Ideas on animal care help?

[lv4dogs]

My friend lost her husband recently (well about 7-8 months ago) and is struggling to stay on her feet while caring for her 2 kids & dog.

Her dog Brutus (a rescued american bulldog, a sweetie pie) has extremely bad allergies and needs to be on a special food and receive medication. My friend can afford one or the other but not both. But without one the other doesn't work.
I have offered to buy her some food but I can't afford to buy it all the time. Is there anywhere she can go or somewhere I can look into to find her some help?

She has tried her vet & they did help. They gave her food for 2 months & 4 months of medication. But thats all they can do. She went to her church and they helped her out with one month of food & medication. Now she can't find anyone to help.
She's feeding her dog whatever is on sale, it's Alpo right now, as that is all she can afford right now. Things ARE improving for her just very slowly.
Anyways I went to visit last night & I couldn't believe my eyes. Poor Brutus is loosing his hair, is all red & itchy & scabby. He's still a big happy goof ball but he's got to be very uncomfortable.

Does anyone know of any organization or the like that will help? Or some fund raiser that I can do legally to help her out? I've never set up & hosted a fund raiser before. Anything. She and the dog both deserve this.

[areias]

Hmm, that's a tough situation. Can she talk to the food company, and perhaps have the dog become a "spokesdog", in exchange for food? Or a local humane society might be able to sponsor the dog.

This might sound horrible, but was the husband in any associations, or have a good repetoire (sp?) with his job? Would they sponsor the dog in his memory?

Is there anything they can live without, to make sacrifices? Perhaps cutting off cable, or relying on just cell phones or just a house, not both? They could use that money towards the dog bills.

That's so hard, I feel sorry for her.

[lv4dogs]

Hmm, that's a tough situation. Can she talk to the food company, and perhaps have the dog become a "spokesdog", in exchange for food? Or a local humane society might be able to sponsor the dog.

This might sound horrible, but was the husband in any associations, or have a good repetoire (sp?) with his job? Would they sponsor the dog in his memory?

Is there anything they can live without, to make sacrifices? Perhaps cutting off cable, or relying on just cell phones or just a house, not both? They could use that money towards the dog bills.

That's so hard, I feel sorry for her.

I know that her husbands work paid off her house morgatge so I don't dare ask her if they will cover the dogs expenses too. And she's not one who asks for help so I don't think she'd ask them anyways.

Thanks to your reply I talked to a few dog food companies this morning (he can be on 2-3 food brands and about 4-5 formulas as far as I know) but I did speak with the ones I know of (nutro, IVD & science diet). IVD & Science Diet wouldn't do anything to help. Nutro is sending me a coupon booklet though which will help me out a lot.

And I called a couple local shelters... they were pretty rude. They won't help unless they turn the dog over to them. Which is what they suggested.

Your reply got me thinking so I called our local petco & a local pet store. Petco wouldn't do anything at all. The pet store, country max, put me on a list, if they happen to get an opened bag of food or an out of date food they will call me & offer it to me for $5, no matter what size or brand. I'm thinking about going there & slicing a bag of food, or 2 or 3. lol But I won't. Country Max is a great store, its my 1st choice & I've been going there for years & years but I'm not counting on them checking the list. Its a busy place & they don't always remember things.

She already cut her cable down to a minimum. She has the all in one plan, phone, cable & internet. Now she's paying a lot less for this plan than having them seperate. She has kids & she also does some work from home so she can't get rid of anything else. They never had a cell phone. She sold her husbands car. She's already at the bare minimum. This is how she found some extra money to cover meds or food, one or the other.

They already gave their cat to a new home and are completely heartbroken. And Brutus is a family dog but one that the father brought home for a surprise so they really don't want to get rid of him. After all he was a "daddy's" boy.

Gosh this is so hard. I feel so bad for them.

[beeniesmom]

Has she requested for a free Nutro coupon:

http://www.nutroproducts.com/yourfamily/

It's for a free 5 lb. bag.

Kfamr posted about it a while back.

[lv4dogs]

Has she requested for a free Nutro coupon:

http://www.nutroproducts.com/yourfamily/

It's for a free 5 lb. bag.

Kfamr posted about it a while back.

Actually Nutro is sending me one for her, along with a coupon booklet. Anything helps but that 5lb bag will only last a few days or so. He's a big american bulldog, he's taller than my guys & weighs about 100lbs.

[beeniesmom]

oh
I feel so bad for them.
Has PT ever done a fund raiser?
If everyone donated 1$, it probably would make a difference... at least for a few months, so she could get on her feet again.

[Jadapit]

I would donate some!! Poor lady. I know what its like to have money problems. Let me know how and where I should send the money.

[lv4dogs]

I'll do a new post about it.