Help us fight for Bridgette's recovery
Donation protected
Bridgette spent her first year fighting for her life on the streets. Now it's our turn to fight for her.
Join us in reaching our goal of $25K! Read below to find all details about Bridgette and the campaign.
----> Link to our vet bills
Updates of B's recovery are being posted periodically to this GFM page, but you can also find the most current videos and photos here:
----> YouTube (Bridgette the Widgette )
----> Instagram (Bridgette the Widgette ) (*not quite current yet - almost there though)
----> Google Photos (pre-accident and recovery)
____________
Who is Bridgette?
Bridgette is a lover and a fighter, a digger and a runner, a thinker and a licker, a toy-de-limber and a persistent communicator! She loves pets and belly rubs, loves flopping into your lap on the couch, and likes to play and explore the neighborhood.
She is Lillian's best friend (maybe more than Greg is), she brings smiles (and licks) to our faces when we're feeling beaten down by life, and she has helped us get to know many neighbors in the community we recently moved into (she has lots of neighborhood dog friends now, and maybe 2 boyfriends). She has been Lillian's home office companion for most of COVID, has helped get her out of the house on a regular basis, and, in general, has been the essential member of our family that we didn't know we were missing during our pre-Bridgette lives.
She grew up as a stray in Tijuana, Mexico before we adopted her from Family Dog Rescue , in San Francisco, in November of 2020 when she was about 1 year old. Now a 2 1/2 year old dog, we are putting in whatever time and money we need to to get her back on her feet.
What happened to her? What is this GoFundMe for?
On Friday night, 3/25, Bridgette jumped out of our car window and was hit by another car, causing severe trauma to the rear half of her body, including multiple pelvic fractures. We (Greg and Lillian) felt like the only option was to fight for her, keep her alive, and pursue surgery, recovery, and PT. We did not have pet insurance, Greg is a high school teacher and Lillian earns less than he does in her work at a start-up, and we did not have savings to pay the bills, but we chose to move forward because she is still young, and, doctors say, should eventually make a full or near-full recovery.
We have two primary goals in this campaign:
- Goal 1 is a financial goal, to pay the expenses for Bridgette's ER stabilization, surgery, hospitalization, and recovery. We are getting a personal loan to pay for all expenses up front, and are committed to somehow paying for as much as we are not able to fundraise, but we did not have savings for this, despite Greg trying to take on a variety of extra income-earning tasks at school. All funds raised via GoFundMe, therefore, will go directly to paying for Bridgette's expenses, and will help us get back on our financial feet, and out of debt, as soon as possible.
- Goal 2 is to spread awareness as far as possible of Bridgette's story, and how much it is costing us all (financially, physically, emotionally, etc.), to help protect pets from unnecessary car dangers while also protecting owners' financial stability and well-being.
____________
How can you help?
1) You can be a financial backer of Bridgette's treatment and recovery, and donate to help Lillian and Greg pay these bills. Even before Bridgettes's accident, we have been skating the line of affording and not affording our very modest lifestyle. If you would like to donate, we would wholeheartedly appreciate any amount. Even $5 would be helpful.
If you can help fund part of Bridgette's journey to recovery, we need "Bridgette Buddies" at all of the following donation levels: (these are all things that Bridgette loves :)
- "Kibble of Life" - $5-$49
- "Salmon Jerky" - $50+
- "Chhupri" - $100+
- "Greenie" - $200+
- "Freeze-Dried Chicken Breast" - $500+
- "Farmer's Dog Wet Food" - $1000+
- "Mole-from-the-lawn-outside" - $2000+
2) Share this campaign with other pet owners in your life, and start a discussion about 1) car safety and/or 2) the total cost for Bridgette's treatment.
Topic #1: Car safety devices. We advocate for harness tethers and other safety devices for use while driving, to keep animals safe from window-jumping as well as in car accidents. It's such a simple safety precaution, we can't believe we hadn't heard of these before - try searching for "pet car restraint " on Google for examples. Also, fwiw, one of our vets also told us that one of the most common types of injuries they see are facial injuries to dogs who had had their faces hanging out of a car window. We wish someone else had told us about these beforehand. We love our dog-walking neighbors, but in 1.5 years of dog-ownership this particular topic had just never come up. You could start this conversation with others, and possibly prevent them from needing surgery one day (or worse).
