Skip to content

Free help finding care and support for your pet

For Podcast Hosts and Press

In one sentence: Help My Pet is a free guide that helps pet families find care they can afford and raise money for it, started by Sean Arenas after searching for help with his cat Quark's vet bills.

Last updated October 29, 2026

Why it matters

When a pet needs care that costs more than a family can pay, the usual advice is "look for a charity." Many lists of pet-care charities are out of date: programs pause, run out of money or change their rules, and families lose days applying for help that isn't available. Help My Pet checks each program on its own website, shows the date, and says when a program is paused or has a waitlist. Sean built it after living that search with his cat Quark, who died in September 2026.

Key facts

  • What: a free guide to lower-cost vet care, help paying vet bills, spay and neuter, pet food and end-of-life support, plus free fundraiser pages for pets
  • Where: all 50 states and Washington, D.C., with 1000+ programs, plus in-depth local guides for Southern California, Greater Houston and Fresno
  • Who: founded September 22, 2026, by Sean Arenas of Covina, California
  • How it's checked: on each program's own website, with the date shown (how we check resources)
  • Cost: free for families and for listed organizations; no ads, no accounts, no paid placements

Available for interviews

Sean Arenas, founder of Help My Pet, in Covina, California. Available for podcasts, radio and print.

Topics: what to do first when a vet estimate is more than you can pay; why lists of pet charities go stale; fundraising for a pet without losing people's trust; losing Quark, and building something from it.

Story angles:

  • After his cat died, a Covina man built the free guide he couldn't find
  • Why so many "help for vet bills" lists send families to programs that are closed
  • It isn't a limit of love, it's a limit of money: families facing vet bills they can't pay

Media kit

Download the media kit (ZIP)   One-page fact sheet (PDF)

Use: you're welcome to use these images with coverage of Help My Pet. Please credit photos "Courtesy of Sean Arenas" and don't alter the logo.

Contact

For interviews and media requests, use the contact form and put "Media" and your deadline in the message. Sean usually replies within a day or two.

About Help My Pet

Short (about 50 words): Help My Pet (helpmypet.us) is a free guide for pet families facing care they can't easily afford. It lists lower-cost clinics, help paying vet bills, spay and neuter programs, pet food and end-of-life support in every state, each checked on the program's own website, and builds free fundraiser pages for pets.

Longer (about 120 words): When a pet needs care that costs more than a family can pay, the usual advice is "look for a charity." Sean Arenas tried that for his cat Quark and found bounced emails, programs that had run out of money and help that didn't fit. Help My Pet is what he built so the next family doesn't start from scratch. It covers 1000+ programs in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and every listing shows when and how it was checked, including whether a program is paused or has a waitlist. It also sets up free fundraiser pages for pets: the pet's story, the family's GoFundMe, and optional merch with the pet on it, made and shipped to order, with part of every sale going to the pet's care. There are no ads and no paid placements.

What makes it different:

  • Every listing is checked on the program's own website and dated, and some are confirmed by the organization itself.
  • Listings say who a program serves, where it works and what it requires, so families can rule it in or out quickly.
  • Paused programs and waitlists are marked, instead of left on the list.
  • No program pays to be listed.
  • It doesn't stop at a list: families can get a free funding plan and a fundraiser page for their pet.

Quark's story (full)

Quark, a black-and-white tuxedo cat

In 2012, Sean went to the Downey Animal Shelter, a high-kill shelter, hoping to save a cat from being euthanized because the shelter was overcrowded. As he walked past one cage, a tiny tuxedo kitten pressed up against it, put his paws on the bars, looked him in the eye and meowed. When Sean stopped, the kitten put a paw on his finger and kept meowing at him, as if Sean were his person. He was only a few weeks old, too young for the shelter to adopt out, and he had a severe upper respiratory infection. The staff said he probably wouldn't live more than a few days.

"He touched my heart, and I had to bring him home."

At home, Sean fed him and gave him water through a syringe, and took him into his steam bath every day to help him breathe. (The shelter had suggested a hot shower or a pot of boiling water on the stove.) Sean's other cat at the time, Angel Face, had to be kept apart from him for several weeks, until Quark was over the infection and strong enough to be around him safely. Quark pulled through and became Sean's best friend for 14 years. He was named after the Ferengi bartender on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, because he always had something to say.

