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Please help with Reese's`Vet Bills

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**updated**
On April 29th, I was taking my dog to a friend's house for a weekend stay. Reese is a bit anxious, and in a brief moment of confusion, he slipped through my legs and took off into the neighborhood. Being so anxious, he couldn't bring himself to be caught, although he was seen roaming at least once. Finally, he was found on June 4th, after 36 days on his own, but in the worst way possible: he'd been hit by a car that, sadly, was just going to leave him there. Luckily, a nice lady stopped and picked him up and took him to an animal hospital, which called me when they read his microchip.

Reese's injuries are many, but thankfully not life-threatening. He was a bit malnourished, and had fleas and ticks galore. But worst off, he had a broken tibia and torn ligaments that requires surgery. He needed four stiches near his eye, has a really bad scrape that you can see his muscles through, and has lots of other mild to medium scrapes and bruises.

The hospital estimate to patch him up is roughly $6400. I'm hoping that you can help me help my poor little puppy, and thank you for your time even if you don't contribute.

In May 2013, I was a new corpsman stationed in Guam, ready for the challenges of life. However, I was already beginning to suffer from complications of acute ulcerative colitis, and when I was just four days away from transferring to San Diego to help me manage my health, I had a stroke that left me paralyzed on my right side. Through hard work and the support of my family, friends, and the therapeutic staff of Walter Reed, I recovered (mostly), but was medically retired in 2015, with some speech, coordination, and cognition issues leftover from the stroke, and minus my colon from the colitis. Moving on with my life, I found a home in Gainesville, FL

I brought a rescue cat with me to Gainesville and planned on getting a dog, but wanted to wait for a bit. That didn't go according to plan of course when I went to Pet Smart on a day where the adoption fees for cats and dogs was waived and basically it was packed full of hopeful animals. Being the bleeding heart I am, it was so tempting to pick out a dog to give it a forever home. I almost made it out of there until in the corner my eye I saw Reese with the biggest puppy dog eyes I've ever seen and I muttered to myself "dang it" and spent the rest of the day picking out the perfect harnesses and food bowls, etc.

I quickly realized that he was a special case and he needed extra attention. He was a very anxious puppy, and most people looked over him but not me. Knowing it would be hard work, I was determined to make his life the best ever, because most people gave up on him. Slowly he warmed up to me and he would find comfort in my voice and arms.

I'm mostly a positive person, but I'm with my faults as well. I developed slight depressive symptoms and anxiety due to my stroke. Fortunately one of the things that really helped in the military was this program training service dogs and it helped with my focus as much as it overjoyed me. Fast forward to adopting Reese, I knew I would have to train him differently. I started picking up on his little quirks and found ways to combat them and in return he grew closer to me.

When he went missing, I started having more depressive symptoms again and felt empty. I kept this feelings bottled up so it made it more difficult to come to terms with.

When I was at work on Saturday the 4th of June, I was walking past my phone and saw I had 7 missed calls, when I finally received a voicemail saying that Reese was found, I immediately burst into tears and started jumping up and down. My heart swelled when I saw Reese's eyes light up when we were reunited and it also broke seeing his injuries.

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Donations 

  • James DeMoss
    • $100
    • 9 yrs
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Organizer

Katriana Durakovich
Organizer
Gainesville, FL

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