Campaign to Raise Funds to Pay Bounce's Vet Bills

Bounce's Story

The little fellow went out to potty, on a cool March night, and was attacked by our neighbor's 100 lb dog. At the time, the little guy didn't weigh more than about 10 lbs.

Now here he was, out there minding his own business, when the neighbor's dog came into our yard and slammed into him. The only way Bounce managed to get away, was when the neighbor came over and tackled his dog. He was able to make the break and seek refuge under our tool shed.

After the neighbor's restrained their dog and got him into their house, I spend a good deal of time trying to coax Bounce out. When he finally came out it didn't look good at all. His left side was bulging. Of course, this was at 5:30 p.m. and after the vet's office had closed.

Off to the emergency veterinary office to have him checked out. An overnight visit there followed by a visit to another vet's office for surgery and observation.

Turned out that when the neighbor's dog hit him, he hit him so hard that it ripped through three layers of muscle, which caused his intestines and part of his spleen to begin spilling into his abdominal cavity. He also suffered from a pencil end sized hole in his diaphragm. After it was all said and done, his vet bill ended up right at $5,300.00.

At the time, the neighbor took responsibility for what had happened, but that was until they received the bills. Walter has been a great go between, talking with them and trying to help them figure out a way to pay it. They had an old car and he even helped them get it up on Craigs List to sell.

After four months of waiting around they finally sold the car. Did they pay me?? NO! Now, they decided they want to make a claim on their homeowner's insurance. You would think that this would be simple, present the vet bills. Insurance company pays. Everything is fine and dandy. NOT!

According to the insurance companies (mine & theirs) - the dog is property and as such I am only entitled to the replacement cost. What I would have had to pay to purchase another dog. Since the cost of the 'repair' exceeds the value of the property then you only get the value of the property.

Their insurance company informed me that they had done some calling around to breeders and that the dog was only worth between $300 & $500, with that being the case they were going to offer me $350.00 to settle the claim.

I did hold my temper, but this is appalling. We did nothing wrong. Basically it seems...that the only one getting punished here is me, because I didn't put the dog down when it happened, so that no further expenses were incurred.

Something is terribly wrong here.  Do the humane thing and take care of the dog's injuries (that were treatable) instead of putting him sleep, and end up getting stuck with the bill, that we wouldn't have had if they had kept their dog in their own yard.

Donations to Bounce's Vet Bill Fund can be sent to the address listed below.  Anything donations over the amount of his vet bills will be donated to the Richmond SPCA.

GOAL $5,300.00

Bounce's Fund

P. O. Box 2148

Midlothian, VA 23113

Now here I thought that this was going to be a pretty good idea. I've had some suggest to me that I should consult with a lawyer before trying to do this. If you know whether or not this is legally a problem I'd love to hear from you. Or if you would just like to keep posted leave a comment.

NOTE:  This is not a non-profit group or organization.  Just my personal plea to help get the vet bill under control.