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UPDATE 10/11/24

Our ENTIRE story is below and I hope you will read it when you have time and get to know my BEAUTIFUL Doggies, Ryder and Ruger ♡♡

For "up-to-date" info, please scroll down to "updates" underneath our "main" story ♡

There is a lot....because having TWO Doggies sick at the same time...entails a lot ♡♡

Give us a read, we sure would appreciate it ♡

We would also love it if you followed our journey on TikTok (@ryderandrugersjourney) - here you will get the most updated info and cute videos ♡

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UPDATE 10/5/2024

**Please scroll all the way down to read my most CURRENT UPDATE (10/5/24) REGARDING RYDER BEING DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER THIS WEEK**

And then I have an update on My Beautiful Wuggie also below and an overview of Ryder :'(

My Beautiful Ruger (Wuggie) gained his angel wings from Leukemia on 7/18/2024 and I miss him so terribly bad in everything we do :'(

He should still be here ♡

Shockingly, this past Thursday 10/3/2024, my other Beautiful boy Ryder, was diagnosed with cancer also :'( I have no words, truly.

This puts me in a position of needing great help and the need for this fundraiser again, so I can save my baby ♡

I want to keep the original gofundme, because it gives followers a chance to read our story from the beginning to current ♡

Please keep my beautiful Wuggie alive by remembering the ways he impacted everyone he crossed paths with and his courageous fight ♡

And please continue following Ryder as he continues on his arthritis journey and now, his cancer journey ♡

I could have never imagined this could happen again....and here we are and it is the most helpless feeling ever :'(

As hard as it was, I have updated the title and main picture of our gofundme, to reflect it to now being for just Ryder ♡

THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE ♡♡

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♡♡ BELOW IS OUR ORIGINAL STORY ♡♡

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when both of my boys became ill earlier this year ♡♡

Hello, my name is April and I am a very proud dog momma to the sweetest and most loyal boys I know, Ryder (10) & Ruger (6).

PLEASE bare with me and patiently read our story. It is longer, because BOTH of my babies came down with life changing/threatening diseases within a month of each other and I need to tell their stories and I need deseprate help to save them. I appreciate your time and care, please know that!!

I can't even believe I am needing to write this and it is weighing so heavily on me because I have always figured a way to take care of everything that has come my way. Today, I find myself in a place that I can't for the first time.

I have been faced with a couple of very heavy things within the last month and overnight last week, that have changed my entire world and I am drowning trying desperately to save my 2 doggies :'(

Here is our story:

Last March, Ryder woke up with a lump on the side of his neck. Very long story short, he had 4 surgeries from March - October and countless rounds of medicine during this time, where he ultimately had to have an ear ablasion (total ear canal removal). It was a year from H*LL. We made it through, but it buried me financially. But my boy was instantly fixed after the last surgery and he got his life back and I am forever grateful for this!!

About a month ago, Ryder began having trouble walking and his back end would come out from under him. Then he was having trouble with all of his ankles, which made it almost impossible for him to walk.

I immediately took him in and was told he has severe arthritis that was in his spine, hips and all of his ankles. We began accupuncture and chiropractic on him, as the doc said this is the only way to save him. I have been doing everything I can to make sure Ryder is getting his treatments and it has been very difficult to say the least, especially given everything in the last year.

He has to go twice a week, in a different town. He is on several different medications/supplements as we try to rebuild and heal his body. I have a sling that I use to assist him while walking, during his healing. It IS helping him and he is walking better with each treatment, but he still has such a long way to go because his arthritis is so severe and he must have continued treatment to overcome this. With treatment, our doc believes Ryder will be able to walk again and play and I cannot tell you what this news does to my heart!! To watch your soulmate almost instantly not be able to walk and do the simplest things anymore, destroys you. He otherwise is as healthy as can be. He does so well at his therapy and it is amazing how much he improves after each session! It has been a fight, and I will fight with all I have to save him!!!

Fast forward to last Wednesday 4/10..... I found a lump at the side of my other boy's neck (Ruger). It was golf ball size. By morning, it was soft ball size. Today, 3 days later, most of his neck and face are so swollen from his lymphnodes and it is the HARDEST thing to look at and know I can't make him instantly better :'(

He is still the happiest boy and doesn't complain! The doctors don't know how he is still everything he always was, considering his diagnosis because most dogs come in the complete opposite. THERE IS HOPE in this and the docs are happy about it!! And so am I!!!

Ryder had therapy that same morning, so I loaded Ruger in the car with us and took him to get checked out. They thought it was a grass-on stuck in his throat or an abcess. While I was in Ryders appt, they graciously took Ruger in and examined him and aspirated the area.

Moments later, the other doctor came in. We were celebrating how far Ryder has come and then we stopped to see what she thought.

I wish I would have taken things in just a few moments longer, because what she had to say changed everything :'(

"I am so sorry, it is Lymphoma" :'(

I said "what?" I COULD NOT comprehend what she just said. I ALREADY hate cancer because it is currently affectly my loved one and it is the devil. Ryder instantly licked my tears, trying to comfort me. Which he has always done, he is everything to me. He is a piece of my soul. And so is Ruger. I was in complete shock, I couldn't even make sense of anything in that moment.

I laid on the table with Ryder and just cried and begged her to be wrong!!!! I asked how I failed him. How did I fail both of my boys!!!! How could this happen "overnight". "What could I have done". All the things. That moment was a blurr, yet I still feel EVERY moment of it :'( He doesn't deserve 'this'.

