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It's a story that will strike a chord with any pet owner. The family dog is taken to the vet for minor surgery and days later in critical condition--dying of a flesh eating bacteria.The family is now grieving the loss of their favorite pet and also dealing with an unexpected hefty bill.

The dog is owned by the family of NBC 26's former general manager, but it is a story that will touch anyone who owns a pet.

"The thing I was most excited was to be home with my family and dog. I was studying abroad. I missed being home with him," said Zoe Taylor, the dog's owner.

Taylor is home with her dog jack again. Except now when she sees him, it's in a container filled with his ashes.

"I think if they moved more quickly maybe jack could have lived," said Taylor

It was about two weeks ago when Taylor says Jack's stomach flipped after he ate. She rushed him to the Fox Valley Animal Referral Center for emergency stomach surgery.

"The surgery went fine," said Taylor. "He seemed great."

Hours later things took a turn for the worst. Taylor says a flesh-eating bacteria quickly spread through Jack's body. Vet technicians put Jack back under the knife.

"He went into cardiac arrest again. They couldn't bring him back from that," said Taylor. "We read online dogs can be dead from this in six hours."

On top of losing Jack, Taylor was slapped with a $21-thousand bill.

"I  don't feel like me or my family need to burden the cost," said Taylor.

Alyce D'Amato is the executive director at the Fox Valley Animal Referral Center. She tells us they acted quickly to save Jack.

"There was approximately six hours and during that time he was being stabilized and prepped for surgery," said D'Amato. "He needed to be stabilized before we could ever go in and do surgery."

D'Amato says the bill was so high because of Jack's extensive care.

"That certainly did add up. That was communicated to the clients and they had to make decisions every step of the way as to whether or not they wanted to continue care," said D'Amato. "We followed their wishes every step of the way."

The family knew Jack's care could be costly, but find a $21-thousand bill hard to swallow. Now they're left with fond memories and ashes.

"My boyfriend and I are planning to take him with us when we go camping. Keep him around. We'll never have another dog like Jack," said Taylor.

Taylor says her family already paid $8-thousand for Jack's first surgery. They refuse to pay for the second surgery since they say it wasn't successful.