Support Bo's Journey to Hawaii

Our military family is on orders to move to Hawaii in July! For most, this would no doubt bring great joy but for us, it’s also brought a lot of stress and worry on how to keep our family together for this move. Let me explain!

Bo, our (soon to be) 15-year-old dog has a rare disease called Canine Megaesophagus. It means his esophagus doesn’t work, so he has to be fed upright, wear a neck hug to elevate his head, and be monitored for symptoms of aspiration pneumonia after regurgitation which can happen randomly. He has had this condition since age 8, and we’ve fought alongside him battling this heartbreaking disease. We’ve had Bo since he was 12 weeks old, and consider him a part of our family as he’s our only “child.”

Bo weighs 45 pounds so he is too big to fly in the cabin of any commercial airline, and with his age and medical conditions, cannot fly unsupervised in cargo or on a cargo-only flight. I need to monitor him closely. There are no trans-pacific cruises allowing pets to stay with their owners. We have exhausted all options to include pet shipping companies, and asking all commercial and military airlines servicing Oahu to give us an exemption that would allow him in the cabin with us. After months of phone calls, emails, and tears we have come up empty-handed.

On top of all of this, I was diagnosed with Stage 2a breast cancer just before Christmas of 2023. The timing for a new cancer diagnosis is never “good,” but I will be able to complete chemotherapy and my double mastectomy surgery with reconstruction before we need to fly to this new assignment. I’ll be just barely cleared back to all normal activity by the time we will need to travel.

This leaves us with our final option of a shared private charter in a final effort to keep our family together. My husband will have to travel commercially because of his orders, but I am flexible to travel as needed with Bo. A seat on a private flight to Hawaii is the only way to keep our family together as we move into the next phase of my husband’s career of service. If we are unable to find funding for a seat on a private flight to Oahu for Bo and I, I am committed to staying behind with him on the mainland as I refuse to leave our precious dog behind at his age an in his condition.

Bo has been our constant companion through years of deployments, moves across the country, and now cancer. And we are his primary caretakers through years of a difficult disease so there’s no way we would leave him behind. Your support will help keep our family together as we continue to navigate both the challenges and joys of military service ahead. These funds will help with the cost of a shared flight, and our travel expenses as we drive Bo to the west coast.