I was at the vet a total of 13 hours that day getting home at midnight, including the Specialty ER Hopspital in another town. They confirmed that it is cancer :'( My heart is so broken for him :'( I don't know how else to say it other than I am completely devastated and lost :'(

Because he has severe swelling near his throat, they started him on high doses of steroids and also an antibiotoc.

We needed to be back to the Specialty ER Hospital the next morning at 9am for testing, to see what we are dealing with and how best to help Ruger. Neither he or I slept much during these horrific 2 days and he of course took on the most with all the swelling and testing and the unfamiliarity of things. He was SO strong and an Amazing boy!! He is my super healthy dog, never had anything wrong before so this was a lot for him and he was Amazing!!

We were there 10+ hours this time while he got everything done. I never left the room. I had to take him right back over there as soon as we got home, because he wouldn't eat and he has to have food in order to take his critical medicine. They had to give him IV medicine and fluids. We got home at 11pm. My poor boy was put through hell, and it came on LITERALLY over night. He doesn't understand.

And neither do I :'( How does this even happen??! I HATE cancer :'(

We are now waiting for all of his testing to come back (early this coming week 4/15) and we will know what treatment will help him with this devil cancer :'(

I just cannot even put into words what it feels like to have TWO of your fur babies face threatening medical issues at once :'(

And the insane cost of care to get them what they need is one of the scariest things I have ever faced. Mentally and emotionally it is so overwhelming, as you desperately try to save them. In a race against the clock.

These boys are my world. As any pet parent can understand, you know what I mean. These boys are with me, in everything. And they are the best of friends.

Ruger is my son's dog that we inherited 4 years ago. But my boy moved and Ruger continued to live with me and he is my boy! He sees his daddy when he comes home to visit!

Ryder, my beautiful kids got him for me 10 years ago when I lost my other black lab unexpectedly. And he has been by my side during some of the hardest moments of my life and he brings me the purest happiness and comfort I have ever known!!

THEY ARE MY REASON

I NEED THEM

This next week 4/15 is when I will have to make decisions on treatments for Ruger and they have to start immediately once they know his type. I have maxed out everything I have now and I don't know where else to turn to save my boys :'( I will do anything to get care for them, the problem is "time".

Time is against us and the need for more care is immediate, so I am in such a hard and sad place. Trust me, if I had time, I would get another job/do whatever and I wouldn't even be writing all this asking for help. I don't know how to ask for help, this is so very very hard :'(

I need them, I just cannot wrap my head around what is happening and it is SO devastating and UNFAIR :'(

Ruger is only 6 and has so many more years!!!! And Ryder is 10, but he is so healthy and full of life otherwise, and he should have so many more years too!!!!

I do not know how to ask for help. I've always helped others, so this is very very very hard for me. But, this is more than I can carry on my own because of the nature of it and I deseperately need help :'(

And I NEED my boys and I would do anything for them and to save them :'(

I am so upset too because I had just signed Ruger up for pet insurance last week, because of the bills I was incurring on Ryder. Of course, there's a waiting period and we didnt make it because the devil cancer showed its face to my boy before we met that date :'( Now all I can do is move forward and face this as it comes each day.

ANY help at all, I would DEEPLY appreciate and I promise to help someone else out one day that finds themselves in unexpected shoes and needs help.

Treatment for Ruger has to start early this week of 4/15 and I have to have funds to cover whatever they say he needs and I am really really REALLY scared. I don't know what they will cost so I may need to adjust the goal once I know and I will. I know they will be weekly for some time and I will find out this week if they can be paid weekly or what. And I cannot stop Ryders treatments, because if I can't do them, I can lose him :'( This is all just so unfair and painful :'( These have to be paid upfront as well and I had been charging them against the cards that I had to end up using for Ruger :'(

I cannot put into words what this is doing to me and how scared I am, the reality of this situation is something I would wish on NO ONE :'( BOTH of my babies :'( :'( I can't understand why :'(

This is the worst nightmare and I wish we could wake up from it :'(

Donations can be paid directly towards either of my boys vet clinics, if you prefer that over GoFundMe. If anyone prefers this route, please send me a message and I am happy to share the contact info or whatever you need!

I can tell you that Ryder's treatments are $120 each and he has to go 2x a week for now. I do get a free session after I pay for 6, so that is extremely helpful!

For Ruger, I will have costs this week once we know the type of treatment he needs and I will update. Even smaller donations of $10 or $20 from several people can help get me to a good starting place for this week to be able to start treatment. Truly, I can use any kind of help and I will be IMMENSELY grateful for any we can get!!!! I CANT LOSE THEM :'(

Someday I will make up to someone else in need for any help we receive. It's just who I am. I WISH I didn't have to be here asking :'(

If you cannot help, can you please PRAY for my boys. For healing for them. To make it through this. For them to have a chance. For them to live. I believe in the power of prayer and lord knows we sure can use them more then ever.

Or maybe venmo could be another options. Sorry, I am thinking outloud as I work through all this. Another option is my venmo that I can then pay directly to my vet offices.

It is April-Vail-9

And can you please SHARE and keep sharing and help me get their story out in front of others? I will forever be Thankful!! And so will they!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking the time to hear their stories, you'll never know how much it means, truly!!

April, Ryder & Ruger