An eight-year-old named Bryson Kliemann from Virginia, USA was worried about his dog. The puppy, Bruce, was lethargic and acting differently — not like a puppy at all. After taking the poor pup to the vet, he was diagnosed with parvo, a contagious virus mainly seen in canines. Parvo is extremely dangerous, and can lead to death, especially in younger dogs, so when the treatment costs came to $700, the family despaired.
"It made me kind of sad, because usually my brother and sister play together and I don't have anybody to play with," said Bryson to a local news station, Local12. "I usually play with Bruce."
Bryson took matters into his own hands, and made a roadside stall with a sign that read, "4 SALE Pokemon". As a massive fan of the series, Bryson owned a lot of Pokémon cards, and considering that there's currently a huge boom in prices, it wasn't a bad idea to try to sell them off to raise money.
But when Bryson's mother, Kimberly Woodruff, saw a photo of her son's attempt to help with the vet costs, she set up a GoFundMe called "Just a boy trying to save his dog" to raise the money without Bryson having to lose his precious collection. The initial goal was $800, but people were inspired by the story, and over 150 donors managed to raise $5,420. Woodruff says that the extra money will go towards medical expenses for other sick dogs in the area.
Not only did Bryson not have to sell his Pokémon cards, but he also received a bonus gift — The Pokémon Company heard about the story, and sent him a package containing rare Pokémon cards. But the biggest bonus of all is that Bruce was treated and sent back to his family, and he's now recovering.
"I'm happy he's home, and I'm proud of myself," said Bryson to one of his local news stations, KTIV.
[source local12.com, via ktiv.com, youtube.com, kotaku.com]
Comments 49
It's cool how the Pokemon Company did that.
Gotta love happy endings. This is heartwarming
Happy for all involved, he sounds like a good kid
People like him is going to make the world a better place.
Man that kid has a great heart.
My eyes are leaking...
A wholesome story involving rare Pokemon cards? It's been a while. Hat off to the kid.
A wonderful story with a wonderful ending
Kid saying “I don’t even like Pokémon cards, now I have loads of them”
I'm not crying, you are crying.
This was clearly another set up. So his mom didn't know he was selling his cards until she saw a picture? The smell of spray paint and splinters didn't set off an alarm?
This is so amazing. Not only did he get the best gift in his best friend back and well, he got to keep his cards AND got more from the Pokémon Company for being so desperate to help save his best friend.
And other Dogs can be saved too with the remainder of the donations. God bless those who donated to the Go Fund Me.
It would be a more interesting story if the boy sold all his cards and the dog still died.
This is a really nice story, but it is a bit strange that the mom didn't know what the kid was doing 'til she saw a picture. Maybe one of his siblings saw and took the picture, and the kid was trying to sell them sneakily to collect the money as a surprise? That does sound like something a kid would do, haha.
Oh well; all's well that ends well. I'm glad they were able to treat the dog!
Meanwhile, “grown adult” scalpers looking for rare cards, reading this heartwarming story::
“WRITE THAT DOWN, WRITE THAT DOWN!!”
@JHDK xD
@Linker2A03 LOL!
@Linker2A03 😅 sad but true
Nintendo fans save sick puppies. Sony and Xbox fans kick puppies for fun.
@TheWingedAvenger Gatekeeping is fun!
@TheWingedAvenger Can we just be peaceful?
Absolute gamer. What a legend
A true Nintendogs achievement!
NINJA APPROVED
@JHDK
Classic M. Night twist
@Thatsalie I think the situation was that she was at work, and someone sent her the photo!
These scalpers better be paying very close attention and taking notes.
In other news, this makes this Memorial day that much sweeter! Props to the kid for going that extra mile
@Low_ink @Tamale
Do you know what I think should happen to anyone who doesn't have a Nintendo Switch? I think they should be rounded up by Princess Zelda's Storm Troopers of Death, dragged out into the streets kicking and screaming, and flippantly thrown into military-style trucks as if they were sardines. They should then be whisked away to a secret re-education facility and forced to play and beat nothing but Mario and Zelda games in solitary confinement 18 hours a day for a full year. At the end of their re-education, they could be released only after solemnly swearing to accept Zelda and Mario as their monarchs and to play Nintendo games every day.
I know that might sound a bit harsh, but the only way to save these poor souls is to forcibly indoctrinate them. It's for their own good.
Not gonna lie, I saw the headline and was all ready to rant about how a child should never have to do this, the parents should be taking care of the dog's medical expenses.
But as it turned out, that more or less happened. Happy ending I suppose. But it does still kind of annoy me that it happened at all. Having pets is expensive. And if we aren't prepared for that, we shouldn't adopt the pet. That's exactly why I don't have a cat right now. I don't have that kind of disposable income for a constant expense like owning a pet.
Oof, I have a lot of mixed feelings about this...
On the pet care side of this I'm glad to see that the little pupper managed to survive parvo after noticing that his lack of energy. The disease's symptoms (lethargy, vomiting, loss of appetite, fever, and diarrhea) make going though it especially painful and, since it's one of those viral diseases you "cure" by alleviating the symptoms of infection and let the body's immune system fight off, it's no wonder why it's so deadly in younger dogs. It's also worth noting that parvo is INCREDIBLY contagious, dogs undergoing treatment are often quarantined because of it.
