In January, 2014, Juli Bill was struggling to make ends meet. She was a nursing student at Long Beach State and paid the family bills with a part-time job at Disneyland and child support payments. Juli has two children – an 18-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son. An animal person, she has two dogs – an American Bulldog and a Weimaraner – and a horse that is boarded in Whittier.
So it was not welcome news when she learned that Hades, HHa 130-pound bulldog, needed knee surgery.
“I noticed that he was having some issues standing up in the morning when I took him outside,” she said in an interview. “I thought at first that he was just a little stiff. But when he had to go out in the middle of the night and he couldn’t get up and started dragging his rear end – that really concerned me. That’s when I took him to the vet.”
She went to Los Alamitos Animal Hospital. “It was actually both of his knees,” she said. “We did one and now we have to do the other.” But that first cruciate repair surgery was more than Juli’s budget could handle. Her daughter was about to graduate from high school and there were extra bills to pay. She set up a website about Hades and got about $1,000 in donations from friends “and a lot of different people.”
Dr. Claudia Horvath, the hospital’s medical director, told Juli about Angel Fund. “If it weren’t for them (Angel Fund), I don’t know what I would have done,” she said. “There was no way I could afford the surgery on my own.” Angel Fund and the hospital each contributed $500. The staff at the hospital, Juli said, was fantastic. “They did everything for me. Everyone was so helpful and informative.”
After the surgery, she said, Hades had to be sedated before she could take him home to her house in Lakewood. Today, he is a happy dog – but he limps because the other knee is still unrepaired.
Juli is now planning his second surgery. She put her nursing education on hold and has left her Disneyland job, which paid just a bit more than minimum wage, for a full-time job at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. “It’s a good job. I have fun there, although it’s not my calling,” she said. But it pays the bills and she has been saving for Hades second surgery. She will do it when she can take vacation time so she’ll be at home during the initial stages of his recovery.
I have a cat that looks just like Opie. His name is Crush. I got him at about 5 weeks also. He fell in the commode one Sunday afenotorn and almost drown. My son found him limp and lifeless and soaking wet. He some how survived and is 6 months or so now. He is such a loving cat too!