Topic #2: Emergency vet expenses can be unbelievably expensive. We encourage other pet owners to really think about how expensive that is, and what a sudden $25K bill (or more - they go higher) can do to you when you don't have a sizable savings. There are different ways to prepare for such an event. Pet insurance is an option, though premiums are often higher when your pet is older, or has known medical conditions, so maybe it doesn't make sense all of the time. And it can seem like a lot to pay. But for us, if we had gotten it for Bridgette when we adopted her 1.5 years ago, she would have been young, so the premiums probably wouldn't have been super high, relatively. And, knowing now that we'd be facing a $25K set of bills, those premiums would have definitely been worth it. Some other people have told us that they create emergency funds using the money that would have gone toward insurance. So, pet insurance is one option, but the general PSA we are sharing here is just to somehow make sure you are preparing for a possible emergency event, as much as possible in your financial situation.
In any case, we would love for you to promote conversations of these topics with other dog owners in your lives. It was an utterly heart-wrenching feeling for us to have to choose between money and euthanasia. Please set yourselves up for success: give yourself the options you want to have available to you in case a catastrophe occurs, whatever that looks like for you.
3) You could do BOTH: Share and Donate Doing this would definitely earn you a spot on Bridgette's Dream Team, and the everlasting gratitude of Bridgette's humans :)
____________
18 hours after accident: Saturday afternoon. At this point she was still in the process of being stabilized. She has a bunch of fractures in her pelvic region, but luckily the whole front half of her body and all limbs are pretty much fine.
2 hours after accident: This is how she was after she was first stabilized on Friday night (she is sealed in an oxygen-rich container)
____________
Her Full(er) Story
After knowing Bridgette for about 1.5 years now, we trusted her to not jump out of the car window when it was down. She loves smelling the air outside, and she never made any moves to jump out before now, so we thought we were being safe enough while still letting her enjoy the air. We now believe that we should have known better.
Join us in reaching our goal of $25K! Read below to find all details about Bridgette and the campaign.
----> Link to our vet bills
Updates of B's recovery are being posted periodically to this GFM page, but you can also find the most current videos and photos here:
----> YouTube (Bridgette the Widgette )
----> Instagram (Bridgette the Widgette ) (*not quite current yet - almost there though)
----> Google Photos (pre-accident and recovery)
____________
Who is Bridgette?
Bridgette is a lover and a fighter, a digger and a runner, a thinker and a licker, a toy-de-limber and a persistent communicator! She loves pets and belly rubs, loves flopping into your lap on the couch, and likes to play and explore the neighborhood.
She is Lillian's best friend (maybe more than Greg is), she brings smiles (and licks) to our faces when we're feeling beaten down by life, and she has helped us get to know many neighbors in the community we recently moved into (she has lots of neighborhood dog friends now, and maybe 2 boyfriends). She has been Lillian's home office companion for most of COVID, has helped get her out of the house on a regular basis, and, in general, has been the essential member of our family that we didn't know we were missing during our pre-Bridgette lives.
She grew up as a stray in Tijuana, Mexico before we adopted her from Family Dog Rescue , in San Francisco, in November of 2020 when she was about 1 year old. Now a 2 1/2 year old dog, we are putting in whatever time and money we need to to get her back on her feet.
What happened to her? What is this GoFundMe for?
On Friday night, 3/25, Bridgette jumped out of our car window and was hit by another car, causing severe trauma to the rear half of her body, including multiple pelvic fractures. We (Greg and Lillian) felt like the only option was to fight for her, keep her alive, and pursue surgery, recovery, and PT. We did not have pet insurance, Greg is a high school teacher and Lillian earns less than he does in her work at a start-up, and we did not have savings to pay the bills, but we chose to move forward because she is still young, and, doctors say, should eventually make a full or near-full recovery.
We have two primary goals in this campaign:
- Goal 1 is a financial goal, to pay the expenses for Bridgette's ER stabilization, surgery, hospitalization, and recovery. We are getting a personal loan to pay for all expenses up front, and are committed to somehow paying for as much as we are not able to fundraise, but we did not have savings for this, despite Greg trying to take on a variety of extra income-earning tasks at school. All funds raised via GoFundMe, therefore, will go directly to paying for Bridgette's expenses, and will help us get back on our financial feet, and out of debt, as soon as possible.
- Goal 2 is to spread awareness as far as possible of Bridgette's story, and how much it is costing us all (financially, physically, emotionally, etc.), to help protect pets from unnecessary car dangers while also protecting owners' financial stability and well-being.
____________
How can you help?
1) You can be a financial backer of Bridgette's treatment and recovery, and donate to help Lillian and Greg pay these bills. Even before Bridgettes's accident, we have been skating the line of affording and not affording our very modest lifestyle. If you would like to donate, we would wholeheartedly appreciate any amount. Even $5 would be helpful.
