so, the bulk of their assistance goes toward owners struggling to afford to have their animal spayed and neutered.

“Just because you’re financially challenged doesn’t mean you’re not a loving home for a pet — both can be true,” said Williams. “There needed to be a low-cost option so that more cats and more dogs, females and males both, would be fixed so that the litters would subside.”

On average, Paws in Need provides monetary assistance for nearly 90 animals each month, the majority of which are spayed and neutered. Since their founding in 2013, the organization has helped over 8,000 animals, primarily in Dublin, San Ramon, Pleasanton and Livermore.

The all-volunteer staff fields calls about animals and their needs on a daily basis. If a dog or cat needs to be fixed, Paws in Need contributes to the cost of the procedure. When a call comes in for a medical emergency, that’s when Williams gets more closely involved. She connects owners to the organization’s veterinary partners and everyone works together to cover the cost and provide the best care for the animal. Paws in Need has taken on urgent care cases ranging from severe ear and eye infections to limb amputations and cancerous mass removals.

“We don’t pay for the whole thing,” said Williams. “It’s a medical assistance grant program and we make sure it’s titled that way so that people understand when they call that they have to have skin in the game.”

This year, Janelle Schneider and her husband were fostering Brandy, a white Pointer and retired hunting dog, for an out-of-state nonprofit. When tests during a check-up revealed Brandy had a mast-cell tumor on her ear and needed it removed, Schneider got in touch with Paws in Need, who said they could help.

“So we did the adoption that night,” Schneider said. “And they were able to get us in the next day.”

The nonprofit put forward $2,000 to help with the surgery, around a quarter of the total amount Schenider and her husband have spent on all of Brandy’s specialized care. Williams said that grant amounts are allotted on a case-by-case basis.

For the Caseys, Kip’s owners, the nonprofit offered much more than monetary aid.

“Even after they had done their part helping fund his surgery, she was checking in, seeing how Kip was doing,” Casey said. “Their help outside of the financial support was amazing. Just knowing that someone else was on our side.”

Although the bulk of their cases are for animals that already have a home, the nonprofit also devotes resources to tackling feral cat colonies, including trapping felines, administering vaccines and treating medical problems. The cats are fixed and then dropped back off where they were originally caught.

In April, the nonprofit began managing a program to care for and bottle feed abandoned kittens too small to survive on their own until they reach around five weeks. They partner with Safe Cat Foundation to get them placed in a permanent or foster home.

But none of this work would be possible without sufficient funds. Of their over $230,000 budget from last year, over 90% of it went to paying veterinary bills. The nonprofit is always seeking donations, small and large, and applying to grant opportunities, like the East Bay Times’ Share the Spirit.

“We have to speak up for the helpless,” Williams said. “One of our board members, who unfortunately passed away, came up with our tagline, which is ‘Help us, help them.’ We need help helping the animals — and the animals need help.”