Aspin's Miracle Fund
Donation protected
Most of you know Aspin's story, but to those who dont and are reading this off a friend's page / family member's page - I want you to share in our adventure over the last 2 months:
This is a story of how a stray dog from Ecuador, South America adopted a family of 6 from the far North, Alaska.
My husband and I decided that some of the best education can be learned just by living. We wanted our children to experience living from other parts of the world; not just the United States. After several years of planning and researching, we decided on Ecuador, South America. Our move lasted 2 months; 6 weeks of living on the beach in a town of 2500 people and a 2 week road trip through the country. To write about all the lessons my children (and I) had, would be a whole other story.
The day after we arrived in Ecuador, we had a pack of stray dogs that came to our condo (see picture). Since my 4 children (ages 4, 6, 10 and 12 - all girls) are all dog lovers, they quickly started giving these stray dogs lots of love and attention. It took my daughters less than 15 minutes to have the first 4 muts named; Benji, Manta, Joe, and our love, Aspin. When all the dogs wandered off by the end of the day, Aspin stayed. When the other dogs did not return for days on end, Aspin stayed. Aspin never left.
After our first week in small town San Clemente, we needed to take a bus to the city. Aspin walked us to the bus stop, waiting there for 40 minutes and then wanted to get on the bus. We wondered if we would ever see her again. 9 ½ hours later when we returned home, Aspin was on our doorstep waiting for us to return.
This continued with Aspin for 6 weeks. We went to a friends for lunch and left out the front door, although we arrived through the back door. Since she did not see us leave, she never left. We met these same friends for dinner and they said “our dog” had not left their back door. She was waiting for us. We had to go back to our friend’s place to let Aspin know it was time to leave; she of course followed us.
The following week we were picked up in a truck to head to a neighboring town and as we started driving away, Aspin ran after us…. for several miles (see picture). We then had to stop and put her in the back of the truck because we were getting on the freeway. It was about this time we realized that Aspin had claimed our family. She knew us as “her” pack. She never left us in 6 weeks of living in San Clemente.
When we knew we were destined to be her family, we started thinking of all the reasons having a dog was not going to work for our gypsy family. Like, how are we going to leash train her, get her used to the kennel, how were we going to travel the rest of the country for 2 weeks - living on the road with a dog, who was going to take care of her in Quito while we went on our road trip, who was going to fly her to the United States (our airlines did not take dogs internationally), how were we going to get a cage to Ecuador (cages in Ecuador were $289), and who was going to care for her in October when we traveled Europe with the kids for another abroad “lesson in living life”.
As we asked these questions, people started offering - EVERYWHERE. We met an amazing retired attorney from Denver, who volunteered to care for her in Quito for 2 weeks; she also had a vet to help with getting her health certificate and vaccines. When we found out we could not fly from Manta to Quito, we rented a truck and drove 12 hours to get her there (did I mention she gets car sick and threw up 4 times). My mom bought a kennel in Arizona and flew it down with her. My mom also offered to bring Aspin on American Airlines since United would not take her. When AA lost her in Miami, she ended up sleeping in the airport because her flight was leaving in 8 hours (see picture). We thought all of our worries on getting this sweet stray were over. Everything seemed to be working perfectly…..
We got back last Sunday and we immediately got our new family member spayed. Aspin had been bleeding for 2 months; the whole time we had known her. The vet in San Clemente told us she was in heat. When we got her to Quito, the vet said something different; she had a uterine infection. The uterine infection could be taken care of simply by spaying her, so we did this as soon as we got home. However, when they spayed her, the clinic said she had a HUGE mass - one they had never seen in a dog before.
That is when our world stopped turning. Being an optimist, I always see good in everything and never thought anything could ever be wrong with Aspin. I was wrong. I immediately made an appointment for Saturday, thinking I should give her a few days rest from her surgery. I woke up to 2 blankets and a towel soaked with blood this morning. Needless to say I went to the vet immediately today to find out her mass needs to be treated with chemotherapy.
I am writing because my friends on Facebook all say we should share our story. Everyone has loved watching Aspin spend 2 months in Ecuador with us and they want us to spread the story.
From the suggestions of many loved ones, I have opened up a GoFundMe Account. The optimist in me is hopefully that this is a story that people will feel inclined to help with, and feel touched to be a part of. After everything we have done to get this stray home, I have to hope there are some people that would like to help.
If you view the pictures I have included, most of these were taken before we even knew we were keeping her. She took to our family from day one. She would even sit and watch the girls play in the ocean and keep an eye on them!
We are not a family that generally asks for help. It is us who are normally helping others. For the first time I am reaching out; to depend on the kindness of others to help an animal they have never met.
If you can share this in anyway; it will touch us in a way that you can not comprehend. Anything helps.
