Hey everyone! My name is Gracie and I have a dog named Apollo.
We found Apollo on our way home from Ellensburg, electing to take the Elk Heights exit to get to Cle Elum. A flash of white flew across the road and into the tree covered ditches, causing us to immediately pull over. With our hazard lights and phone flashlights illuminating the way, we walked into the ditch to see a poor, skinny and dirt covered dog cowering in fear.
My mom and I looked at each other before silently agreeing that we'd risk getting bitten to help him. I picked him up and instantly he collapsed into my arms, quickly falling asleep. For weeks we posted all over Facebook (in case he jumped out of a vehicle or harness in an accident and his family was looking for him). We went to the vet to check for a chip and found none, so we elected to get him vaccinated. No one turned up to take ownership of him and we knew then that we had found a new member of the family. He is our baby, door greeter and cuddle buddy.
On April 4th, Apollo changed overnight.
We came home to Apollo being extremely lethargic. He opted to stay in bed instead of greeting us as he normally would at the door. We also quickly noticed he wouldn't drink, eat or urinate and realized something was very wrong. With the advice of an on-call veterinarian, we took Apollo to Valley Veterinary Hospital as early as we could on April 5th.
We were told he had over a dozen urinary stones then given an estimate of $5000. We maxed out a credit card, opened a line of CareCredit and paid that in full. We followed up as advised a week later. As of April 13th 2026, his condition has only gotten worse. He can no longer urinate at all and was referred over by our vet to the Washington State University Veterinary School, where he is being treated now. There, we have been given an estimate of up to $10,000 with possible complications raising this amount past that estimate. We are using the last of our credit to pay for a deposit for further testing and evaluations. We are running out of time and options.
I am a full time, pre-med student working two jobs, volunteering and am the president for a club on my college campus. My annual income does not begin to cover these expenses and I have drained my savings. My parents cannot help out anymore either.
As hard as this is to ask, we can no longer do this alone. Any amount you can spare would be impactful. If you can’t help, please consider sharing our story around town. We would greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers at this time as well. Thank you for taking time to read this.