Give Ralph the Gift of Health This Christmas

My name is Joelle and I’m raising money for my dog Ralph to have surgery. He’s more than a dog to us though; he’s my best friend and soul dog. My husband got him for me when he was about to leave for a deployment, and this dog was not a responsibility I initially wanted, but he soon became someone I couldn’t live without. I wouldn’t leave the house without him. We would go hours away from home every weekend while my husband was gone to state parks to hike. He is such a huge part of my life that when I talked about him to my boss and he said Ralph could go on my deliveries with me, I said, “Ralph’s my dog.” He really thought Ralph was a person the way I spoke of him.

Now that my husband and I have a child, Ralph has become her best friend and is also so protective of her. She calls every chocolate lab she sees Ralphadoony lol.

If anyone who has ever met him knows how friendly and overly happy he is, always wagging his tail… which has led us to the issue of this surgery. He has “happy tail,” a very bad case of it, and needs to have his tail amputated. The sooner the better before it gets worse and causes him more pain. He is currently on pain medication and an antibiotic, but we would like to get him this surgery before Christmas if possible. With my husband in school full-time and being a 100% disabled veteran, and me being a full-time parent, we do our best to make ends meet. But with the economy the way it is, it’s hard, and no matter how well we budget, when the unexpected happens, no one ever seems to be prepared for something like this. We have applied for grants through animal resource groups, but they take time and there’s no guarantee, so we wanted to try all avenues in hopes to get our Ralphie back to his happy self.