Support for dog heart surgery

"She was coughing, she was very restless at night, she could not sleep through the night," owner Cathy Cuni said. "She was warm she had to brace herself to get comfortable ... because the pressure on her heart was so great."

In September, Remy was diagnosed with mitral valve disease, a form of degenerative heart failure common in small dogs. Her doctors in Howell, New Jersey, discovered she had a severely enlarged heart and a heart murmur. They said she likely would not have much longer to live.