The Doodle Messenger

[Dr. Judith P. LaVorgna]

Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Judy LaVorgna, Founder Board Member of The Doodle Messenger now linked to your site by Adina. I am a long time Doodle owner and rescuer, and FL Coordinator for IDOG Rescue and Rehome...lucky enough to place 4 Doodles in the last four weeks in wonderful forever homes. 

 I wanted to take a moment to thank Adina for making the link to our very important donation site for Doodles who are critically ill or injured, world wide, and who's families need financial and emotional support in their journey to wellness, if that is possible. Some of these "kids" have a terminal diagnoses, however, with each passing day new medical technololgies become available, so there is always hope. Hope comes, however, at extraordinary cost. The Doodle Messenger tells the story of the first two under our worry and concern. More will come, and you will see that you can submit a Doodle yourself, or, if your Doodle is critically ill or injured, be submitted by someone else. We are a stand alone site, just now beginning, and one we intend to take world wide. We need your help to do that by spreading the word and the site wherever you are that Doodles are!  Romps, walks, sites, organizations. We Doodle lovers and owners are in this together. And, to my knowledge, Adina is the first person to link our page to her Doodle Kisses!  Good going!  Great going. You can find it now on your Extra site.

 Please take time to go to the site and read about the Doodles in Need there, and feel free to donate, however small, toward their recovery.  AS important, the current Founder Board is searching for two additional Founder Board members.  Perhaps one of you will want to submit your name and interest in one of those positions. I hope so. You can read about the Board and "requirements" such as they are on the Who Are We page of our site, read the entire Website if you can.

 We have, as of yesterday, hired a Volunteer Webmaster and so we expect some changes to the way to use the site (more user friendly, resources for owner's with sick or injured Doodles, etc.), so visit often, grow with us.  Thank you and, to Adina, your site WILL show as a link resource there, soon!  Please, spread the word for our Doodles in Need and make the Messenger a favorite.  Judy

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Judy the site looks great - I will continue to check in and see how it grows. I like how you give so much information on the sick doodles and the good they do with their owners and the community.

[Dr. Judith P. LaVorgna]

Thanks, we did work hard to get it off the ground, and are still at it to make it so much more user friendly. AND, to encourage Doodle owners to submit...either their own doodle, or a sick or injured doodle known to them. Somewhere I told someone I pray none of mine ever get to the site. How do you say they decorate couches andd chairs so nicely!!!
Our first two certainly have alot of achievements in their young lives, we must hope they both make it through their chemo and have some time ahead...their diagnoses are bleek, but the power of Doodle prayers and finances are with them. Thanks

[Penny, Comiskey & Beemer]

The link to your site came just in time for our story....I have not written it yet...or make a submission...because this is all very new to us...but this morning we took our wonderful little Beemer to have hip surgery....he has been diagnosed with severe hip displasia and is having surgery as I write this.....I think what you are doing is wonderful....the shock we experienced when we found out the diagnosis, let alone the cost....is overwhelming...but we are committed to caring and loving our doodle...no matter what....

[Dr. Judith P. LaVorgna]

Go to the site and study it, make your submission as you are ready. Yes HD is an expensive surgery. Tell your Vet you are going to The Doodle Messenger to ask for support to help pay the bills. And, if he or she offers you any in-kind, volunteering time in lieu of money. Let me know when you submit and we will note that as a Paws of Llight Veterinarian. In fact. push the Vet to visit the site...write a note with the website address. While we don't know how much, in total will go to each dog, we feel that something will help. The submission will come to me and I submit it to the Board. Doodle hugs to Beemer. Judy

[Penny, Comiskey & Beemer]

Thank you for your prayers....he is such a love...

