Charlie's Medical Expenses

CHARLIE GOFUNDME

Let me start with a thank you.

Here’s a link to a short story I wrote, A SHAGGY DOG STORY. This is my thanks for your moment of attention.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cog6zxmoy3j35fxjsjw5u/A-Shaggy-Dog-Story-story.rtf?rlkey=6or3mvt9wdrchyfla0j38577j&st=34tbm46d&dl=0

Before getting to the actual request, I want to point out there are other people who have more serious needs. Please donate to their Gofundme efforts. Those take priority.

And, no questin about it, there are important political movements that need your support, so please, those take priority.

Now, here’s my story. First, we’re not hurting, we’re not in trouble, and we’re not desperate. In fact, we had everything carefully budgeted and then …

Without going into detail, because it’s kinda embarrassing how it happened, we had to replace the whole hot-water system. $2200. I looked at the budget, readjusted a few things, and said to myself, “Okay, yeah, its annoying, but we can handle it. I’ll just push this obligation down the road a month or two.” No prob.

Then the other shoe dropped. (Things in VT have to be scheduled months in advance, eye doctor, dentist, vet, whatever — it’s not like living in a big city.)

We finally got Charlie to the vet for a teeth cleaning. The other thing I was concerned about was a cough he had developed in the last couple weeks. So they tested his blood, listened to his heart, peeked in his ears, checked his lungs, and finally disappeared with him into another room for an X-ray...

Now, I gotta tell you — Charlie eats He never misses a meal. He drinks water. He pees and poops without any problem. He’s happy to meet people. He wants to meet other dogs when he sees them. He wants (but isn’t allowed) to go investigate the occasional geese on our lawn. In short, his behavior is normal. Well, normal for Charlie. So, I was genuinely surprised that the vet’s examination revealed a lot more than I expected.

He has bladder stones, a heart murmur, a minor blood infection, a buildup of fluid in his chest, and maybe three or four other things to complicate all that, The vet said that teeth cleaning is simply not possible until all these issues are resolved. I’m not going into detail here, partly because our vet knows what he’s doing, and partly because we do not need any internet consultants. Charlie has been appropriately vaccinated and is on a special diet and is taking all the necessary meds — and even after two days we are already noticing that he is definitely improving. You can see by the above picture that he has not lost his enthusiasm for anything to eat.

So far, his vet bill is over a thousand bucks. Ouch. And he has two more checkups scheduled, probably two more X-rays, and maybe some more meds to come. And then the teeth cleaning. I’m expecting that his ultimate vet bill will be at least another two thousand, maybe more — and the dental work could push that up even more.

We can probably handle all that , but it does blow a hole in our long-term budgeting and that requires some belt-tightening. And of course, it’s impossible to predict (let alone schedule) any future emergencies, which around here seem to occur once or twice a month.

I was sharing all this with a close friend who has the patience to let me vent and he said, “Let me give you a few bucks to help,” I wasn’t asking for help, but then a couple other people who have met Charlie also gave me a bit, and it is at their suggestion that we’re doing this gofundme.

If you’ve met Charlie at a convention, or you’d like to see him at a future convention (he’s traveling with me now), and if you feel like adding a few bucks to help with his vet bills, I’ll say thank you for him. He’ll probably be the last dog I can have, and I’d like to keep him around for a few more years.

The target is $4995, to cover the cost of replacing the hot water system and Charlie’s vet bills, so we can get back on track next month instead of next year. If you feel like contributing, thanks. If not, thanks for reading this. Thanks for your good thoughts. (And if you weren’t sending good thoughts, why did you read this far?)

But just to make it worth your time here’ s another big thank you, another dog story — only this one’s a bit of a horror story. It was written about Charlie’s immediate predecessor, Chester.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t0q44z79mjv3o26l0uh67/Chester-David-Gerrold.rtf?rlkey=as3hzwy14b80hqbfi1vkmybsa&st=4dgab187&dl=0

Thanks for taking the time to read this. And if you can drop a few bucks for Charlie's medical expenses, thanks for that too. (And if we go over our target, we have some friends to help too. Thanks.)