New User?
It's Free and Easy!
|
|
|
WHO
Mark Fulmer a much respected self employeed dog trainer, breeder, and some of us think Whisperer!
WHAT HAPPENED
A spinal cord injury that caused an inability to walk, that was corrected by surgery, resulting in an extended disability and physical therapy recovery cycle which has left him unable to create an income for a period of months. He has 47 dogs and five horses to feed and care for with monthly expenses of $5K.
WHY
Why use Smartraise to generate Corporate funding for Mark? Because it does NOT cost you anything and you probably already shop at several of these sites such as Sears, Target, Borders, SmartBargain, Overstock.com, PetSmart, Dr. Fosters, Pet Meds, Orvis, Eddie Bauer, Armani, et al. These generous corporations will send a donation to the Sarah Setter Fund to help Mark during his recovery, and to care for his beautiful dogs as he regains his mobility and stamina. Mark is a wonderful person who has worked a lifetime to create these remarkable dogs. By shopping via the smartraise link, you can help a self employed person with no other resources to sustain his livelihood and dogs. Mark also wants to put his wheelchair experience to a positive use. He plans to train dogs to make hunting and wilderness experiences available to those who are wheelchair bound.
WHERE
Use the Smartraise link Sarahsetter Fund. Then scan the corporations and shop till you drop. With Christmas coming...please remember to use this link. Please share this with your family and friends. It is not often that we can so generously help another person, without anything more than going through this link.
WHEN
You can start today.
HOW
Go to smartraise.com Type in Sarahsetter Fund. You'll sign in by your email address and you own pin. Then scan all the many companies who are sponsoring this fund. Many of them will donate as much as 5% of your purchases.
Thank you for helping to sustain Mark Fulmer during his recovery. It is indeed difficult to be self employed in today's world. His State does not provide disability insurance, so his resources have been impacted by both Medical and Disability. Where you are willing, please forward this onto friends and family members who may be willing to support this effort.
Warmest Thanks
Suzy & Herman Karl, owners of two Sarahsetter English Setters
The article reprinted below gives a synopsis of the trials and tribulations of being a self employed public dog trainer. Mark is a gifted dog trainer with a bright future but he is experiencing a rough period financially do to this untimely injury. Mark, who always sees the best in life circumstances,
has decided to become the first professional to combine gundog training with service dog training to aid those who are confined to wheelchairs. As soon as Mark's personal financial obligations are met this effort will shift to set up a Foundation to assist hunters with the aquistion of off-road wheelchairs and functional service-hunting dogs. Mark realized the need for this effort after losing his mobility to work and then finding the freedom that electric wheelchairs offer to those unable to walk.
Area Dog Trainer Working Through Injury
9/9/2008
By BEN BAUGH
Staff writer for the Aiken Standard
A lifetime of experience and a passion for his profession has served as powerful motivator for Sarahsetter Kennels' Mark Fulmer.
The hunting dog trainer, who has made a career out of getting the best out of the dogs he's trained, has sustained a debilitating back injury that temporarily compromised his mobility and has left him unable to work.
It was while separating two dogs who became embroiled in an imbroglio that Fulmer sustained the injury when a marble size piece of a disc in his back was sheared off by his vertebrae.
The piece of the disc was described as migrating, meaning that it was free floating and put pressure on the nerves, causing severe and intense pain in his leg, he said. It was putting pressure on the L5 vertebrae.
He has been confined to his bed and restricted to moving only four times a day and for intervals of no more than 20 minutes at a time.
"The male dogs were excited about the females in season," said Fulmer. "They challenged each other, and neither one backed down."
He was aware he injured his back while attempting to separate the dogs, but he didn't feel the full effects of his injury until after the fight had ended.
Fulmer sustained the injury when he had both dogs by their flanks and threw them into the puppy yard over a four-foot high fence to preclude any further interaction with the remaining dogs in the field.
He got the dogs into a stock tank in the pasture, a move that put an end to the fight.
The dog trainer had just spent two and a half months recuperating from an arm injury.
"I was just getting up to full speed when this incident happened," said Fulmer. "I continued working after the back injury and made doctors' appointments because I needed to work. I rented an electric wheelchair. I trained out of the electric wheelchair for about two and a half weeks, and I worked with all the dogs that I could handle from the wheelchair, and I actually enjoyed doing that."
The prognosis for recovery is positive for Fulmer but he must still undergo four to six weeks of rehabilitation before he can return to work.
Fulmer underwent an MRI when it was determined from the images that he should undergo surgery immediately.
"He didn't give me any options, and he was a doctor known for not recommending surgeries," he said.
Fulmer had surgery on Aug. 29 and is expected to fully recover and should be able to return to work within two months, unless there are complications, he said.
He intends to start writing a book this week called "The Great Dogs of my First 50 Years."
A fund has been set up at First Citizens Bank and those wishing to make a donation will be accepted at any of the bank's branches. Any donations should be made to the Sarahsetter Fund.
|