Our sweet and loving labradoodle Kevin was tragically taken from us in a freak occurrence with nature. Living in the mountains, we are aware that wild animals live among us and we love, cherish and respect our surroundings.

As usual, on a brisk Tuesday morning, Kevin ate his breakfast and then went out to the yard. It was a little hectic that morning because our daughter was leaving for the airport once Kevin came back inside. I was busy making coffee and getting ready to take her and my wife was doing the same.

We have a split rail fence with 4 feet of wire surrounding our yard, but rarely, a deer or elk will jump the fence and land in our yard. We usually check to see if that happened before releasing the dogs, but with the morning chaos, we didn’t check that morning. Kevin raced down our deck stairs to find a massive male deer in the yard.

Being a dog, he ran right at the stranger in the yard and rather than the buck running away, this aggressive male who is still in mating mode due to the unusually warm winter weather turned back on Kevin and gored him deep in Kevin’s chest and pinned him to the fence.

Kevin cried and made a horrible noise that’s burned into all of our brains and finally the buck relented and jumped the fence.

Getting Kevin into the house required me to carry him as he was also punctured in the leg. It was obvious that he needed immediate medical attention so we put pressure on the wound, carried him to the car on his dog bed and rushed him to what we thought was an emergency hospital in our town.

Finding that vet closed and no longer an emergency center and realizing the situation was dire, we took him to his vet hoping someone was there early since this was all happening before 8am.

Luckily, someone just arrived and heard my wife frantically pounding on the glass. Our vet lovingly did what she could to bandage the wound and got him some oxygen after determining via X-ray that Kevin had a puncture in his lung.

Bandaged and no longer bleeding profusely, we rushed Kevin to the nearest vet hospital nearly 20 miles away. They knew we were coming and were ready for us to treat Kevin and to see if they could save him.

Further X-rays and ultrasounds didn’t show any other major damage other than the lung so they felt that surgery to

fix the punctured lung gave us a realistic chance to save him. That’s where our ask for assistance comes in.

In order to perform the surgery, they needed the minimum of the estimate paid in full up front to even begin the surgery. Feeling confident that the surgery would be successful based on Kevin’s youth and strength and the luck that the antler didn’t damage any other organs, we applied for a pet loan and paid the remaining amount to get the surgery approved and started. That came to $10,500.

The surgeons found more damage once inside and realized that while impaled on the left side, the pierced lung was on the right. A projected 2-hour surgery turned into a complicated 4-hour surgery and Kevin came out with a repaired lung, but with a bruised heart, broken ribs, bruising and inflammation around other organs and severe muscle damage.

Still hopeful our brave, strong boy would pull through, we went for a final visit before leaving for the night for some rest in hopes of receiving good news the following morning.

Unfortunately, he passed away while we were visiting him in the ICU. Devastated and shocked beyond comprehension, we tearfully made our way home to cope with the reality that in an innocent instant, our sweet 3 year old Kevin was gone.

The hospital bills ended up skyrocketing due to the unforeseen complications and quickly exceeded the down payment we made. Impacted by the tragedy as well, Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital waived the additional charges and paid for Kevin’s cremation. So generous, thoughtful and loving. We highly recommend to those of you in the Denver area.

Anyway, we are left with a quiet home, a sad and confused 13-year old Westypoo and an unexpected $10,000 debt to pay. We know it’s the holidays and funds are tight, but if you have a little available to share to help us, we would be so grateful.

Thank you for your love and support,

Rich, Jackie, Isabella, Isaac, Ian and Henry Mohr.