Local Couple Starts Fundraiser to Help Ailing Dog

A local family has started a campaign to help pay for the medical bills of their ailing dog Harley, a 7-year-old dog who fell ill with an auto-immune disease on Christmas Eve.

Owners Billy Roach and Allison Levitan started a fundraising page on Give Forward and have already raised more than $2,000 of their $4,000 goal.

Friend Laurie Laughlin wrote in an email to Patch that the couple is struggling to pay for Harley's treatment and asked people to help.

"They have the cutest, sweetest dog in the world, and she's very sick," Laughlin wrote. "They're having trouble paying her medical bills, and that might mean Harley can't ever come home. No one, not humans or animals, should have to suffer because of money. Please donate to help Harley!"

Levitan updated the fundraising page on Thursday and said that vets told her that Harley could make a full recovery, but she's not out of the woods yet.

"Needless to say, we need help, and soon," Levitan wrote. "Our sweet puppy means the absolute world to us, and for all this to happen on Christmas eve is, as you can imagine, an absolute nightmare to be going through. I can barely bring myself to ask this, but if any of you can contribute it will make more of a difference than you realize. Please please, if you can give any money whatsoever this Christmas, any little bit will help. We have been told that she could make a full recovery and live a healthy happy normal life if she gets past this stage, and we are not ready to give up on her or lose her."