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Campbell family couldn't afford to treat its severely injured dog
CAMPBELL
When Lisa and Corey Mercer got a call in the middle of the night from someone who had found Benji, their dog who ran away from home the day before, they were ecstatic.
That is until they found the 1-year-old cairn terrier covered in blood, with skin and fur torn from two of his legs, bruises all over his body and a head wound.
Veterinary hospitals told the Mercers it would cost more than $500 to treat Benji.
“We don’t have that. [Corey’s] on disability. I’m just on part time. And we had unexpected financial difficulties with our youngest daughter,” Lisa said.
And then the anonymous donations started pouring in.
It began when Corey posted on the Boardman Area Buy Sell or Trade Facebook page in October, the day after Benji came home, that he wanted to sell his Xbox gaming console with an explanation that he needed money to get treatment for his family’s dog.
“That’s something we saved up over a year for,” Lisa said, saying Corey and their daughters — Bella, 2, and Raylyn, 6 — used it to play games together.
Corey, however, knew it was worth it to raise money to pay for Benji’s treatment.
In the meantime, the Mercers took Benji to Banfield Pet Hospital in Boardman, where they were told that Benji likely had been hit by a car.
And they learned the hospital had received hundreds of dollars in donations for the Mercer family — all organized by a woman from the Facebook page with whom they had been in touch.
“I was crying,” Lisa recalled. “This was a complete stranger, helping us out with our dog. We were just so, so overwhelmed.”
Benji has now been to the clinic for three visits, and “there have been donations to cover everything,” Lisa said. That includes office visits, X-rays, medication, sedation, dressing changes and medicated ointment, totaling at least $1,000 in expenses, she said.
“We’d like to thank those people dearly,” Corey said.
As for Benji, he’s doing much better. The skin and fur are still gone from both of his right paws, but he’s running around and doesn’t seem to be in any pain, the Mercers said. “He’s got his bounce back,” Lisa said.
Lisa and Corey said they plan to return the favor in the future. They started a GoFundMe page before they knew about the donations, and said they plan to use any money from that to help another family in need.
“We know how the struggle is,” Corey said. “And we’ve been helped in this great way. It would only be right for us to help another family.”