Donors step up to pay for sick Sebastopol police dog’s chemotherapy

An ailing Sebastopol police dog whose alarming diagnosis and treatment costs put his care potentially out of reach of his small department is proving irresistible to a generous public that over the past six days has raised enough to cover his needs, and then some.

The donations topped $11,000 Monday night and were still coming in to pay for a 19-week course of chemotherapy for Frank, a 7-year-old German shepherd.

“The generosity is unbelievable,” his handler, Sebastopol Police Sgt. Nick Belliveau said Monday night. “It’s amazing.”

Up until two weeks ago, when Belliveau was on patrol his trusty shepherd was right alongside him, working as a canine member of the Sebastopol Police Department.

During their off-duty hours, Frank is a beloved family pet, living at home in Santa Rosa with Belliveau, his wife, Alyssa, and their two other dogs, Kid and Fancy.

So when Frank was diagnosed last week with a deadly form of lymphoma, the lines were blurred somewhat about how to proceed and who would bear the estimated $10,000 cost for treatment, were it pursued.

Frank’s oncologist said chemotherapy has a 90 percent chance of successfully putting the dog’s cancer in complete remission. But since there remains a degree of uncertainty about his return to the job, the city’s return on its investment was not as clear as it was for Frank’s partner, whose emotional investment prodded him toward the only choice he could make.

Belliveau, even without knowing who would pay, said he authorized the first round of chemotherapy almost as soon as he got the diagnosis last Tuesday night and said he planned to proceed with the full treatment to save his partner and pet, no matter what.

“I thought about it for maybe 2 seconds,” Belliveau said Monday, “and I decided, ‘I’m going to do the treatment.’?”

The Police Department was prepared to try to help, too, perhaps using asset forfeiture funds to offset Frank’s care, Police Chief Jeff Weaver said.

But he acknowledged the decision was not entirely straightforward given the cost of the treatment, medical uncertainties, and Frank’s age, closing in on 8 years. Belliveau said he had hoped Frank would be able to work until he was about 10 years old.

“There’s two pieces to it,” Weaver said. “There’s the practical, which is this is a work resource, a work tool, that we don’t have access to right now because it’s damaged, it’s hurt. But on the other hand, it’s a living being that matters to its handler and, in this case the handler’s wife, and all the other people who care about this dog.”

The department agreed to pay for Frank’s care up to the point of diagnosis, Weaver said. That’s already several thousand dollars.

“After that, though, it becomes more nuanced,” he said. “It becomes more arguably a shared responsibility.”

“I think the city has a responsibility to Frank as a good servant of the city,” he said. “We don’t just jettison our former employees, just as we wouldn’t jettison this dog. But on the other hand, we have to be financially prudent, and we can’t risk other programs.”

The result is the fundraising campaign Belliveau has launched using the online crowd-funding site GoFundMe.com, which generated several thousand dollars over the first five days and then surpassed the estimated amount needed Monday, thanks to additional news coverage.

Contributors include friends, local citizens and total strangers. One, a 12-year-old cousin of Belliveau’s wife, donated the $80 he earned for getting good grades. The largest donation was $2,500 from someone Belleveau does not know.

“It’s nice,” he said. “I’d say 75 percent of the names are names I don’t recognize.”

Frank, who was previously paired with a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy, was acquired by Sebastopol police in June 2013 for $3,000. He and Belliveau spent a week together to start bonding before attending a five-week course for retraining in protection and suspect apprehension and then went into service as partners on patrol. The plan was eventually to upgrade Frank’s training so he could be restored to dual duty as a basic patrol/drug detection dog, once department staffing was sufficient to lose Belliveau for five more weeks.

But just when Weaver and Belliveau started thinking the time might be soon, Frank developed a big lump in his neck, prompting an emergency veterinary visit. The doctor dispensed an antibiotic and said that if the lump did not diminish, Belliveau should bring the dog back, on the possibility it might be cancer.

A few days later, Frank became lethargic and began vomiting, prompting a three-day veterinary stay for testing and observation. The diagnosis came Tuesday night - stage 3 lymphoma.

Absent treatment, oncologist Kelly Carlsten of PetCare Veterinary Hospital in Santa Rosa said, Frank would probably die in a few weeks and be very sick until then. A second option would be injectable chemotherapy every three weeks, instead of a combination oral and injectable requiring once-a-week visits, though the lesser protocol would likely be less effective and shorter term.

“It’s really an aggressive disease,” Carlsten said.

But the decision to treat, given the high costs, is very personal and difficult, she said.

The good news, is most dogs tolerate the chemotherapy very well, Carlsten said.

Even by Monday, Frank seemed to be feeling better than a week earlier, Belliveau said. The dog seemed anxious about being left at home during his regular graveyard shift, jumping in the car, for instance, when Belliveau himself geared up.

“If I could just bring him to work, it would be better for him than staying at home,” he said.

More information about Frank is available at www.gofundme.com/k9frank.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at ?521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@MaryCallahanB.