VVolt N629 for US War Dogs Assoc

VVolt N629 was bred at Lackland AFB and served for five years as a Patrol/Explosives Detector Dog (PEDD). He was deployed once to Kuwait and also did security detail stint for both the POTUS during a parade and once for the FLOTUS in Florida. In January he was sent from his duty station to Lackland due to an injury he sustained during training to his right rear hock. In March 2014, Ronie drove down to San Antonio, TX, and officially adopted VVolt, thus beginning his retirement.

((VVolt on adoption day at the Lackland MWD Memorial))

In October 2019 VVolt had a large mass biopsied (we had been monitoring it for several months), along with a knot on his right rear hock. Both turned out to be cancerous--the mass on his chest was a soft-tissue sarcoma and the hock turned out to be the aggressive hystiocytic sarcoma. He immediately began chemotherapy and radiation therapy at the amazing Red Bank Veterinary Clinic in Tinton Falls, NJ. He was cancer free for a few months, but in June 2020, he was again diagnosed during a routine oncology follow-up with a return of the hystiocystic sarcoma, this time in his abdomen where it had enlarged his lymph nodes.

On June 8th, VVolt had the first administration of the chemotherapy for this second round of his cancer battle. Mercifully, VVolt has been covered by the amazing U.S. War Dog Association. (http://www.uswardogs.org) During his last treatment, radiation alone cost over $8,000! This time, VVolt will have aggressive treatment to stop this cancer from taking his life--five days a week, Monday - Friday, for 18 days, in addition to the chemotherapy protocols that will be ongoing.

The U.S. War Dogs Association covers (as of 30 May 2020) 970 MWD/CWDs through their Rx program, in addition to many of these being covered for medical costs at USWDA-approved clinics.  Our family has incurred no financial cost for VVolt's cancer treatment, other than making the nearly hour-long drive to a US War Dogs-approved clinic. Had USWDA not covered VVolt, our family could not have afforded treatment and would have lost him, though he is very healthy otherwise. Therefore, we want to give back to this amazing organization via a two-pronged effort: 

1.) BOOKS - Ronie is an inspirational author of paramilitary fiction. Back in 2012, she launched the A Breed Apart series featuring military working dogs, a series that eventually led to our family's adoption of VVolt. All profits from the sale of these three books (Trinity, Talon, Beowulf ( https://www.amazon.com/Breed-Apart-3-Book/dp/B079G279MK)) through December 31st will be donated to the U.S. War Dogs Association.

2.) GoFundMe - This method will allow those who want to make a larger, more generous donation to do so.

We set the bar low with only a $1,000 goal, but we would love to see a lot more donated to this amazing organization, so our dream goal is $5,000, which is still only about half the cost of the cancer treatment.

No matter how much is received through these efforts (except the .30cents GoFundMe takes on each dollar):
ALL MONEY RAISED WILL BE DONATED TO U.S. WAR DOGS ASSOCIATION.