With all our love,
The Lockhart Gang (Hilary, Zack, Faith, McKayla, Ireland, Lux, and Aspin)
This is a story of how a stray dog from Ecuador, South America adopted a family of 6 from the far North, Alaska.
My husband and I decided that some of the best education can be learned just by living. We wanted our children to experience living from other parts of the world; not just the United States. After several years of planning and researching, we decided on Ecuador, South America. Our move lasted 2 months; 6 weeks of living on the beach in a town of 2500 people and a 2 week road trip through the country. To write about all the lessons my children (and I) had, would be a whole other story.
The day after we arrived in Ecuador, we had a pack of stray dogs that came to our condo (see picture). Since my 4 children (ages 4, 6, 10 and 12 - all girls) are all dog lovers, they quickly started giving these stray dogs lots of love and attention. It took my daughters less than 15 minutes to have the first 4 muts named; Benji, Manta, Joe, and our love, Aspin. When all the dogs wandered off by the end of the day, Aspin stayed. When the other dogs did not return for days on end, Aspin stayed. Aspin never left.
After our first week in small town San Clemente, we needed to take a bus to the city. Aspin walked us to the bus stop, waiting there for 40 minutes and then wanted to get on the bus. We wondered if we would ever see her again. 9 ½ hours later when we returned home, Aspin was on our doorstep waiting for us to return.
This continued with Aspin for 6 weeks. We went to a friends for lunch and left out the front door, although we arrived through the back door. Since she did not see us leave, she never left. We met these same friends for dinner and they said “our dog” had not left their back door. She was waiting for us. We had to go back to our friend’s place to let Aspin know it was time to leave; she of course followed us.
The following week we were picked up in a truck to head to a neighboring town and as we started driving away, Aspin ran after us…. for several miles (see picture). We then had to stop and put her in the back of the truck because we were getting on the freeway. It was about this time we realized that Aspin had claimed our family. She knew us as “her” pack. She never left us in 6 weeks of living in San Clemente.
When we knew we were destined to be her family, we started thinking of all the reasons having a dog was not going to work for our gypsy family. Like, how are we going to leash train her, get her used to the kennel, how were we going to travel the rest of the country for 2 weeks - living on the road with a dog, who was going to take care of her in Quito while we went on our road trip, who was going to fly her to the United States (our airlines did not take dogs internationally), how were we going to get a cage to Ecuador (cages in Ecuador were $289), and who was going to care for her in October when we traveled Europe with the kids for another abroad “lesson in living life”.
As we asked these questions, people started offering - EVERYWHERE. We met an amazing retired attorney from Denver, who volunteered to care for her in Quito for 2 weeks; she also had a vet to help with getting her health certificate and vaccines. When we found out we could not fly from Manta to Quito, we rented a truck and drove 12 hours to get her there (did I mention she gets car sick and threw up 4 times). My mom bought a kennel in Arizona and flew it down with her. My mom also offered to bring Aspin on American Airlines since United would not take her. When AA lost her in Miami, she ended up sleeping in the airport because her flight was leaving in 8 hours (see picture). We thought all of our worries on getting this sweet stray were over. Everything seemed to be working perfectly…..
We got back last Sunday and we immediately got our new family member spayed. Aspin had been bleeding for 2 months; the whole time we had known her. The vet in San Clemente told us she was in heat. When we got her to Quito, the vet said something different; she had a uterine infection. The uterine infection could be taken care of simply by spaying her, so we did this as soon as we got home. However, when they spayed her, the clinic said she had a HUGE mass - one they had never seen in a dog before.
That is when our world stopped turning. Being an optimist, I always see good in everything and never thought anything could ever be wrong with Aspin. I was wrong. I immediately made an appointment for Saturday, thinking I should give her a few days rest from her surgery. I woke up to 2 blankets and a towel soaked with blood this morning. Needless to say I went to the vet immediately today to find out her mass needs to be treated with chemotherapy.
I am writing because my friends on Facebook all say we should share our story. Everyone has loved watching Aspin spend 2 months in Ecuador with us and they want us to spread the story.
From the suggestions of many loved ones, I have opened up a GoFundMe Account. The optimist in me is hopefully that this is a story that people will feel inclined to help with, and feel touched to be a part of. After everything we have done to get this stray home, I have to hope there are some people that would like to help.
If you view the pictures I have included, most of these were taken before we even knew we were keeping her. She took to our family from day one. She would even sit and watch the girls play in the ocean and keep an eye on them!
We are not a family that generally asks for help. It is us who are normally helping others. For the first time I am reaching out; to depend on the kindness of others to help an animal they have never met.
If you can share this in anyway; it will touch us in a way that you can not comprehend. Anything helps.
With all our love,
The Lockhart Gang (Hilary, Zack, Faith, McKayla, Ireland, Lux, and Aspin)
Organizer
Hilary Lockhart
Organizer
Anchorage, AK
