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Help Save Ashley’s Service Dog

A longtime member of the horror and publishing community (very reluctantly) needs some help due to disability and being scammed by a con-artist who posed as a certified service-dog trainer.

Ashley Davis, horror author and owner of Evensong Editing, has an incurable and severe nerve disorder called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, which causes her to frequently and randomly pass out and have seizures. She will eventually require a Pacemaker. She was in a wheelchair for 4 years, and finally progressed to a cane. Part of her process forward is a medical-alert and seizure/blood-pressure mitigation service dog, recommended by her physicians. She’s fostered animals for many rescues, particularly elderly pets and medical rehab. After years, a pup was found that several independent sources confirmed was suitable as a medical service dog for the medical tasks she needs. Unfortunately, she was swindled by a fraudulent service dog trainer, who stole hundreds of dollars from her and abused her overly trusting nature. The small-claims process through the court system is great, but next to impossible with a condition like Ashley’s. We also have to find a new trainer and funds to finish her dog, Emily’s, service training to pass the Canine Good Citizen Test, the Public Access Certification Test, and finish the last bits of her medical task training (previous medical tasks were trained by Ashley or performed naturally by the dog). This training costs, on average, upwards of $5,000 just so Ashley can walk outside without someone escorting her. It’s a freedom she’s been without for many years now, and it’s heartbreaking to consider giving it up. Unfortunately, the service-animal community is not particularly supportive of one another, and she’s out of resources, resorting to working overnights for next to nothing, food banks, and foregoing several very much needed surgeries and quite a bit of medical care for over a year now, which will eventually cost in the thousands.

Ashley has owned Evensong Editing since 2010, working with such amazing people as Jonathan Maberry, Guy N. Smith, Douglas Clegg, Jeff VanderMeer, and many more. She’s ghostwritten 5 novels, and published poetry, short, and novella-length pieces, as well as screenwriting and consulting. Her first novel is slated for Halloween release, and the horror community is her true family.

Her day job, other than editing, synesthetic art, tech/article writing, and robotics, is finishing her final year of my PhD in astrophysics (analyzing Pluto with NASA’s New Horizons project), so she’s on a tiny grad-student budget, which doesn’t even cover rent. She’s working 2 jobs plus my PhD and taking care of a toddler, as daycare isn’t feasible. Medical costs have drained the family budget since the stillbirth of their son, James, and Ashley’s subsequent pulmonary embolisms, dysautonomia diagnosis, and complications.

Ashley is happy to repay what she can when she can, in any form. Want a personalized art piece, a writing consultation, or book edited? You’ve got it! Anything we have, we’d be willing to give.

Thank you for assisting our family at this time, when Ashley is trying to learn to live with this diagnosis and simultaneously parent and complete her doctorate.

Organizer

Ashley Davis
Organizer
San Antonio, TX

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