Get Bentley Walking Again!
Donation protected
Hi there!!
(UPDATE: We hit our goal! Donations have been disabled but I will still update Bentleys progress using this page! Thank you again everyone!)
Thank you so much for stopping by! My name is Alice and my best friend is Bentley, my pitbull of almost 9 years. He has seen me through so much, lending a listening ear, lots of snuggles and laughter. If you've met him, you know he's a clown!

About a month ago, Bentley was jumping up to catch his favorite stuffed animal and he yelped when he landed. I immediately thought he had sprained his ankle so I made him rest it, iced it, massaged it (I know, he's spoiled) and gave it a few days to recover. It didn't.
Between work commitments I got him to the vet. After an examination and X-Rays they found he had completely ruptured his CCL, which I guess is like an ACL in dogs. Ouch! I felt like a terrible mother, I should have known! I swiped my Care Credit card and was sent off with pain meds and the name of a surgeon.
My consultation with the surgeon came a few days later at the wonderful ASEC hospital. He watched Bent walk around, took more X-rays and confirmed what my vet had said. He also mentioned that Bentleys other knee looked like it would soon need CCL surgery. It had a small tear, and he told me it too would likely rupture in a year or so, but there was nothing they could do about it now! Then he gave me the price for the one leg. Here's the quote:

$4500!! Not including all his post-op treatments, X-Rays, etc. I was devastated. I'm a struggling in and out of work actor with 100 odd jobs and I live paycheck to paycheck. I knew I was streched so tight that I'd need a miracle! I felt like I was letting Bentley down. I went to the front desk to ask them about Care Credit, payment plans, etc. They took Care Credit (an amazing service if you've never used it!) but no payment plans. Full amount is due on the day of service! So I swiped my almost-maxed out Care Credit card for the visit, scheduled the surgery and we walked (and limped!) outta there.
I called my bank, I called other banks. I tried to open credit cards. I called Care Credit to extend my limit. They declined. I looked at animal foundations, I called the few family members I have. People said I should crowd-fund, but I wondered what right I had, to ask people to help me with my responsibility. It seemed easy to ask for helps from banks, but not from my friends and aquaintances.
But alas, there seemed to be no way to come up with the $4500 by the date I had set. So... I pushed the surgery another couple weeks. And then the unthinkable happened. Due to Bentley favoring his non-injured leg, HE TORE HIS OTHER CCL!!
I felt like we'd been kicked when we were down. I called the surgery and they said that they would not do the two legs at the same time. One at a time. $9000 over the course of a month. No payment plans. I posted about it on Facebook and got wonderful responses, people lending me the names of their vets, offering their own pups various medical devices like slings and pain meds... I was on the hunt for a cheaper price! While I called and consulted with various surgeons at vets far and wide, we were having to carry Bentley up and down stairs and around to his grassy spot to relieve himself, multiple times a day. Here's my brother carrying him to the closest area of grass he'll poop on:
After a couple more consultations, a few more swipes of the Care Credit card and a few miles travelled, WE FOUND A VET! Mid Valley Animal Hospital in Van Nuys. It actually came at the reccomendation of my local mail lady who's name is also Alice (shout-out to her!) who has known Bentley for a while and had been watching us carry him around! Mid Valley had to take more X-Rays as we hadn't seen the inside of his other leg:

Apparently those bones aren't where they're supposed to be. This leg was even worse than the first one! So he said they would do both legs at the same time, and quoted me $5391.20! Phew!

I set a date for surgery. Wednesday Sept 7th. I couldn't WAIT to start Bentley on the road to recovery. I pulled my lower back getting him in and out of the car at the vet, and knew it was a matter of time before I did some serious damage with my 60lbs dog! A friend had reccomended I called the SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union. After all, I may be a struggling actor but I'm still an actor! My union has gotta be good for something right? So I sent this application in, explaining my situation:

And I waited. And then I got a call from a guy named Sam. "Hi Alice, we read your story and agreed to approve you for the $2000 you need! I'm sorry we couldn't give you the whole amount needed but we will give you $2000 without proof of income or running you through hoops. I love dogs and I hope he gets better. Good luck with your fundraising!"I WAS THRILLED!
Post-op Xrays, drugs and consultations will potentially be $100's, and I am already $840 in debt from the pre-surgery so I am going to try to hold onto $1000 of the 12-month loan for the extras. There is also a chance that they find his meniscus to be damaged by the time they do the surgery so the estimate could be more. I am putting the other $1000 into his surgery!! So I am attempting to raise $4300 to get Bentley's bilateral TPLO surgery done on Wednesday September 7th, and have my boy up and walking again, and according to the surgeon, running and jumping by Christmas!!!
I never thought I would have a reason to use this crowd-funding site. I feel many emotions about it. Scared, humbled, embarrassed, hopeful.... All I know is that I've already been SO blown-away by the impressive support from my loved ones, work collegues and people I've met over the years. THANK YOU SO MUCH. And I hope together, we can get Bentley walking again!!!!
This was only a few months ago:

