Lady Gaga's dog walker, Ryan Fischer, who was shot while walking the pop icon’s dogs during a dognapping earlier this year, is requesting financial donations to help fund a 'healing' road trip.
On Monday Fischer set up a GoFundMe page explaining that he had decided to pack up his belongings and embark upon a journey in a van to strengthen his "emotional and mental health" however, after giving up his life in the Hollywood Hills, he now faces homelessness after his "quasi-reliable" 1991 Ford Falcon finally gave in.
"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," Fischer wrote. "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."
He explained that the donations would cover a new van purchase, as well as travel expenses to explore the U.S. while "seeking out communities that support the process of growing from trauma."
"For me, this includes retreat centers, trauma programs, queer healers, creatives and spiritual leaders," Fischer wrote.
Also on the GoFundMe page, Fischer revealed the range of emotions he had experienced in the last two months, since he set forth on his journey.
"At times I was scared. I was lonely. I felt abandoned and unsupported. I had long bouts of depression and doubt and self-pity," he recalled. "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 was walking three of Gaga's bulldogs in a residential area in Hollywood in February when a car pulled up alongside them and the suspects reportedly demanded he turn over the animals, police said in a statement. The dog walker was shot once by the assailants, who drove off with two of the dogs, Gustavo and Koji, but the third, Asia, escaped.
In an Instagram post, Fischer recalled how Asia stayed by his side as he lay on the sidewalk with blood pouring from his gunshot wound.
"My panicked screams calmed as I looked at her, even though it registered that the blood pooling around her tiny body was my own," he wrote. "I cradled Asia as best I could, thanked her for all the incredible adventures we’d been on together, apologized that I couldn’t defend her brothers, and then resolved that I would still try to save them … and myself."
In April, five suspects were arrested in connection with the dognapping.
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