Help get Momo home

Hi! I’m Ashley and I’m fundraising for the Foley family. We have a very unique story and want to help this sweet family get their doggo home to them in Australia.

It’s a bit of a roller coaster so if you have a minute to read we would be so grateful.

Around 2018 the Foley family moved together with their dog from Australia to Tennessee because Joey, the husband, was studying on an athletic scholarship, which he lost at the start of the pandemic. They were basically surviving on a small scholarship and Teya’s, Joeys wife, part-time job. So suddenly needing to move countries without notice when flights were double the price was pretty full on, especially knowing they still had to figure out how to get Momo home.

Animals have to be tested to make sure they are healthy and cleared to come back into Australia. It was then they found out Momo had been bitten by a tick and contracted a form of Lyme disease called Ehrlichia. The family of four (five with Momo included) were separated. Teya, the wife and mama of two littles, and the kids flew back to Australia while Joey, the husband and dad, stayed with Momo while they put him on antibiotics and tried to rid him of this thing and get him back home. The family flew home in May of 2020 and Joey waited as long as he could until around December of 2020 before flying home to reunite with his family. They had friends who lived in Sherman Oaks, CA whom they left Momo with while they continued with lots of blood testing and antibiotics in hopes of him being cleared to go back home.

That family had plans of moving to Virginia at the beginning of the new year and everyone at that point was hoping Momo would get to be back with his family sooner than later. Mid January and Momo was not progressing and that family in California was scrambling to find a good home to help temporarily foster him because they were set to move in February. They asked around and posted on social media, a friend of theirs was also married to my husbands friend.

We, the Manocchia family, had just recently had to put our old 13 year old dog down right after Christmas. The house was quiet and empty and my youngest daughter who is the biggest dog lover was always asking me where her Pepe was. We had a hole missing and the thought of getting a new dog was far from in our future.

My husband was asleep and I was scrolling Instagram and saw this post about this sweet looking black lab that needed a temporary home but I thought it would be too soon for my husband. By the time I woke up in the morning my husband, Vince, had sent it to me and told me he already contacted the people and was awaiting a response. It was a perfect match for us. Long story short by the end of January 2021 we ended up taking Momo. The family we have never officially met is amazing and hopeful to get their dog back.

The Foley’s have paid upward of $3000 already and another $1,500 on tests so far. I take Momo to the vet every 4 weeks for blood tests, which does cost them about $200 every time. They had to purchase a specific crate for travel which is about $1000, and the fees to get him back to them for transport, flight, and quarantine once he gets there is between $6-$8k. The Foley family is so kind and humble and the last thing they wanted to do was ask for funds because they felt others need a go fund me more than them. So I am making one to help them in any way we can.

They are a young family, husband and wife finishing up their schooling degrees while raising two young kids that miss their now 9 year old family dog like crazy. We would love to keep him, he is THE best dog I have ever met and seen but the love this family has for him makes me so sad they have been separated from him for over a year. We cannot imagine how they feel and try to put ourselves in their shoes.

It is now the beginning of July and we are still testing him, and he is slowly progressing on having less antibodies in his system but he still is more positive than negative at this point.

Please help us get their sweet family dog, Momo which is short for Mawali which in Balinese means you’re welcome. The Foley’s named him that because they found out they were pregnant a week after returning from their Balinese wedding and honeymoon, and we welcomed Momo into our family the next weekend. Their kids have never known life without Momo and they talk about how much they miss him almost every day.