Support Rocket's Urgent Neurology Needs

Chelsea Thompson is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Hello. Thanks so much for reading our story. My name is Chelsea. The sweet guy in the pictures and the focus of this fundraiser is our pup Rocket. He is our one-and-a-half year old little angel (and sometimes devil but in the cutest way). We adopted him from the fantastic Atlas Animal Rescue in April 2023 when he was about 10 weeks old and we have loved him ever since.

Atlas Animal Rescue, run by Emily, does incredible work. I had long followed them on Instagram and in late January 2023 I became riveted by a story of theirs that was unfolding. They were contacted by animal control and shelter volunteers from Avenal Animal Shelter in the central valley about a pregnant mama husky that was about to be euthanized. Like so many shelters, they lacked adequate medical care and space and simply didn't have the resources for the dogs getting dumped there. So Emily stepped in and pulled this sweet girl from the shelter. She was emancipated and terrified and incredibly pregnant. That very same night she gave birth to a litter of 6 pups including our Rocket dog. Sadly one sibling passed away quickly but the other 4 grew into happy and chunky puppies.

That's where we come in - my partner Matt and I adopted Rocket (originally Fireball, as his litter got the fun moniker 'The Booze Crew'). We couldn't turn away from his story. So many dogs and not enough homes; we were happy to open up ours. Rocket's been a funny, happy and energetic guy. He’s so important in our lives.

However, when he was about 6 months old he started having seizures. We've worked with our vets to manage this but despite carefully monitored care and proper medications, he has continued to have cluster seizures. We've navigated so many vet appointments, emergency vet trips and hospitalizations that unfortunately we’ve reached a point of needing further assistance.

On June 5th, Rocket was at home with me, enjoying a seemingly normal afternoon, and like so many times before, out of nowhere he started seizing. I ran to him and monitored and made sure he was in a safe position, but just buckled in to ride out the seizure. All seemed fine immediately after, and then about an hour later he started seizing again. He had three additional seizures. It was the scariest thing I have navigated with a pet (and I have an English bulldog that ate an entire bag of dog food once!). I jumped into high gear and contacted UC Davis Emergency Veterinary Hospital, and got him in and seen within the next hour. They decided to hospitalize him overnight to get him stable, and were then able to transfer him to their neurology department.

UC Davis Vet Neurology proposes doing an MRI of Rocket's brain, as well as collect cerebrospinal fluid for analysis (a spinal tap). This is to rule out any intracranial causes of his seizures (like a brain tumor, meningitis or hydrocephalus), since he is very young and even with adequate medication is having very severe seizures.

This brings us to why I'm sharing all of this on GoFundMe. I feel rather uncomfortable even asking but in the interest of doing the best thing for Rocket, here it goes. This latest hospitalization has cost $3,500 and upcoming neurology expenses (that are necessary to keep him happy and healthy) will be an additional $6,000. We have insurance for him for precisely this reason but we've hit our annual cap. I never dreamed I would be in the position of seemingly doing everything you're told to - get insurance, have emergency funds, and so on - and still not be able to afford the care that he still desperately needs. For those that are moved by Rocket’s story and donate, we are incredibly grateful. I know it’s not always feasible to donate no matter how cute the dog is so all shares and likes are appreciated too. We love our little boy so much and just want to be able to give him a full and healthy life. Thanks for bearing with this long story. We appreciate you all.

With Love,

Chelsea, Matt and Rocket