A Service Dog for Jessica

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a 21 year old student, living on Staten Island, New York and planning on attending the College of Staten Island as soon as I can be fully independent.   I am raising money for a service dog to replace my beloved Hunter who passed away a few months ago.  Part of your donations will go to paying for the $20,000 in Vet bills accumulated trying to save Hunter.

I got Hunter when he was 8 months old, and with the help of a service dog trainer, spent one and a half years training him to be my service dog. Shortly after he completed his training we moved to NYC and about 8 months after we arrived he started having seizures. After being evaluated by many vets and a Neurologist we were told that he most likely had epilepsy and it would be very unlikely that he had a brain tumor. At that point, after only a year as a fully-fledged service dog we had to retire Hunter. 

2 years went by, Hunter's seizures were under control, and we were sure that if Hunter had anything more serious than epilepsy it would have shown up by now. Then in the beginning of August 2015, Hunter started tripping more than usual. We decided that it was most likely just from a change in his medication and watched him carefully. A few days later he started to drag his back legs more and was unable to get up on his own. From the time these symptoms started to the next day when we took him into the vet for the second time in 2 days, we had to drag his limp legs into the vets because he was too weak to walk.

At that time our local vet sent us into Animal Medical Center in Manhattan to see a neurologist and get a MRI. Hunter spent 6 days in the hospital where he contracted aspiration pneumonia and they found a large brain tumor that was causing his seizures and leg weakness. At that time the conservative treatment wasn't working and we could not afford, nor did we want to put him through, surgery or radiation. We decided to take him home and let him live out the rest of his days at home with us. On 8/31/15 when Hunter's pneumonia got so bad that he was having a lot of trouble breathing we made the hard decision to let Hunter go.

Now that Hunter is gone I need a service dog so that I can be independent again. I am currently still living with my Mom and have a Home Heath Aid that takes care of me during the day. Our hope is that when I get a service dog I will be able to safely go to the College of Staten Island, continue my education, achieve my goal of becoming a Physician’s Assistant, and get on with my life without the need for as much medical supervision. 

Ideally my new service dog will be able to alert me to my heart rate changes and get help in an emergency. I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which is a genetic connective tissue disease that causes my joints to be extremely unstable and I have extreme joint pain in my hips, ankles, hands, and feet. I also have Autonomic Dysfunction that causes my heart rate and blood pressure to be extremely unstable, and go extremely high when I am standing. For these reasons I use a wheelchair to get around. My hope is my new service dog will make it safe for me to live a more independent life. 

A German Shepard puppy whose health is certified for two years is: $1,700. 
$5,300 will go to the puppy’s service dog training and expenses. 
Finally, $4,000 will go to the $20,000 in bills from Hunter's medical expenses to get the monthly payments down to a manageable amount.

I thank you for any help you can offer.  I feel like the best way I can honor the nobility and service Hunter offered me is to live a productive life in the service of others.