Much has been written about the ridiculous prices in the U.S. healthcare system. What’s lesser known is that animal healthcare has its own sky-high costs.

“It can cost $1,200 to spay one female dog, easily. It’s a lot of money. Some people do it, and many don’t — often just because they can’t afford it,” says Lisa Williams.

Williams is the cofounder and medical programs director for Paws in Need, a San Ramon-based nonprofit devoted to narrowing the gap between impossible and affordable veterinary care. Serving cats and dogs in the Tri-Valley area, Paws in Need offers small grants to pet owners to help defray the costs of crucial medical services: spaying and neutering, primarily, but also medications and surgical procedures like tooth extractions and tumor or limb removals.

Founded in 2013, the organization has helped provide vet care to more than 7,000 dogs and cats suffering from injury, disease, neglect or abandonment.

As Paws in Need has grown, so has its mission. The organization now helps rehome abandoned and neglected animals, answering direct calls from the public — something rare in the bureaucracy of the animal-welfare world — and wrangling personal connections with low-cost veterinarians, animal-control officers and managers of rescues and sanctuaries.

This year, for instance, Paws in Need helped remove a sweet, thick-as-a-brick, two-year-old bulldog named Crystal from an overcrowded backyard kennel in Contra Costa County. “We got the severe infections treated, got her fleas under control and got her inoculations,” said Williams.

Crystal wound up the happy resident of the Coyote Crossing Ranch Animal Rescue and Sanctuary in Byron, before eventually being adopted into her forever home.