Let’s Help Trajan With His Palliative Cancer Care!

I have a friend named Chet.

He is 86 years old and an Army Vet. We met earlier this year on a sidewalk when I was walking my foster puppy with his adopt me vest.

Of course Chet fell in love with the little pup, but also knew he shouldn’t be adopting a puppy.

A few weeks later, Chet called me and told me his story - he had been grieving the loss of his German Shepherd a little over a year ago, and really wanted to fill the void.

He wanted to foster an older dog that was a little broken, and give him the best life ever, but nobody at the shelter was helping him.

I jumped into action and contacted the volunteers at North Central Animal Shelter in Los Angeles. He met several dogs and fell hard for Milo, an 8 yr old Shepherd that was too scared to even come out of his kennel cubby. Milo had no adoption interest, and I think we knew there was a slim chance of him making it out of the shelter. But Chet (with help from his son), wanted to give him a home.

They became the best of friends very quickly, and Chet renamed him Trajan. The poor pup is still afraid of the world, but is so deeply attached to Chet, they only have each other.

In past month, Trajan started having problems going to the bathroom. They took the pup to the vet and soon discovered he had a tumor in his bladder. Chet and his son cleaned out what savings they had and have spent close to 14k getting 2x daily catheter treatments (which is a lot for anyone, let alone an 86 yr old man), until they got to a vet who said they could try a stent surgery. It ended up being successful, so Trajan can go to the bathroom on his own, but it doesn’t solve the cancer problem.

The tumor is inoperable, and without radiation, the pup has very little time left. But with treatment, he could have 6 months, even a year or two. Trajan still has a lot of life, eating well and still barking at dogs he’s doesn’t like.

As this is probably the last dog Chet will ever have, this is why I’m reaching out to urgently raise funds for Trajan’s palliative care. Chet has barely had this pup 6 months, it would crush him to lose this pup so soon. We know he can’t live forever, but he can live comfortably as Chet and him spend what little time they have left together.

It’s too soon for their story to end, but this very expensive care (current radiation quotes are around 20k for the first run) will help them continue a little bit longer. His radiation is urgently needed to start within the next week.

The money raised would go towards radiation, additional check ups and stent care, reimbursing some of the prior costs so Chet has some savings, well as planning for end of life care for the pup.

If by some miracle there are an excess donations, it would go towards covering medical care for other dogs in LA shelters.

I will share updates here and on my lG (@smeurer8) as well as copies of paperwork and bills.

Thank you so much

(please note, I have deleted personal info and phone numbers off the estimates which is why the fonts look weird)