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Judy, I don't quite get how this would work. Maybe I am a bit dense but since we just went through major and expensive surgery.....
Our non-doodle (English Springer Spaniel) tore his CCL last summer and had surgery to the tune of $4,000 dollars. I have quite an interest in seeing exactly how this might work for other dogs because we have struggled to pay this bill off in the time allotted by the 6 month interest-free Health Credit Card we qualified for.
I can't imagine that Gordie's surgeon would have offered some kind of special price (other than the credit card) to normal ordinary people with a normal ordinary dog. After all this is the vet's living and he went to expensive schools to learn all of this stuff and worked hard to create a great surgical facility.
I can't figure out that you would submit your request, wait to see if it was accepted; asked the vet to volunteer through Paws of Light, wait to see if he would; wait for the donations; and ask the vet to wait to see what donations came in before beginning to pay the bill .... When actually would your dog get treated? I know we couldn't wait on Gordie's surgery.
I would hope that the vets might help rescue dogs and that people might donate to the DRC like doodlekisses members have been doing for dogs like Dublin, but I don't think or expect that people would donate to me because my dog's accident and surgery was expensive. I would love it if they did but.....
When I looked at your site, I did read that it isn't a non-profit so of course our donations wouldn't be tax deductible, but I couldn't see how our donations were kept track of. Are they supposed to be personal for the dog or do they go to IDOG for disbursement? Does all of the money go directly for the dog?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I do know there are people who have given up doodles whom they loved, dogs who have Addison's disease and similar diseases, because they simply could not afford the ongoing veterinary bills. I have often thought it would be a wonderful thing to have some kind of fund so that these dogs could stay in their homes and not be given up because an otherwise loving and caring family simply could not afford their care. In that way, it does help the rescues to use their funds to help dogs who have no homes, and prevents more dogs from entering the rescue system.
I do think your questions are good ones, Nancy. I would like to know more about how it works as well.

[Dr. Judith P. LaVorgna]

Karen and Jack, I should have included you with Nancy and Ned I hope I have clarified for you the purpose and intent of The Doodle Messenger below. Come grow it with us. We are all Volunteers. Judy

[Dr. Judith P. LaVorgna]

Hi Nancy and Ned...I am so sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, I'm afraid my inbox is overflowing and my time often on working through the Website issues of the Messenger and trying to move forum to forum (and there are so many) that I do apologize. Doodle kisses to you from me!
Let me try to answer your questions. The Doodle Messenger is a location. A location to which any Doodle owner may go,or a submitter friend of the Doodle, but obviously more at the beginning of a diagnosis as bills are being encountered. And, it is a stand alone place for all of the Doodle communities around the world to go to be emotionally helpful to owners in crisis. No owner should wait on help from the Messenger, they must begin treatment immediately. Massive injury as an example must be treated as it occurs. We have no idea of how much the donations might reach for this particular Doodle In Need, or any for that matter. Previously most of us would talk about it on the site or forum we are most comfortable, it would be there donations would probably be generated. But those owners also belong to the larger community of Goldendoodles and Labradoodles who have caring and able members who would and could also be concerned and helpful...if only they knew. So the Messenger presents in a larger way for the possibility of more donations for a Doodle dog. Let us say you submitted your dood, or someone did for you. That pops into, right now, my e-mail. I read it, I call for an e- meeting that evening, or possibly the next day, the submission is checked through with the Vet, is decided it is not a usual or cursory illness or injury (the job of the Founder's Board), and the submission gains an immediate yay or nay and the owner and submitter are contacted immediately. Within hours the "story" and photographs can be on the Messenger site for all to see. Does that mean everyone who visits will donate, no, but there is probably a better chance of a greater amount because it is being seen by so many people who care about Doodles. Likewise, the Vet is notified the Doodle has been accepted as a Doodle In Need and that donations to the care may be coming to their offices, they are also invited to the Messenger website to see the details and depth we are going to in helping OUR Doodles in need. Veterinarians, like any other doctors, may (or may not) allow that some of the cost may be in-kind on their part. Some may choose to give in their time and supplies the equivalent of $50. or $100 a thousand dollars or more. Some might donate from their own pocket toward the Doodle's bill. Those would be what are termed Point of Light Veterinarians, and they would have to notify me/ the Board (that is spelled out not only in the Messenger, but when I, representing the current Board, talk with the Veterinarian. I am a doctor, Nancy and Ned, not a Veterinarian, but one who deals with children and families. During the course of my career I have often had to/wanted to put a dollar amount to time spent on a case, a situation, an issue, because the case was needful, or brought to my attention in some way I was able to be participatory because I wanted to, because I had the skills and I would not charge a fee. And, once in awhile a group would put my name down as a person to be thanked. I didn't do it for that reason, but every now and then it made my heart feel good because I could do something, the old saying I think, "Emotions are more compelling than reason." Most all doctors I know can or will or do provide in-kind services where the need is great. O.K. next point, your donation is not kept track of, not by the Founder's Board, not by the owner. It is in a sense, kept track of by the very same Primary Veterinarian's office that recieves the donation and is applied to the Doodle dog's bill the moment it is recieved by mail or credit card. If we cannot trust the Vet's office to do this...after talking with the Vet or the Vet's office manager, well, believe me we are all in trouble. In our effort to start this site we have had nothing but cooperation from the Vet's offices. Will the donation ever be anywhere near enough to pay for, say chemotherapy of $20 or $25,000, no, will it make a dent, might even be just a small part of an overall bill, probably, but, well together-all of us-maybe can together be of help. If it is $200.00 ( which is best I could calculate via information I tried to gather as we prepared the site) imagine if we now have hundreds and thousands and one hundred thousand around the world looking at this Doodle's story. Or maybe a philanthropist with a Doodle, we just never know. Nancy and Ned, here I am carving out with others this centralized donation site, and I don't know Dublin. Why? because I don't come to DK, I go to the site I first visited quite accidentally nearly five years ago , first made friends, and chat about the weather, the latest dog food with the best content, and my Doodles. Why, because we are all different, we all find a certain day to day comfort level. We are known, accepted. We generally find a forum, ultimately make friends, and generally stay there. And sad for us that in the case of Doodles In need, we are totally unaware of illness of other Doodle fur children, hurting, dying perhaps. That is why we went about the work of a centralized donation site with a quick turn around and quick posting for information about the dog and how to donate. Does it mean we don't still talk about "our" Doodles,with our own forum friends. NO, NO, NO...it is just that we understand there is a power in numbers and in the case of our Doodles, it serves them best as we all join together in whatever effort we can do to help these particular dogs make it through this dark journey. If it is only, in the very end, sympathy and thoughts, then we can be there to do that. We Doodle owners are ot "ordinary people with a normal ordinary dog" We are crazy, half off our rockers, over the edge, nuts in love with these companion animals...and that is what sets us apart from so many other doggie places. IDOG.biz, the DRC, and many, many, many other rescue organizations throughout the United States and worldwide serve very critical needs in rescue and rehome, they need to continue to do that hard work day in and day out. However, The Doodle Messenger is not a part of any of these, it stands alone as a donation site serving all dogs whether from Breeders, rescued, rehomed, or stray where owners need a shot of emotional and financial adrenalin; and some of these dogs to whom we may make donations will die. But as new protocols, new treatments appear, cost may decrease which across the board gives rise to hope of lowered cost down the road. Our track record with medical crises among Doodles is relatively new, my own Goldendoodle at now 14 is probably among the first of this wonderful hybrid. Our medical information will only continue to grow as Doodles in numbers are out there and records are kept, research is done, and treatments can be found. Right now we are attempting to have the Breeders, Rescue Groups, Forums world wide link to the page, Right now, tonight, it might appear IDOG is the only link. Not true, our almost newly hired Webmaster is working like crazy to show all of the sites linking to us. We hope to have that corrected quickly. We know Doodle Kisses has linked, they should ultimately show as a resource for Doodle owners, and frankly I cannot work harder to make that happen because it was Adina who first gave the shout out that she had linked this forum to the Messenger. So, you guys should be very, very proud of her. We on the Founders Board are!. The bill for these dogs will probably never be paid in toto from our donations, could be just a token of the amount of the bill, but as Doodle owners, at least we know we've gotten together and tried we have our information on one page, one place that belongs to ALL of us. I hope I have answered your questions, and how about letting us know about Dublin, please. Someone. Judy

