Hello, my name is Dan. I am a disabled combat veteran and living on a fixed income. Last year, my highly trained service dog died of Dilated Cardiomyopathy at just 6 years and 3 months. That was my second one at the same exact age as my first service dog that died of osteosarcoma of the skull. I could have thrown a million dollars at both treatments and would not have been able to do a thing.

At the point of the loss of my second dog, I had decided, “No More Dogs.” I was absolutely devastated at that point. I have never been married and do not have any children.

Unfortunately, my mental illnesses have made it hard for me to be around people without losing friends. Even my Army buddies seem to want to kill themselves left and right regardless of how much we have been through and survived already.

After losing Naomi last year, I went through hell. Spending time in acute psychiatric, revamping my medications, and even started the keto diet to help with the inflammation of my brain. So my mom decided enough was enough and she got me a puppy. I love my new puppy so much already but it seems as if life is working against me.

I named her Harmony and she has had a rough start. She somehow contracted Giardia parasite and we have been through 3 rounds of treatment for that, and while we are still finishing up treatment, I realized she has some kind of urinary issue.

We have had numerous vet visits already and still have more to go to figure out what is going on. It’s becoming financially unsustainable for me and I want the best quality of life for her but being on a fixed income is making things extremely difficult.

One of my neighbors told me to start a go fund me and ask for some help and at this point, I figured it couldn’t hurt. I have always been self reliant and even a little prideful about asking anyone for help. But now I have a new life to take care of.

I know this is a tough economy as I even haven’t been able to find or keep gainful employment, seems no one really wants to hire a veteran with combat trauma, but if any of you could find it in your hearts to help me get some of costs for her vet bills down, I’m really starting to run dry here.