^^^ I told him that after he has healed, it's the first place we'll go back to! I can't wait.
XOX
Alice and Bentley Hunter.
(UPDATE: We hit our goal! Donations have been disabled but I will still update Bentleys progress using this page! Thank you again everyone!)
Thank you so much for stopping by! My name is Alice and my best friend is Bentley, my pitbull of almost 9 years. He has seen me through so much, lending a listening ear, lots of snuggles and laughter. If you've met him, you know he's a clown!
About a month ago, Bentley was jumping up to catch his favorite stuffed animal and he yelped when he landed. I immediately thought he had sprained his ankle so I made him rest it, iced it, massaged it (I know, he's spoiled) and gave it a few days to recover. It didn't.
Between work commitments I got him to the vet. After an examination and X-Rays they found he had completely ruptured his CCL, which I guess is like an ACL in dogs. Ouch! I felt like a terrible mother, I should have known! I swiped my Care Credit card and was sent off with pain meds and the name of a surgeon.
My consultation with the surgeon came a few days later at the wonderful ASEC hospital. He watched Bent walk around, took more X-rays and confirmed what my vet had said. He also mentioned that Bentleys other knee looked like it would soon need CCL surgery. It had a small tear, and he told me it too would likely rupture in a year or so, but there was nothing they could do about it now! Then he gave me the price for the one leg. Here's the quote:
$4500!! Not including all his post-op treatments, X-Rays, etc. I was devastated. I'm a struggling in and out of work actor with 100 odd jobs and I live paycheck to paycheck. I knew I was streched so tight that I'd need a miracle! I felt like I was letting Bentley down. I went to the front desk to ask them about Care Credit, payment plans, etc. They took Care Credit (an amazing service if you've never used it!) but no payment plans. Full amount is due on the day of service! So I swiped my almost-maxed out Care Credit card for the visit, scheduled the surgery and we walked (and limped!) outta there.
I called my bank, I called other banks. I tried to open credit cards. I called Care Credit to extend my limit. They declined. I looked at animal foundations, I called the few family members I have. People said I should crowd-fund, but I wondered what right I had, to ask people to help me with my responsibility. It seemed easy to ask for helps from banks, but not from my friends and aquaintances.
But alas, there seemed to be no way to come up with the $4500 by the date I had set. So... I pushed the surgery another couple weeks. And then the unthinkable happened. Due to Bentley favoring his non-injured leg, HE TORE HIS OTHER CCL!!
I felt like we'd been kicked when we were down. I called the surgery and they said that they would not do the two legs at the same time. One at a time. $9000 over the course of a month. No payment plans. I posted about it on Facebook and got wonderful responses, people lending me the names of their vets, offering their own pups various medical devices like slings and pain meds... I was on the hunt for a cheaper price! While I called and consulted with various surgeons at vets far and wide, we were having to carry Bentley up and down stairs and around to his grassy spot to relieve himself, multiple times a day. Here's my brother carrying him to the closest area of grass he'll poop on:
After a couple more consultations, a few more swipes of the Care Credit card and a few miles travelled, WE FOUND A VET! Mid Valley Animal Hospital in Van Nuys. It actually came at the reccomendation of my local mail lady who's name is also Alice (shout-out to her!) who has known Bentley for a while and had been watching us carry him around! Mid Valley had to take more X-Rays as we hadn't seen the inside of his other leg:
Apparently those bones aren't where they're supposed to be. This leg was even worse than the first one! So he said they would do both legs at the same time, and quoted me $5391.20! Phew!
I set a date for surgery. Wednesday Sept 7th. I couldn't WAIT to start Bentley on the road to recovery. I pulled my lower back getting him in and out of the car at the vet, and knew it was a matter of time before I did some serious damage with my 60lbs dog! A friend had reccomended I called the SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union. After all, I may be a struggling actor but I'm still an actor! My union has gotta be good for something right? So I sent this application in, explaining my situation:
And I waited. And then I got a call from a guy named Sam. "Hi Alice, we read your story and agreed to approve you for the $2000 you need! I'm sorry we couldn't give you the whole amount needed but we will give you $2000 without proof of income or running you through hoops. I love dogs and I hope he gets better. Good luck with your fundraising!"I WAS THRILLED!
Post-op Xrays, drugs and consultations will potentially be $100's, and I am already $840 in debt from the pre-surgery so I am going to try to hold onto $1000 of the 12-month loan for the extras. There is also a chance that they find his meniscus to be damaged by the time they do the surgery so the estimate could be more. I am putting the other $1000 into his surgery!! So I am attempting to raise $4300 to get Bentley's bilateral TPLO surgery done on Wednesday September 7th, and have my boy up and walking again, and according to the surgeon, running and jumping by Christmas!!!
I never thought I would have a reason to use this crowd-funding site. I feel many emotions about it. Scared, humbled, embarrassed, hopeful.... All I know is that I've already been SO blown-away by the impressive support from my loved ones, work collegues and people I've met over the years. THANK YOU SO MUCH. And I hope together, we can get Bentley walking again!!!!
This was only a few months ago:
^^^ I told him that after he has healed, it's the first place we'll go back to! I can't wait.
XOX
Alice and Bentley Hunter.
Organizer
Alice Hunter
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA