My Briarlight :(

I've known for a while that my Briar has a problem with his rear left leg. Sometimes when he walks, he'll curl it up underneath him and only use 3 legs for a couple steps, and then he'll go back to using all 4. I took him to my vet a while back and I was told he has a subluxating patella. Meaning, the tendons in his knee are stretched and can't hold his kneecap in place well any more. Whenever his kneecap pops out of place, he'll keep it bent and use 3 legs and the vet showed me how to gently straighten out his leg to pop it back into place. The vet also told me he'll need surgery at some point and he referred me to a specialist.
The specialist agreed that he would need surgery at some point, but gave me anti-inflammatories to give him for the sprain. And he got better for a while. I knew it still hurt him, but he used it, and it was always in the back of my mind.
Well, then when I went to Kanab, UT for an internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, he got sick. He was throwing up and having diarrhea. Three vet trips, a blood test, an x-ray, and $600 later, I was told he had a sensitive stomach and to change him food :P I was not happy. I mean, I was happy it was such an easy problem to fix and not something life-threatening, but all the time and money and worrying it took me to find out he has a sensitive stomach did not make me happy.
But that's over and done with. What I want to mention is the x-ray they took. He's such a small little guy that an x-ray of his stomach was pretty much a full-body x-ray, and I got a good glimpse at the bones in his bad knee. I knew he'd have arthritis, I didn't realize it had gotten so bad so quickly! The top of his femur is calloused and deformed due to arthritis :(
Then a few nights ago, he started whining and crying for no apparent reason, but he'd yelp any time we even went near his leg. I gave him the very last rimadyl, left over from his sprain, and put a hot pad on his knee and he quieted down. And I took him back to the specialist the next day.
Well, long story short, he's now scheduled for surgery next Monday :( Luckily, I have quite a few more 'likes' on Facebook, over 100 now! And I put out a plea to all of my fans, I need more commissions to raise money for my Briarlight's surgery! It's going to cost roughly $1200, and that's $1200 that I don't have :/
But I do have some things working for me. Number one, Christmas is coming up so hopefully I'll get a big Christmas rush and do a bunch of portraits. Also, this Saturday is another big craft fair at the Nevada Humane Society and of course, I signed up for a table. Briar's always with me when I do these and this time, I'm going to wrap his leg so people can see he's injured and have a 'Briar donation' jar. In between that and the portraits I'm hoping to accumulate at the fair, hopefully I'll have enough for his surgery. After that, I'll have to come up with this month's rent XP