Nolas Departure

dear friends, family + doggie lovers alike,

simply put, we could use some help towards the unexpected expenses accrued when trying to save our beloved Great Dane, Nola Jean Freeman.

It is our deep conviction that on Thursday April 27th, in the early afternoon, the “neighbor” behind us brutally and intentionally murdered our dog via an extremely harsh neurotoxin, Bromethalin.

our family is currently in the process of filing a police report as well as the ASPCA, but without a shadow of a doubt we know what happened.

this woman has harassed us to no end over the last two years over Nola— verbally assaulting us + our dog, calling the ASPCA with false claims of neglect (too which, when they’d come for a wellness check-in they’d take one look inside our home and see how deeply loved she was).

We’ve never retaliated back and tried to keep the peace but this woman wouldn’t stop.

The wild thing is, this woman has two older dogs who get very excited when Nola is outside and they bark/dig holes in her ground to no end— and this infuriated her. We share a fence line with them so naturally Nola would engage with the dogs on a daily basis, but it was always playful. Nevertheless she would very frequently scream at us to “control your F’ing dog” or “shut the F up”.

Around 11am on the 27th of April, the day Nola died, she freaked out about Nola.

At 1:46pm Nola went back behind the garage for a significant amount of time (40 mins). My sons & I were outside playing at the time, but had noticed that Nola was gone for an unusually long amount of time. I asked Elijah to retrieve her and she made her way over to us.

Within a three hours her left eyeball was acting different. I immediately asked Elijah if he noticed it and if it looks off and he agreed that it wasn’t right. Assuming it might be a bee sting or maybe a condition called “cherry eye” (cue: Google)— I brought her inside to rest and with a Compress.

at 9:30pm I stepped out to pick up our take out dinner and when I returned 15 mins later I approached my living room to find Nola laying under the piano. As I got closer I immediately saw she was in distress, dropped my food and ran to her side to discover her labored breathing and a pool of foam around her mouth.

immediately I sprinted outside to get Brian, and he immediately tended to her. Within 10 mins we had her loaded in our jeep wrapped in a big comforter, too which she had no motor function wasn’t able to lift herself but was still very much so conscious.

brian drove as fast as he could to the ER (about 25 mins away) and I laid with her, spooning her and supporting her body with mine. Clinging to her I sobbed and screamed out loud to God to intervene.

As soon as we got to the ER they informed us we needed to make a $750 deposit to get her into the door. Done, where do I sign?

From 10:15p-12:38p we anxiously waited for the doctor to come out and in the meantime began to open up two lines of credit knowing we could face a growing medical bill.

by 12:38pm I begged them to let me see her, and we were called into the room, where I hugged my 130lb beautiful baby and just wept in fear and confusion.

we decided to leave her in the care overnight but at 2:32am I received the dreadful phone call that she had another seizure and was declining fast. Come 2:38pm, while on the phone I was informed that she passed.

our world shattered.

we screamed and sobbed, accidentally waking up both boys.. we all cried together in utter pain.

When talking with the Veterinarian that tended to our girl, she initially thought Nola might have Epilepsy but within a short amount of time, she agreed that the degeneration was at a speed that they had rarely seen, and pointed to a high dose of neurotoxin (rat poison).

we do not keep such things on our property and not at the dosage that Nola had.

it is incredibly bewildering to us how someone could do this, but we know deep within that our dog was intentionally murdered on that dreadful afternoon.

no one should go thru this.

we would have paid any amount to save our girl but sadly, her time came to soon.

nevertheless, we recently drained our emergency savings fund (which would have covered these expenses) to help a family member in need.

right now we are in process with Cornell university deciding if we should transfer her body for a full autopsy (necropsy).

All things considered, we are facing about $7.5k in expenses (pending the autopsy) while trying to save our beloved Nola.

Alas, it just so happens that on the very same night of Nolas death, we found out that I am pregnant. The following morning I went to the laboratory to confirm and they did— we are just shy of 10 weeks with a new little Freeman. So somehow on our very darkest of days, we have received some light to hold on to.

In times like this, I wish money wasn’t a thought but the reality is, with another baby on the way and us primarily living off of Brian’s barber shop while I stay home to raise Kai, we just don’t have it on hand. Emergency funds are meant to be spent and I’m glad we were able to assist in the way that we did, but now I find myself having to make decisions based off of finances and with that, I’ve decided to humble myself and ask for help because we don’t have the time— we need ti make these final decisions in 24 hours.

Right now it’s looking around $7.5k to finalize Nolas arrangements and outstanding medical bills. The funds we are requesting will cover the remaining portion that we find ourselves looking at and would truly alleviate the pressure we are feeling in this moment. At a glance this is what we are facing:

I greatly appreciate all who have reached out in condolences and any contributions made will forever be in our gratitude.

humbly,

the Freeman family