Celebrity News August 17, 2021
Lady Gaga’s Dog Walker Ryan Fischer Launches GoFundMe After Being Shot in Dognapping
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Ryan Fischer was gunned down while walking Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs, and he’s still healing from the trauma.
The dogwalker has been on a cross-country trip as he recovers from the events of that night, but he needs some financial help to keep going.
Ryan just launched a GoFundMe page in hopes of raising $40,000 to pay for a van and travel expenses.
He wrote, “A few days ago, I said goodbye to Trudy, a quasi-reliable 1991 Ford Falcon rental that drove like a boat in high wind. With just me, Trudy, 3 stuffed animals that resemble dogs I care for very much, and WAY too many personal items, across the US we teetered along for two months. At times I was scared. I was lonely. I felt abandoned and unsupported. I had long bouts of depression and doubt and self-pity. But those backroads that took me to desert campsites and Walmart parking lots and rest stops and friends and family to New York and back began to help me see why I had chosen to leave the security of the Hollywood Hills where I fought for my life and mobility.”
Fischer continued, “All that time spent reclaiming my body, I now needed to be equally devoted to strengthening my emotional and mental health.”
Ryan wants to seek out “retreat centers, trauma programs, queer healers, creatives and spiritual leaders,” but he needs money to make it happen.
He explained, “So here I am, two months down on a 6 month journey. And, on this Feast of Saint Rocque, I have a clear purpose but am at an obvious impasse. With no vehicle, apartment, and having run out of savings and surviving on donations from generous loved ones, I am humbly asking for your help. This is not an easy thing to ask, but I have started to realize sharing your vulnerability with others is exactly when radical change begins to occur for everyone involved.”
Check out this video to see videos and photos from Ryan's journey so far.
Fischer was out with Gaga’s pups Gustavo, Koji and Miss Asia just before 10 p.m. in the Hollywood area on February 24 when a white car pulled up. An assailant stole two of the pups, Gustavo and Koji, and shot Fischer.
In March, Ryan revealed he has been in and out of the hospital and detailed some of his injuries, including surgery to “remove portions of my lung” and nerve damage in his shoulder and tricep.
As he was being discharged again, he wrote on Instagram, “Now that I’m finding my way in the outside world where triggers are real and working through trauma is WAY more than dealing with one unfortunate moment in life, I look back at my exit from the hospital and smile that I continue to approach each day the same way. The journey is hard, it’s assuredly painful, and questionable choices that no longer serve me like wearing skinny jeans are made. But I try. And somewhere within that I find the absurdity and wonder and beauty this life offers us all.”
