Help Keep Rich and Hamilton Together

Calling on all my animal loving friends who understand that dogs are family. Can you imagine having to choose between being stuck in a foreign country thousands of miles from all your friends and family and having to give up your best furry friend? 

Our dear friend Rich is in this situation and he needs our help. Vanessa has been close friends with Rich since high school and he is a hard working, kind-hearted guy who doesn’t like asking for help. 

He has already done a lot of work putting together the complicated puzzle of trying to find a way back to his family and friends in Richmond, Virginia. He has a job lined up and a place to stay. The last missing piece is finding a way to cover the unreasonable fees and costs of bringing his best buddy Hamilton with him to the US from Australia. 

If you can spare even a small amount towards this huge expense, we would greatly appreciate it. Every little bit will help make sure Rich and Hamilton can stay together for many years to come. 

Thank you in advance for your consideration, empathy, and generosity!!

Please read more about Rich’s story in his own words below:

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Hamilton is my 4-year-old Labradoodle. He is my best friend—my only companion through the isolation of Covid lockdowns—and he most certainly saved my life during the darkest depression I have ever known. 

According to breeding standards, Hamilton is “faulty” because he has shaggy hair instead of curly poodle locks. He was the reject of the litter. But I fell in love with him instantly because he was such a ratty-haired little puppy. He is joyful, extremely smart, and amazingly empathic.

I am forced now to choose between taking him home to America with me as I accept an opportunity to rebuild my life, passing up that opportunity, or leaving him behind. For me, the third option is not even a choice. Dog-people understand.

I moved to Australia in 2016 with the person I believed was my soulmate. Unfortunately, that wonderful “you-and-me-against-the-world” adventure dissolved into painful disappointment. One good thing that came from the relationship, however, was Hamilton.  

When the relationship ended completely in March of 2020, just as the pandemic was becoming a major world event, I found myself lonely and isolated in a foreign country. Hamilton became my reason to get up in the morning, to go for walks and get exercise, and to keep pressing on as the world shut down for more than a year. I’ve learned to live with severe depression since my early 20’s, but living alone through a pandemic 10,000 miles from everyone I love was a bit of overkill.

Moving internationally is expensive, and the only way I can manage it is to sell everything, travel only with what I can carry, and rebuild from scratch when I get to Virginia. Furniture and TV’s and Instant Pots can all be replaced, but the one thing I know I can’t live without is Hamilton. The expense of bringing him with me is far greater than I expected. For an animal his size (nearly 80 pounds), it will cost upwards of $5000 to get him from Melbourne to Los Angeles, and then from Los Angeles to Richmond, Virginia. 

The costs include his preliminary vet visits, vaccinations, the correct size travel crate and accessories, and of course, his actual travel fares. It will also pay for a professional company to handle his transport because they can do things I can’t, like meet him at customs if we don’t end up on the same flight together, and communicate directly with airline staff in the event of a delayed or cancelled flight.

Some people have suggested that it’s just not worth such a great expense “for a dog.” And I have considered whether or not it’s better to find him a good home here and leave him behind. But every time I imagine leaving him somewhere and turning away from him for the last time, the idea is completely devastating.

I consider all we’ve been through:

• Raising him from an 8-week-old puppy. Driving 900 miles across Australia together when we moved from Brisbane to Melbourne. 
  
• Nursing him back to health after a bad infection caused by a tiny wild grass seed that hitched a ride on his paw, then burrowed under his skin and had to be surgically removed.
  
• The big scare when someone tried to steal him out of my car in the 25 seconds I went inside to pay for gas on the way to the park.

• The way he retreated to the back of the car, barking in protest because he knows whose dog he is and was not leaving voluntarily with somebody else.

• Taking him to the dog beach for the first time and watching him hop over the tiny breakers before discovering he could swim.

• Living together 24-7 for more than 18 months while a pandemic shut the world down.

• The way his chin is resting on my knee right at this moment because he senses my anxiety as I type this.

It comes down to this—I can’t afford to bring Hamilton with me, but I won’t leave him behind. I simply can’t imagine life without this dog in it, and hopefully we’re due at least 10 more years together.

Thanks, Kim, for offering to help. And thanks to all the dog-people who understand.

—Rich