If you can help fund part of Bridgette's journey to recovery, we need "Bridgette Buddies" at all of the following donation levels: (these are all things that Bridgette loves :)
- "Kibble of Life" - $5-$49
- "Salmon Jerky" - $50+
- "Chhupri" - $100+
- "Greenie" - $200+
- "Freeze-Dried Chicken Breast" - $500+
- "Farmer's Dog Wet Food" - $1000+
- "Mole-from-the-lawn-outside" - $2000+
2) Share this campaign with other pet owners in your life, and start a discussion about 1) car safety and/or 2) the total cost for Bridgette's treatment.
Topic #1: Car safety devices. We advocate for harness tethers and other safety devices for use while driving, to keep animals safe from window-jumping as well as in car accidents. It's such a simple safety precaution, we can't believe we hadn't heard of these before - try searching for "pet car restraint " on Google for examples. Also, fwiw, one of our vets also told us that one of the most common types of injuries they see are facial injuries to dogs who had had their faces hanging out of a car window. We wish someone else had told us about these beforehand. We love our dog-walking neighbors, but in 1.5 years of dog-ownership this particular topic had just never come up. You could start this conversation with others, and possibly prevent them from needing surgery one day (or worse).
Topic #2: Emergency vet expenses can be unbelievably expensive. We encourage other pet owners to really think about how expensive that is, and what a sudden $25K bill (or more - they go higher) can do to you when you don't have a sizable savings. There are different ways to prepare for such an event. Pet insurance is an option, though premiums are often higher when your pet is older, or has known medical conditions, so maybe it doesn't make sense all of the time. And it can seem like a lot to pay. But for us, if we had gotten it for Bridgette when we adopted her 1.5 years ago, she would have been young, so the premiums probably wouldn't have been super high, relatively. And, knowing now that we'd be facing a $25K set of bills, those premiums would have definitely been worth it. Some other people have told us that they create emergency funds using the money that would have gone toward insurance. So, pet insurance is one option, but the general PSA we are sharing here is just to somehow make sure you are preparing for a possible emergency event, as much as possible in your financial situation.
In any case, we would love for you to promote conversations of these topics with other dog owners in your lives. It was an utterly heart-wrenching feeling for us to have to choose between money and euthanasia. Please set yourselves up for success: give yourself the options you want to have available to you in case a catastrophe occurs, whatever that looks like for you.
3) You could do BOTH: Share and Donate Doing this would definitely earn you a spot on Bridgette's Dream Team, and the everlasting gratitude of Bridgette's humans :)
____________
18 hours after accident: Saturday afternoon. At this point she was still in the process of being stabilized. She has a bunch of fractures in her pelvic region, but luckily the whole front half of her body and all limbs are pretty much fine.
2 hours after accident: This is how she was after she was first stabilized on Friday night (she is sealed in an oxygen-rich container)
____________
Her Full(er) Story
After knowing Bridgette for about 1.5 years now, we trusted her to not jump out of the car window when it was down. She loves smelling the air outside, and she never made any moves to jump out before now, so we thought we were being safe enough while still letting her enjoy the air. We now believe that we should have known better.
On Friday night, while stopped at a red light on 19th ave in San Francisco, near Stonestown Galleria, we looked into the back seat to check up on her and realized she wasn't there. We frantically drove around and saw her laying in the middle of the three-lane road, all traffic stopped, headlights illuminating the scene. We looped around and eventually found her being cared for by four passersby who had scooped her up from the 6-lane street and brought her to a nearby church stoop (thank you to you four, from the bottom of our hearts!). She couldn't walk, was breathing frantically, and whining and groaning with sounds we had never heard before. She must have jumped out of the car for some reason, hit the ground, and been hit by a car.
We brought Bridgette to ACES-Bay Area at around 10pm on Friday night, and they were able to stabilize her vitals. The car ride there was a struggle, though... We seemed to hit every red light, and Bridgette sometimes wanted to move around but could only pull with her front legs and drag her backside.
She stayed at ACES overnight, as well as through Saturday, since her vitals and blood levels were gradually improving. The doctors and nurses told us that she seemed to be doing relatively well, considering her trauma, and that she could be a good candidate for surgery with a good prognosis. Bridgette is still so young, and has already fought through so much challenge in her life, we have wanted to keep fighting alongside her, as long as it seems like her final prognosis will be good.
On Sunday evening we transferred her to Lenity Vet Specialists, and now, on Monday, she is waiting for an opening when Dr. Tong can further evaluate her to see if she is truly a good candidate for surgery. We may have to have a hard conversation later today, and make a hard decision, but we aren't sure yet. Time will tell, so for now we hold onto hope.