That said, I'm really surprised that the puppy got infected in the first place. Canine parvovirus is one the many viral diseases that puppies and dogs are often vaccinated against and not making sure your pets's shots are up-to-date is a recipe for disaster.
On the Pokemon TCG side of this I can definitely understand the reasoning behind selling his cards to pay the vet bills but unless he had some sleeved high-demand Ultra-Rares in that Snorlax binder I doubt he'd get anywhere near $800.
And I apologize for this but I find the whole "TPCi sent this kid RARE cards to replace the ones he may have sold" bit to be hilarious, the company can do stunts like this but they can't even release a press statement about Targets and Walmarts removing their products from store shelves because of a combination of stock issues and insane scalpers? And the products shown (six theme decks and a Battle Academy set) aren't exactly "rare" by gaming standards.
@Menardi Agreed, especially considering that TPCi has yet to acknowledge that big box stores like Target are no longer stocking Pokemon TCG cards due to rampant scalping and the horrors scalpers bring.
@ZebZed I'm not defending Pokemon at all - but I don't blame them for insane people starting fistfights over cards they want to scalp.
And I agree that theme decks and the academy set shouldn't be rare, but are because of the utter nonsense that scalpers have caused.
Pokemon could be doing a LOT more to fight this problem, but it's not a problem they created. It's scalping. And it's a problem affecting so many things right now. Card games, electronics, and collectibles of all sorts. Scalping needs to be regulated in some way, and that will require some legal changes.
@Heavyarms55 Technically the problem started due to COVID forcing printing plants to shut down for most of last year and THEN scalping reared it's ugly head after YouTubers started to make videos thanks to their nostalgia rushing into their brains. Also, it's worth noting that TPCi used its Play! Pokemon Twitter account to acknowledge (but never actually fix) the stock issues that Champion's Path and Shining Fates suffered so the blame is kind of justified.
“Pokémon cards are all the rage these days” while I have like 700 of the cards they have definitely lost a lot of their appeal to a lot of people. But what the Pokémon company did for that kid is great
@TheWingedAvenger As long as its for their own good, then I'm fine with it!
@TheWingedAvenger I'm assuming this is a joke but I what about people who don't have the money?
@ZebZed The COVID issues only affect the in-print stuff though. And even then, it's not like Pokemon can change that. It was human trash like Logan Paul on YouTube who turned Pokemon card collecting into a pseudo-stock market.
Again, I'm not saying Pokemon couldn't be doing more, but it's not their fault that we have this problem. We all know this scalping issue is affecting so many things right now. I don't claim to have all the answers. But the problem is the scalpers. At this point they're barely better than drug dealers, gambling addicts and cyber criminals. They stalk vendors, harass legitimate customers, lie, mislead, and cause problems for everyone. They organize gangs to swarm stores to get around product sale limits, they use computer AI bots to mass buy product online as soon as it becomes available. They set up PO boxes to get around product limits per households, they bribe retail workers to get around limits or to set aside products just for the scalpers.
At this point it's one step short of being organized crime - only it's mostly, technically, legal.
@ZebZed i think the main problem thats causing the fist fights over card in stores not just scalpers we should place blame on the idiots on youtube promoting that kind of bs opening packs just to find extremely rare cards to sell i think youtube needs to start banning those videos.
Great story. Thank you for this
@Heavyarms55 there are too many homeless dogs and cats to expect only the rich to own and care for our pet population . People who can afford to handle the basic needs of food, water, shelter, and love is better than letting them starve and die on the streets.
This is just plain heartwarming.
@JHDK Yes but that would be really sad and I don't want that dog to die.
You should be proud of youself kid...
You should be.
What a sweet kid with the right priorities.
@theberrage Or we as a society could do something to fix that problem, instead of just sort of hoping for the best from individuals.
@Tamale
People who don't have the money for a Nintendo Switch have nothing to fear. In fact, Princess Zelda is so magnanimous that She is willing to give anyone a Switch as long as they agree to enlist in Her legendary Stormtroopers of Death.
@Thatsalie @Thatsalie I would say that particular line is just the product of whoever wrote this story trying to make it sound cutesy and use the old "when I saw what happened I leapt into action" trope that you see so frequently in feel good articles. This actually happened in my town and so I got the chance to see it all unfold as his mom posted about it on Facebook. She was aware of her son's decision to try to raise the money and set up a stand as it was happening and never claimed she wasn't. In her initial post she explained everything with the dog and her son deciding to set up his little roadside stand and simply asked that anyone who might be interested in the cards consider stopping by or even simply send her son their well wishes and words of support and encouragement. Then people began offering to send money to her via facebook pay, and eventually someone suggested she set up a go fund me so she did. I believe they were able to meet their initial goal within like a day or less, and it was at around $1100 when I last saw it. I'm shocked to learn that they ended up raising an even more impressive $5000 + in the end and am so thankful to live in a community as caring and neighborly as this one.
There alot of people scamming money online thru medical stories.
Most are true and heartbreaking, but some are just grifters who exploit.
Either way, I'm glad the dog is OK and that the kid didn't sell his cards.
It takes a kids to show alot of people how pathetic we are about small things. Glad it worked out for him.
@TheWingedAvenger Oh so this is a joke.
A bit of faith has been restored today.
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