Help This Search & Rescue K-9 Get Back To Work

Lucia Rapalyea is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

As some of you may know Finley is a FEMA Certified Live-Find Working K9. She is trained to search for the missing in a disaster situation. There are only about 200 working K9’s rostered with FEMA in The United States. These dogs are elite athletes that are carefully selected. It takes thousands of hours to train these supreme athletes, these training hours are volunteer hours, as her handler I am not paid to train my K9’s, I do it for the love of giving back, and the joy I feel watching her do what she was born to do, SEARCH. Finley absolutely lives for Search & Rescue. When she is searching she is in her element; searching is what drives her soul.

Sadly we have discovered after some very difficult training days and weeks of diagnostics, Finley’s right hip is failing her and she is in desperate need of a full hip replacement. Jonathan and I are so relieved that we have insurance, however the insurance has a cap and will not cover the surgery and rehab in its entirety. We did lots of research and with the help of an acquaintance from Texas A&M we found an excellent surgeon named Dr. Kirk Wendelburg, he is located here in Los Angeles. Finley is in good hands with this surgeon, and she would be expected to make a 95% recovery, and back to full duty in 4 months. Finley is only 6 years old and all of her other joints look beautiful, she has many productive years to come with Urban Search & Rescue if this hip can get replaced.

It could be YOU or YOUR LOVED ONE involved in a disaster such as an Earthquake, trapped under rubble and debris and Finley could be the one searching for your loved one , bringing the rescuers to this trapped victim and getting your loved one to safety. Without this hip replacement she will not beable to do what she has trained countless hours for. She will not beable to serve this nation and give back to our community.

If Finley’s story and her passion for her work speaks to you we invite you to donate towards this important surgery so Finley can fulfill her duties and get back to her love, Urban Search and Rescue.