#Wyostrong stories, brought to you by Wyoming Community Bank, highlight Wyoming perseverance, ingenuity, creativity, and resilience.
(Riverton, WY) – 11-year-old Trey Rinker had quite the surprise at Western Family Care on August 30th; instead of getting labs redone like he thought was happening, waiting for him was Waffle, his very own corgi puppy.
Last week, members of the Western Family Care team overheard his mom, Shawncy Rinker, share that his dream dog was a corgi after a staff member happened to have their new corgi puppy in the office the same day Trey was there to have some labs done.
“When he held the puppy he said, ‘I’m melting, if I ever had one of these I would name it Waffle!’” shared Erika Sanders, a medical assistant at Western Family Care.
Trey had worked hard this summer trying to raise money to get a corgi. His mom shared with County 10 that he would go to the parks and walk around selling popsicles and bags of chips from his wagon, but didn’t raise enough to get his dream dog.
Once they left the clinic, the staff decided they would try to raise the money to get him a corgi puppy and it just so happened that the breeder their coworker got her’s from had only one left.
A Facebook post with only a few details about why they were raising money was all it took for the community to jump in and help Trey’s dream come true.
“Within 45 minutes people from around the community Venmo me $1,375 saying things like ‘use the extra to get him a kennel,’” Erika explained. “We went to Murdoch’s and got ALL of the essentials and different people from the clinic donated food and other things and the rest we put toward a local vet for vaccines.”
His mom knew about their plan the entire time and as part of that plan, they had them come back in on Monday explaining that they had messed up his labs and needed to redo them.
Thinking the staff member’s puppy would be there again, he wasn’t as apprehensive as he usually is about getting blood drawn, Erika noted.
They had everything set up for him at the clinic and he walked right over to the puppy thinking it was the other puppy, she continued. Until they asked him what the name tag said – Waffle.
“That’s when he realized it was for him and he started crying and he was so incredibly grateful and excited!”
Shawncy shared with County 10 today, August 31st, that Trey is so happy with his puppy and is just glowing.
“We are grateful and overwhelmed by the love from the community and the clinic,” she said.
Trey wanted to share that he has nephrotic syndrome which causes issues with his kidneys and that he is incredibly happy and grateful for Waffle.
This really boosted his morale since he travels to doctors and receives medical treatment frequently, Shawncy noted.
“This gave him more of a purpose now that he has this puppy.”
When asked about the name, he explained that he was hungry at the time and the color looks a little like a waffle.