Monday evening the surgery prognosis looks good, according to Dr. Tong, so surgery is scheduled for Tuesday morning, the soonest that they can get her in.
For ongoing updates, please see the "Updates" section of this GoFundMe page below.
__________________
Financial Summary -- (*Updated to account for revised total at initial vet clinic)
- On Friday night Bridgette jumped out of our car window, and it appears that her backside got hit by a car. While her legs are totally intact and fine, we learned that she has multiple pelvic fractures, and that her pubis bone is pretty smashed.
- The initial ER costs for Friday night through Sunday afternoon were *$8421, for stabilization, evaluations, and pre-surgery care. We were blown away by these initial costs, and it only goes up from there.
- She is at a second vet clinic now, where surgery is planned for Tuesday morning, and have been communicating with the surgeon and ER doctor, who have been assessing her, to make sure she would be a good candidate for surgery with a good prognosis. Hospitalization leading up to surgery, along with the follow-up evaluations, was estimated to be $3960.
- The vet clinic who would perform surgery has estimated that further pre-surgery hospitalization, surgery, and follow-up hospitalization would cost up to an additional $15,252. The surgery will focus on repairing the most important pelvic fractures that wouldn't heal properly on their own, and letting the pubis bone (and possibly one or more other areas) heal well enough on their own after surgery. For example, the surgeon said that, despite the pubis bone being in lots of pieces now, that will typically develop scar tissue over time and not actually impact the dog's mobility or life at all, in most cases.
- The total that we have already paid, therefore, is *$27,633, not including any PT that she might need after surgery. GoFundMe will take a percentage of the funds raised, which we expect to be around $800-900, so we are rounding the total up to $28,000.
- Surgery took place on Tuesday afternoon, March 29.
- As of 3/10, we received a REFUND from Lenity, so we can make some updates to our fundraising total!
She stayed at ACES overnight, as well as through Saturday, since her vitals and blood levels were gradually improving. The doctors and nurses told us that she seemed to be doing relatively well, considering her trauma, and that she could be a good candidate for surgery with a good prognosis. Bridgette is still so young, and has already fought through so much challenge in her life, we have wanted to keep fighting alongside her, as long as it seems like her final prognosis will be good.
On Sunday evening we transferred her to Lenity Vet Specialists, and now, on Monday, she is waiting for an opening when Dr. Tong can further evaluate her to see if she is truly a good candidate for surgery. We may have to have a hard conversation later today, and make a hard decision, but we aren't sure yet. Time will tell, so for now we hold onto hope.
Monday evening the surgery prognosis looks good, according to Dr. Tong, so surgery is scheduled for Tuesday morning, the soonest that they can get her in.
For ongoing updates, please see the "Updates" section of this GoFundMe page below.
__________________
Financial Summary -- (*Updated to account for revised total at initial vet clinic)
- On Friday night Bridgette jumped out of our car window, and it appears that her backside got hit by a car. While her legs are totally intact and fine, we learned that she has multiple pelvic fractures, and that her pubis bone is pretty smashed.
- The initial ER costs for Friday night through Sunday afternoon were *$8421, for stabilization, evaluations, and pre-surgery care. We were blown away by these initial costs, and it only goes up from there.
- She is at a second vet clinic now, where surgery is planned for Tuesday morning, and have been communicating with the surgeon and ER doctor, who have been assessing her, to make sure she would be a good candidate for surgery with a good prognosis. Hospitalization leading up to surgery, along with the follow-up evaluations, was estimated to be $3960.
- The vet clinic who would perform surgery has estimated that further pre-surgery hospitalization, surgery, and follow-up hospitalization would cost up to an additional $15,252. The surgery will focus on repairing the most important pelvic fractures that wouldn't heal properly on their own, and letting the pubis bone (and possibly one or more other areas) heal well enough on their own after surgery. For example, the surgeon said that, despite the pubis bone being in lots of pieces now, that will typically develop scar tissue over time and not actually impact the dog's mobility or life at all, in most cases.
- The total that we have already paid, therefore, is *$27,633, not including any PT that she might need after surgery. GoFundMe will take a percentage of the funds raised, which we expect to be around $800-900, so we are rounding the total up to $28,000.
- Surgery took place on Tuesday afternoon, March 29.
- As of 3/10, we received a REFUND from Lenity, so we can make some updates to our fundraising total!
Fundraising team: Bridgette's Dream Team (3)
Greg Fenner
Organiser
Daly City, CA
Lillian Fenner
Team member
Hannah Polow
Team member
