Help For Rhonda
Donation protected
What I’m about to describe is a complete nightmare - the nightmare of every pet owner. I don’t know how I would manage to survive were I in Rhonda’s shoes.
“How much grief is one person supposed to endure?” was a phrase uttered by my devastated friend last night and it keeps ringing in my head.
My friend is fellow Newfoundlander, Rhonda Parsons, and she is quite possibly the biggest animal lover and supporter of animal-rescue groups one could ever meet (She has long been a supporter of Heavenly Creatures and she is the embodiment of compassion - she’s the give-you-the-shirt-off-her-back type).
Rhonda, who lives in Harbour Grace and is an old soul with a heart as big as the moon, has suffered an unspeakable amount of tragedy in the last couple of days and desperately needs the community’s support while she tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered life.
Rhonda’s dog Ozzie died earlier this week, which was bad enough - we all know how hard the death of a beloved pet is.
Rhonda tried to save Ozzie over the last two weeks by ensuring he had the best possible vet care. His emergency medical bills came to upwards of $10, 000 for which she is now terribly in debt - she had to borrow all the money from friends and credit card companies.
Ozzie was cremated yesterday and Rhonda was understandably already deeply grief stricken. She was getting ready to fly home with his ashes - she had taken him to a specialty clinic in Ontario in a last-ditch attempt to save him - when the unthinkable happened.
In what I can only describe as a cruel and unfathomable turn of events, Rhonda’s house in Harbour Grace caught fire yesterday and her THREE CATS BURNED TO DEATH INSIDE (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/harbour-grace-fire-building-ridley-office-1.4735328).
Her home has been described in the media as “Ridley Offices,” but it was not a building, it was her and her pets’ home.
A media report has sort of given the impression that the fire was mostly contained to the kitchen, but that’s not true - the house has suffered extensive damage and is uninhabitable. The roof is off the dining room, the bedroom - where the cats died - is destroyed and so on.
In but a couple of short days, Rhonda has had her life torn upside down - she has essentially lost her house and not one, but FOUR PETS.
Rhonda is single and her children and grandchildren live out-of-province so she doesn’t have a lot of support in NL.
She was already in a terrible amount of debt because of Ozzie’s vet care and now she has to try to rebuild her life and that’s going to be a costly venture.
She had poured her heart and soul into her pets and that house, a heritage home which she has spent years trying to restore piece by piece as she could afford to.
Now it’s all basically gone and Rhonda is devastated beyond words.
We Newfoundlanders are known for our kindness and Rhonda is a perfect example of this - for as long as we’ve been friends, she has been helping animals and people and has often gone above and beyond.
An example of Rhonda’s kindness is that in the last year, she has helped Heavenly Creatures save the lives of four stray cats who were in bad shape and would have otherwise perished on the streets; she facilitated their rescue and donated money she couldn’t really afford toward their vet care.
My hope is to raise some money for Rhonda to use toward Ozzie’s vet debt and other debt, so that she has one less stress while she tries to rebuild her life.
“How much grief is one person supposed to endure?” was a phrase uttered by my devastated friend last night and it keeps ringing in my head.
My friend is fellow Newfoundlander, Rhonda Parsons, and she is quite possibly the biggest animal lover and supporter of animal-rescue groups one could ever meet (She has long been a supporter of Heavenly Creatures and she is the embodiment of compassion - she’s the give-you-the-shirt-off-her-back type).
Rhonda, who lives in Harbour Grace and is an old soul with a heart as big as the moon, has suffered an unspeakable amount of tragedy in the last couple of days and desperately needs the community’s support while she tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered life.
Rhonda’s dog Ozzie died earlier this week, which was bad enough - we all know how hard the death of a beloved pet is.
Rhonda tried to save Ozzie over the last two weeks by ensuring he had the best possible vet care. His emergency medical bills came to upwards of $10, 000 for which she is now terribly in debt - she had to borrow all the money from friends and credit card companies.
Ozzie was cremated yesterday and Rhonda was understandably already deeply grief stricken. She was getting ready to fly home with his ashes - she had taken him to a specialty clinic in Ontario in a last-ditch attempt to save him - when the unthinkable happened.
In what I can only describe as a cruel and unfathomable turn of events, Rhonda’s house in Harbour Grace caught fire yesterday and her THREE CATS BURNED TO DEATH INSIDE (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/harbour-grace-fire-building-ridley-office-1.4735328).
Her home has been described in the media as “Ridley Offices,” but it was not a building, it was her and her pets’ home.
A media report has sort of given the impression that the fire was mostly contained to the kitchen, but that’s not true - the house has suffered extensive damage and is uninhabitable. The roof is off the dining room, the bedroom - where the cats died - is destroyed and so on.
In but a couple of short days, Rhonda has had her life torn upside down - she has essentially lost her house and not one, but FOUR PETS.
Rhonda is single and her children and grandchildren live out-of-province so she doesn’t have a lot of support in NL.
She was already in a terrible amount of debt because of Ozzie’s vet care and now she has to try to rebuild her life and that’s going to be a costly venture.
She had poured her heart and soul into her pets and that house, a heritage home which she has spent years trying to restore piece by piece as she could afford to.
Now it’s all basically gone and Rhonda is devastated beyond words.
We Newfoundlanders are known for our kindness and Rhonda is a perfect example of this - for as long as we’ve been friends, she has been helping animals and people and has often gone above and beyond.
An example of Rhonda’s kindness is that in the last year, she has helped Heavenly Creatures save the lives of four stray cats who were in bad shape and would have otherwise perished on the streets; she facilitated their rescue and donated money she couldn’t really afford toward their vet care.
My hope is to raise some money for Rhonda to use toward Ozzie’s vet debt and other debt, so that she has one less stress while she tries to rebuild her life.
Organiser and beneficiary
Jessica Rendell
Organiser
St. John's, NL
Rhonda Parsons
Beneficiary
