Robin: A Dog Scratch Took Her Limbs

For those of you unfamiliar with Robin's story - a nightmare that began on Christmas 2012 - the original Fox News coverage is here .

Robin loves dogs. She's a lifelong rescuer, adopter and foster dog mom. Her tragedy started when an innocent family dog scratch resulted in the amputation of both her legs, all her fingers and part of her face, as well as the loss of her spleen.

After spending months in the hospital, weeks in the ICU, undergoing dialysis and multiple surgeries, she was released with little follow up. Still in a state of shock, suffering PTSD, loaded up on serious pain medication her doctors insist she take, Robin entered a new period of emotional trauma and eventually lost her mate and her home.

Through it all, Lily, her best friend and dog companion, was by her side.  Just three days ago,  Lily was crushed to death when an awning pole fell from the side of her house.

(Robin & Lily back in the day)

We've started this campaign because, self employed and uninsured at the time of the accident, Robin's care has fallen through the cracks of our government's health care system. She has not had one hour of physical therapy. Not an hour of personal therapy. She has no assistance with daily tasks like showering, grocery shopping, meal perparation. And after enduring multiple surgeries  and great nerve pain, she still has no prosthetics that fit. She desperately yearns to be verticle, to stand, to walk, to run again.

And now her heart is broken.

On May 2, when Lily was crushed before her eyes, she said "If I could run I would take off now and never stop. It feels like the last straw."

So this fund is starting now to:

1) Retain a trauma therapist immediately

2) Get Robin to the beach (her true solace, one she aches for, providing peace in the time of grief and inspiration for the long journey to recovery)

3) Hire a part time caregiver assitant who can help  pursue avenues of financial and medical aid, coordinate appointments, provide rides to and from appointments, run errands, and help with practical daily chores. (Robin cannot put her hair in a ponytail, for example, and needs a set of hands that can help.)

4) Make home alterations and prepare the way so that Robin can be approved for, and adopt, an assistance dog

(Robin, post-surgery, with her grand-dog Jax)

Robin also needs a home and a van that are amputee friendly and assistance in receiving new prosthesis that fit correctly, so she can stand again. She dreams of one day having an electronic hand that will allow her to bath herself and prepare her own meals.

But these expenses are well over $200,000, and none of them matter anyway to a broken heart.

So we begin at the beginning, with a rescue mission to the beach where her soul can find soothing, and a  gifted therapist can help her pick up the pieces of her broken heart.

After knowing her for 30 years, I can say she has the heart of a dog, resilient and loving, unconditionally. Her soul's tail is always wagging.

With that much character and courage, especially in the face of so much loss and devastation, she deserves, like any beloved friend, to have a lap to jump into. For solace. For repair. For ressurection.

Let's be that lap. And let's enfold that cumpled but still beating dog heart into our own, and bring that soul companion and her wagging tail home.

 (Averie, Robin's granddaughter who was born while Robin was in the ICU, feeding her a grape.)

(Robin, Averie and Lily going for a "walk")