Gonna take a Village to help Caera pull through

This Halloween has turned out to be one of the scariest Halloween’s of our family’s life. On the evening of October 29th, our sweet girl Caera (pronounced Sara) stepped into the road and got hit and rolled by a car at easily 50mph+. Carrie rushed out to Caera after hearing the tires squeal, the hard plastic “bang” and Caeras cries. The driver did stop and so did the traffic on the other side of the road. They helped keep Caera still while Carrie ran off for a blanket. Our reliable neighbor, Tim, rushed to alert Alex and took Xavier to his house. Caera was bleeding heavily from lacerations and at first we thought her hind legs were broken. The good samaritans who stopped traffic called the emergency vet and said a prayer! She had blood coming out of her nose and we dreaded the worst while we were rushing her to Valley Veterinary Emergency Center. Prepared for whatever decision had to come we knew that we had to get her to the vet ASAP to give her every chance. At first prognosis the Vet informed us Caera had a skull fracture, bruised lungs, internal bleeding, a dislocated hip and a whole mess of lacerations from nose to tail. She had signs of head trauma because her pupils were dilated differently and possibly a spinal injury. We asked for X-rays to confirm the spinal injury and check for other broken bones to determine whether or not we would end her suffering. X-rays returned without signs of a broken spine or broken ribs but Caera was nowhere close to out of the woods. Her other injuries would be difficult to overcome at her age and very costly. With possible brain damage we were not optimistic because sadly our sweet girl might not even be “in there” anymore. We asked to see her so we could make the decision and say our final goodbyes. Even though she was on a gurney, when Caera saw us it lit her little face up and she came in wagging. It was at that very moment we knew we would not give up on our girl. Money can be made again and debt can be paid, but Caera is a part of our family and we couldn’t give up on her simply because of the impending financial burden of her treatment.

A little bit about Caera’s people…The Acevedo’s. Our names are Alex and Carrie Acevedo, we are both veterans, I was a Marine and Carrie was in the Air Force. We met in overseas while on security contracts in 2015, got married and have a beautiful 18 month old son, Xavier. We have 6 dogs, I know way too many but with Carrie’s job as an Explosive Detection Dog Trainer our pack is very well behaved and absolutely part of the family.

Caera is a wonderful dog. Everyone who has met her loves her and says “if you ever need a place for Caera, I’ll take her”; literally everyone who knows Caera wants her in their life. Caera is quiet, clean, polite and friendly with every living creature. Caera reminds us of Cesar Milan’s Junior. She tries to help other dogs get over their problems. Caera loves us and we try to return it but theres nothing that matches the rapid fire kisses and thump of her tail. Caera is playful and loving. You can always find Caera with a baby(stuffed animal) in her mouth.

Thank God for Care Credit approving us for $6800. This amount allowed the Emergency Vet to stabilize our girl but it maxed out the card and this is only the beginning of her road to recovery. On 10/31 we transferred Caera to Hope Advanced Veterinary Center in Vienna, Virginia to continue the around the clock care she still needs and perform the major surgery on her hips.

Hope has already told us to be prepared for a $10,000 bill.

We have never asked for anything but well wishes for our family but this time we need our village of friends to help us.

We not only need to cover the medical expenses but we desperately need a fence to protect our family. Our toddler, Xavier, is very mobile and I know we wouldn’t have the strength to be able to ask for a fence if it was him we were transferring to a different hospital.