The following is a repost of my diary from late last week with everything that I've learned since then. Updates are at the bottom.
I'm hoping to find a little help for my service dog, Valentin, who is beginning to get older and develop arthritis in his back hips. I recently took him in to check on his weight - we were concerned he might be underweight - and get his vaccinations, and it turned out that rather than being underweight what we were feeling was muscle atrophy as he ages. The vet went on to say that his front legs and back knees seem to be fine, but his hips are starting to stiffen and develop arthritis. Unfortunately, while things have been improving for us lately, I was not prepared to pay another $120 for blood tests before prescribing painkillers on top of the $90 that the visit in vaccinations were already costing me. I had to decline the blood tests, even though they had already drawn the blood in anticipation of running them. I just didn't have the money, not if we were going to continue eating, as well. I told them I would try to return in the coming weeks to get them done, which brings me to this post. Follow me after the jump for an explanation of just what Val means to us, and what he does on a daily basis.
We got Val, a Great Pyrenees born on Valentine's Day, roughly 7 1/2 years ago from a farmer in Missouri who had non AKC registered working dogs protecting the livestock, and recently had a litter. He was crated out to us at around two months old and we raised him and had him ever since.
It had been three years since my first service dog, a golden retriever named Mijo, had passed away and we decided to finally get a new dog to train for around the house service dog help. We trained him to help with things like steadying my wife when she needed help getting up, occasionally picking something up if I drop it, but what he turned out to really be good for and we had no intention or training planned for, was alerting my wife and the rest of us when her chemical sensitivities and allergies are about to get bad and her lupus flare up. See, he started sniffing her breath at a young age, simply going up to her and sniffing at her mouth at random times.
At first we thought this was just him seeing if she had any treats or had eaten anything interesting lately. We quickly learned otherwise when, one day, he got very excited and restless at her and we couldn't figure out why until the hives started breaking out in her throat and on her tongue. We weren't entirely sure, even then, but we kept an eye on it and the next time it happened she took medications just to be safe and surely enough, another attack tried to flare up shortly after. With no training of any sort, the five month old puppy was alerting us to imminent attacks. He has continued to do so ever since.
This, in addition to his self appointed position of guardian against the ninjas that apparently frequent our yard at all times of day and night, is what Val does for us on a daily basis. He is the sweetest and most outgoing Pyrenees I've ever encountered, not that I'm biased, and he is truly happiest when he's helping us and feeling important. I really want to make sure that his later years are as comfortable as I can possibly make them.
Those of you who are familiar with my diaries know that I'm a disabled man in a wheelchair living on $800 a month in Social Security and living with my severely disabled Canadian wife who is ineligible for benefits, and our live in care provider who pools her $1000 a month in with us so that we can get by as a household, and barely get by we do. Between the very strict diet that my wife is on due to her health, the supplements that we buy for her, and rent and utilities in California we often have very little left for food. Things aren't helped when the state messes with my benefits as they often do, or as most recently happened the local office for our county has its time sheet reader break down and checks go out almost a month late, meaning that we have to survive on just my Social Security for an entire month, then play catch up when a check finally does show up and our utilities are about to be disconnected. We're still somewhat recovering from that, though I had enough to take him to the vet when we were concerned about his weight and needed to get his vaccinations as I mentioned just above. Those of you who aren't familiar with me from previous diaries, now you are!
I'm basically asking if anyone is in a position to help a little bit so that I can take him back to the vet ($54.00 visit fee) and get the blood tests run ($120) as well as pay for any medications that we can put him on if the blood tests are all clear, which they should be. Any additional help I would use to make sure that we get him switched over to senior food (Iams). Going forward, we should be able to pay for the medications and we already have him on Iams, though not senior.
Unfortunately, I cannot take checks because I cannot cash them - a previous live in care provider completely screwed our credit to the point that we're in check systems and banks don't like me, I can't open an account that doesn't have an insane amount of restrictions and a huge fee that I can't pay. This also means that paypal is out. As with my art, I would either have to take donations in the form of a money order which I can cash at a check cashing place, or via a money transfer service like Moneygram or Western Union. Those who are uncomfortable given to me directly, which I understand, you may be able to pay directly at the vet over the phone - it's something that I'll have to look into on Monday, but if you aren't comfortable sending money to a stranger and would rather make sure it goes directly to the vet, I totally understand. Either way, contacting me via e-mail which is provided in my profile is the best way to get started and discuss the options.
As always, I'm not above accepting donations and general for things like food and utilities, because even now with things straightening out we're still very tight and pretty much always are. If you'd like to have portraits or caricatures drawn, I would be most happy to take commissions and in fact prefer them to donations because at least I feel like I'm doing something for the money. You can see my art at the link in my signature, although those samples are very outdated and I'm even better now. I can provide other samples upon request.
Anyway, that's the situation, and I appreciate you taking the time to read this.
UPDATES: I have now spoken with both vets in my immediate area and NEITHER of them will take credit cards over the phone - they both give me the same explanation, that their credit card vendors will not allow them to take payments over the phone. They also do not take checks. This means that any help that is going to come, is going to have to come directly to me and I pay them myself. To be clear, this IS NOT what I wanted or a convenient excuse, for those of you who don't know me or are suspicious. I'm perfectly willing to give you the numbers of the vets for you to call yourselves and ask them because I want total transparency in this that I am not making any of this up. Many of you know me, and know that's not my style in the first place, but I know that people who are not familiar with me have every right to be cautious and I respect that. I have one person who is a friend of mine who has sent me a bit of money already, which I used to get him a brush, have his nails trimmed, and got him switched over to senior dog food and will be putting the rest into the vet visit. Those of you who are still interested in helping, unfortunately, I'm not finding any way for you to do so from afar that doesn't involve sending me the money instead. I'm quite willing to photocopy bills and statements from the vet show that things were paid, and a put any additional funds I get above what is necessary into a credit account at the vet for future visits with photocopies of the balance for that too. Beyond that, I don't know what else to suggest.
10:21 AM PT: BREAKTHROUGH UPDATE: My vet is happy to take Money Orders or cash via registered mail and apply it to my account! You can send donations to:
Animal Medical Center
1230 South State Street
San Jacinto, CA 92583-4914
(951) 654-4444
Send them with the note that they are for Larime Taylor. Let me know if you do so I can follow up and confirm that they were applied towards Val's account. If you call, ask for Sheri.
Thank you!