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Dublin was killed in a hit and run accident on Feb.13th.

[Dr. Judith P. LaVorgna]

I am so sorry. If you or someone would send me a photograph if one is available, and a bit about his life, his birthday to the sad the accident, perhaps we could honor Dublin as the first Doodle whose life-ending journey could be placed on our Memorial page. He was loved by many here, and he should be known and remembered for as long as there is a Doodle Messenger. And there, grief shared. I would be more than honored if we were allowed to do that for Dublin. My e-mail is [e-mail]. And please, tell the story of how DK became his special home. And for me, a reason for The Doodle Messenger, I am a Doodle lover, and I want to know if Dublin was a girl or a boy. This is what I was trying to say through all of those words above, what hurts one of us, hurts all of us. Sadly, Judy

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thank you. Right now, we are trying to heal from this by grieving privately. It has been extremely painful for many of us, including his original owner, his foster family, the DRC & DK members who came to love him through his story, and the person who had intended to give him a permanent home.
And I see that somehow you too were aware of him, although you may not have known his sex or the details of his story. The word did somehow get out; this is the power of nearly 6000 DK members who have formed an extraordinarily close bond.
Last year, we here on DK were able to raise several thousand dollars to pay for the eye surgery of a homeless doodle named Sophie, who with her adoptive family, became much loved members of DK. Those who saw our post here crossposted it to other doodle forums, and the funds were raised. I have no doubt we would have succeeded this time, too.