Jane's Medical Fund

Many of you know me personally and some of you only know me as a facebook friend. I need your help to help me save Jane, a rescue horse that came into my family after having had battery acid poured on her face. She was four years old and had been terrorized by people. It took me over a year to get her to trust me to touch her face or get anywhere near her mouth. Jane finally grew to trust me and we became a wonderful team and over the next eleven years became my best friend, security blanket, sole listener and motivation for courage in times when I couldn’t find any on my own. Jane’s enormous heart gave her the personality to exude that courage to anyone who had the good fortune to meet her. She became the go to horse who would pony an abused rescue until it sensed her strength and calmed. She gave willingly to any and all people who wanted to ride but were too scared. She taught young children the importance of kindness and asking for what you want with a gentle nudge and a soft word. She helped work with newly sober people helping them to reconnect with themselves and she is now a part of PIVOT, an animal assisted educational outreach program for “at risk” youth.
Jane has never been sick a day in her life and all she ever wanted was a kiss on her nose and of course a carrot. Two weeks ago I became ill and needed emergency surgery and at the same time I got a call that Jane had had an accident and that her back leg was broken. The call said she was in shock and it was bad. I was weak but had to go see her for myself. Her hind leg was broken up by the patella tendon. Yes surgery was an option but guarded and extremely expensive. Those who know me know that I have experienced both serous medical and financial hardships over the last few years and that without a miracle I would not have the funds for surgery. But there she was standing on all of her legs, nickering, ears up, eyes bright and I couldn’t euthanize her. I just couldn’t make that kind of a decision when she had given me her life. So, I did the only thing I could think of and spoke with hospital, and made arrangements to one day at a time give her the chance she deserved.
I prayed that I was doing the right thing. That what ever ended up happening would be honoring what she wanted. That if she did make it up to the hospital without her leg shattering, make it through surgery without the drilling destroying the leg, make it out of the anesthetic without re-breaking the leg and then overcome all of the risk of infection I would find a way to pay the doctors.
Each step of the way Jane let me know how much she wanted to live. She got herself up into a step up trailer, walked in and looked over her shoulder with a loud whinny letting us know she was ready to go. She made the nearly two hour ride to the hospital like a champ and after arriving walked out of the trailer and into her stall. She survived every single step of the surgery with no mishaps and after being submerged into water to come out of the anesthetic she walked out of the pool, on all four legs and into her stall.
At each step I had given the vet the authority that if something went terribly wrong then he could euthanize her but nothing went wrong in fact so far it has been a miracle. Dr. Carter Judy at Alamo Pintado who did the surgery is amazed, I am amazed and grateful but now I have to raise the money to pay her bill. I have launched this gofundme campaign to raise the funds to pay Alamo Pintado for Jane’s surgery. If you could give even ten dollars I would be eternally grateful.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Denise Ritchie