Donate to help Gina

My spouse and I adopted Gina in October 2020 after losing our beloved lab to cancer. We learned that we could not live without a dog in our lives so we decided to rescue another as our lab had also been a rescue.

Gina had initially been adopted by a family in Ladysmith who brought her in from Texas. They had her for 3 days and decided they did not want her anymore. As a bully breed, I knew that Gina could end up in the wrong hands so I applied to adopt her, was approved, and brought her home all in under 24 hours. We were told she was good with other dogs, cats, crate trained, and loved everyone. Only one of these was true—she loves all people. Much to our dismay, we soon learned that she was very dog reactive, wanted to eat our cat, was not crate trained at all and was also fearful of vets. Gina also has many scars around her face, neck and tears in one ear. The theory is that she was a bait dog but we will never know. Despite these surprises, we fell in love with her and committed to making it work.

In her short time with us, Gina has had many struggles but the one she currently faces is the most serious. For no apparent reason she has begun having seizures and vomiting. All the tests performed thus far are very costly and inconclusive so we have been advised to have her checked by a veterinary neurologist. We have been given a broad quote of $2,500-$4,500 as the cost of the tests she will need to undergo. They will be looking for signs of a brain infection like meningitis or others, or a potential brain tumour.

This is only the latest of a series of health problems that Gina has faced, despite having been given a clean bill of health by the rescue society we adopted her from. From bad teeth to heartworm to PTSD, she hasn’t caught too many breaks. But she is a wonderful member of our household; she is sweet and loving and has made great strides socially.

We are doing everything we can to safeguard her health, but the financial burden is considerable. Our most recent vet appointments cost us approx $900 in total which we have paid for. We have managed to scrape together a bit more but we are still recovering from the thousands of dollars spent when we lost our lab to cancer in 2020, along with the unanticipated cost of everything extra for Gina. Snowball, our cat, also fell ill last summer and unfortunately we lost him after a very costly medical journey.

I have been a student for the last three years and have only been working part time. I am literally getting ready to now launch my career as a nutritionist, but my start date has been pushed back due to a battle with Covid-19 in which I became quite sick. My partner has supported me throughout, but we are struggling and are not sure how we will pay for these staggering veterinary expenses.

Gina has healed our hearts. She made us laugh again after we lost our lab - and we never thought we would at the time. We love her more than anything. As we do not have children, she is our child and she’s all we have. She is a big snuggle bug and thinks she is a lap dog; she is loved by everyone who has met her. We taught her what toys are, as she didn’t know, and it brings us endless joy to see her play like a puppy even though she is 4 years old. Our lives revolve around her and we just want to give her the life she deserves. We hope you may be able to find it in your heart to help us try to get a diagnosis so we at least know what we may be dealing with and to help us get through something so unexpected. If there are any funds left over, they will be donated directly to other animals in need.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Sarah, Patryk, and Gina