He never stopped talking. His meow sometimes sounded like he was rolling his R's, as if he were meowing in Spanish. Shut him out of a room and he'd meow at the door a few times, then put his mouth to the gap underneath and meow again, so it sounded like he was already inside. He loved walking on the lawn and chewing the grass.

"Whenever I talk to Quark, he'd talk back. I'd ask questions or say things, he'd meow back."

In August 2026, Sean set Quark down and, instead of landing gracefully, he landed on his face. Over the next weeks he grew clumsy, weak and hard to wake. What followed was about seven weeks of tests, emergency visits, medicine and specialist appointments. After several vet visits he was referred to a neurologist, and Sean started a GoFundMe, "Help Quark Get Neurology Care." An MRI pointed to an aggressive tumor in his nasal passages, reaching his brain.

"All I could think was: my poor sweet kitty. I hope this is treatable. And I hope it doesn't cost more than I can afford. In that order."

While Quark was sick, Sean went looking for help paying for his care. He tracked more than 125 organizations and programs, and kept finding email addresses that bounced, programs that had paused or run out of money, and help that existed but didn't fit Quark's situation. Time after time he'd find something promising, get his hopes up, and then learn the help wasn't actually available: time he would rather have spent with Quark. When he told friends what the MRI cost, he heard the same thing again and again: they couldn't afford that, and if it happened to their pet, they'd have to put them down.

"These are people who love their animals. It isn't a limit of love. It's a limit of money. That's the moment Help My Pet is for."

Help My Pet went live on September 22, the same day as Quark's oncology appointment. In his last weeks, Sean stayed by him nearly every minute, waiting for the moments when Quark was himself again. Some came. Near the end, Quark hadn't eaten in several days. Sean and Shannon took him out on the lawn, and being outside woke him up enough that he walked and showed interest in the grass again. Shannon put some of his squeezable treat on her finger, and he licked it off. Sean had been able to get him to do that before, but not for days.

"I started bawling like a baby immediately."

One night near the end, he purred while Sean petted him, slowing when the petting stopped and starting again when it resumed. Quark passed away on September 25, 2026, with Sean beside him. People kept donating to his fundraiser even after they learned he had died. What the fundraiser didn't cover went on a CareCredit loan that's still being paid off, and Quark's page still helps with the cost of his care.

"Quark did not make it, but the work that started while trying to help him is something I intend to make useful to other pet families."

About Sean Arenas

Short bio: Sean Arenas is the founder of Help My Pet. He lives in Covina, California, with his cats. He started Help My Pet in September 2026 while searching for help with his cat Quark's vet bills, and he researches the programs, builds the site and sets up each family's fundraiser page himself. He has a 20-year background in tech support and has made merch for nearly 15 years.

More about Sean: Before Help My Pet, Sean spent about a decade as a concert photographer. He runs a small merch business, which is why Help My Pet's fundraiser pages can include merch with a family's pet on it, and he also hosts karaoke.

Questions that make for a good conversation

Hosts are welcome to use any of these, change them, or ask something else entirely.

  1. Tell us about Quark. How did you two find each other?
  2. When did you first notice something was wrong?
  3. What went through your mind when you heard what his care would cost?
  4. You went looking for financial help. What did you find, and what surprised you?
  5. Why do so many lists of pet charities send people to dead ends?
  6. What should someone do first when they get a vet estimate they can't pay?
  7. It isn't always an emergency. Why talk about pet food, medicine and routine care too?
  8. How does a Help My Pet fundraiser page work, and how is it different from just starting a GoFundMe?
  9. How do you keep fundraisers honest, and how do you keep listings accurate?
  10. How can veterinary teams, shelters and rescues use Help My Pet?
  11. What would you like listeners to remember about Quark?

For your listeners and readers

Want a page just for your audience, like the one for Cattitude? Ask, and we'll set one up.

Ready-to-post captions:

  • When Sean Arenas went looking for help with his cat Quark's vet bills, he kept finding programs that had closed or run out of money. So he built Help My Pet, a free guide that checks every listing. helpmypet.us
  • Facing a vet bill you can't pay? Help My Pet lists lower-cost clinics, help with vet bills, pet food and more in every state, free. helpmypet.us
Get help for my pet