When Erica’s dog Jimi didn’t come to greet her at the door one random day after work, she knew something was wrong. Jimi was slowly losing control of his legs. As a veterinary assistant at the Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon, she’d seen Jimi’s condition before in other patients.
“He was showing signs that he’s got something going on with his discs, ” she said. “I took him to work, and he was still trying to walk, but both left, front and hind weren’t moving normally.”
As a young mom and a busy veterinary assistant in Bend, Erica Rishling’s life was already chaotic. Now she had to worry about the mounting vet bills after Jimi’s emergency spinal surgery.
After a CT scan to diagnose Jimi – it was determined he needed neurosurgery to repair his spine.
“Before this, he still acted like a puppy.” Erica said. “It was such a dramatic, fast change, and it was so hard. We had to try whatever we could”
Erica adopted Jimi while living in Phoenix. A good samaritan brought him into the hospital Erica was working in at the time. Jimi was skin and bones.
“Every inch of his fur was completely matted.” Erica said. She took him home to foster him, even though she was pregnant.
“12 years later, Jimmy is the best dog ever.” Erica said. “My daughter has grown up her whole life with him.”
She couldn’t think of a life without Jimi. So when the bills continued to add up, Erica didn’t know what she would do and if Jimi would even make it.
“It was a time game,” Erica said.
With Jimi’s condition, they needed to relieve the pressure on his spine before he was fully paralyzed, and he was too far gone for medication.
“We had to take that chance,” said Erica.
They proceeded with the spinal surgery by Dr. Stephen Stockdale, an orthopedic veterinary surgeon at Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon.
A week after his spinal surgery, when Jimi was in the throws of a long recovery journey, Erica recalls:
“I brought him home one night and had this heart to heart with him” Erica said.
“Then I asked him: ‘if this isn’t right, give me a sign.’ I was on the precipice of ending his suffering”
“Literally the next day, he started trying to ‘correct’ his left hind.” She knew this was the sign. She had to keep fighting for him.
But she always had that feeling in the back of her head, wondering how she was going to afford The Bill at the end of Jimi’s journey.
She then got a message from Dr. Bentley, who told her she had good news.
“An anonymous donor through the program heard our story, and decided they wanted to help,” Erica said. “They wanted to pay for Jimi’s bill.”
The Veterinary Care Charitable Fund
This program Erica mentioned is the Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon’s new donation initiative through the Veterinary Care Charitable Fund.
Donors can choose where 100% of your donation will go. There are three special contribution programs:
- The Care Fund: Provide medical services to pet parents facing financial hardship
- The Hero Fund: Support the initiative to bring the best, most advanced care to Central Oregon
- The Remembrance Fund: Donate in honor of a loved one
Because of The Care Fund, Jimi’s mom was able to keep fighting for him.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this if it wasn’t for [Veterinary Referral Center of Central Oregon]” Erica said. “They are just so amazing, and supportive. Our docs are incredible.”
“There will never be any words I can say that could describe how meaningful that was to me and my whole family” Erica said.
“It changed my outlook on life in a huge way,” she said. “It made me realize that there’s still kindness in the world.”
And because of that anonymous donation to the Veterinary Care Charitable Fund, Jimi was able to visit the beach with his family this past weekend. With lots of rest breaks, Jimi was finally able to run again. Towards the family that saved him.
Author: Ely Twiggs
Ely's love for the outdoors and having first hand experience of the shortness of life was the impetus for her move from Australia into an RV to travel the US. When she got to Bend, she knew this was the place. After creating The Dog in Us, a multi-channel platform about exploring National Parks with Dogs, she wanted to bring dog-approved resources to a local community she loves. Enter The Dog Guide Bend, a resource made for the Bend Dog Community. Ely is the guardian of two rescue dogs, Alaska and Smoky Joe, and they are the center of her universe. Ely and her husband Tom run a mobile RV repair business called Meet You There RV Repair & Inspection.