Families are investing in pet healthcare with scholarships

“The price of a good gundog is a broken heart at the end.” - Rudyard Kipling

Our pets are indispensable members of our families. Though they do not speak our chosen language, they communicate with us far more clearly than do most others day to day. Their loyalty is absolute. Their love is free and overwhelming. They pack decades of joy and experience into their compressed lifespans and return unto us ten-fold all the love we may give. They are our friends, and the best of these. Yet, for all the joy, we know at the outset of each relationship how it must end. Still, even knowing that, we begin.

Ellie the Lab was the best friend anyone could have. She was as much a part of her people’s lives as any human might have been. When Austin and Megan Ashley and their daughter, all of Raleigh, Miss., had to say goodbye to Ellie, they were at a loss as to what to do next. Ellie had been too strong a force of nature to simply fade away. They found their answer at Mississippi State University.

One day not long ago, Ellie took sick and was diagnosed with an irreparable heart ailment that left her future most uncertain. On the short side, some estimates gave her only six weeks. With the extraordinary efforts of the Ashleys’ family vet, Dr. Jennifer White of Sumrall, Miss., Ellie and her people enjoyed one another’s company for almost another full year.

Dr. White had handled Ellie’s regular care since the Labrador retriever’s earliest days. In Ellie’s latter weeks, Dr. White went so far above and beyond, the Ashleys decided to honor her and remember Ellie by funding a scholarship with the vet school at MSU — Dr. White’s alma mater and the place where the friends of our best friends perfect their skill.

The Ashleys routinely did weekly meal prep for Ellie, organized medicine and planned treatments, and Dr. White helped throughout. “Having a vet who would come to your house to help keep everything on track, doing things she didn’t have to do, was just extraordinary,” Austin said. “You don’t get that often in today’s world.”

After Ellie was gone, Megan and Austin prayed about what to do next. They were led to create a scholarship to help students training to follow in the paths Dr. White and so many more have trod. They founded the Ellie Anne Ashley Scholarship for students pursuing degrees in veterinary medicine.

“What we’re giving is not a whole lot, but every bit helps,” Austin said. “As long as we’re doing that, Ellie’s legacy lives on, and Dr. White’s extraordinary contributions are recognized. We hope to grow the scholarship larger and larger over time. We’re glad we’re able to give, and that we have the Foundation to give through.”

Many others have taken such opportunities to help, including Cheyenne and Parker Prisock, of Starkville. The two high school sweethearts have been together for a decade and a half, and they enjoy their pets as members of their family.

Their dogs, Colt and Penny, are German short haired pointers. They’re as much a part of the Prisock family as anyone may be.

“We think it’s important to invest in the future generations of veterinary technicians to make sure our pets, along with those of everyone else, receive the best care they can,” Cheyenne Prisock said. “We believe the MSU program provides that opportunity, so why not invest in what we believe in?”

She and their friends, Mary Beth and Billy Baldwin, also of Starkville, are funding scholarships for students at the vet school through regular monthly payments that, Cheyenne says, don’t amount to a great sacrifice.

“When you divide it out week by week, it’s what I might well have spent on coffee,” Cheyenne said. “I’d much rather spend it on this, on something that can make a difference forever.”

The Cheyenne and Parker Prisock Vet Tech Scholarship, and the Mary Beth and Billy Baldwin Vet Tech Scholarship support students working to become veterinary technicians.

“We just want to help somebody because we’ve been touched by so many,” Mary Beth said. “We want to be able to support the people in the trenches doing the work that makes a difference.”