Kelowna residents are pulling together to ensure that a long-time member of the community doesn’t return to Australia without his beloved rescue dog.
After living in Canada for nine years, and four years undergoing the painstaking process of trying to gain a Canadian residency, Josh Waters was told on Sunday that his application for residency was denied.
That means he has 60 days to leave Canada without facing deportation, which is already a difficult pill to swallow for Waters.
Chloe Edgecombe explained that Waters, one of her best friends, has always known that Canada was the place he wanted to call home.
“In the nine years he has lived in this country he has created a life for himself no different than a Canadian citizen,” she said.
“He has made friends that have become family and has a career with a company that adores him. Canada is a better place with Josh in it.”
And as difficult as leaving is, it’s being made more difficult by the headaches surrounding getting his beloved rescue dog Rocky, an English staffy, back to Australia with him.
He adopted his now-best friend with hopes that his residency would be approved, but now he has 60 days to find transportation home for Rocky, which is no easy task.
Thanks to COVID-19, the only option is a safe pet transport company, which is not cheap by any means.
As a result, Edgecombe has created a GoFundMe for Waters that aims to raise $6,000, enough to safely get Rocky home to Australia so that the two can continue their life together.
“The news of his numbered days in Canada has come with many stresses but none quite like the stress of getting Rocky across the world safely so the two of them can stay together,” said Edgecombe.
“Josh deserves to call Canada home and until that happens he deserves to have Rocky with him through these uncertain times.”
In one day, the GoFundMe has raised nearly $1,000 towards its goal, with one donor saying “(Josh) is always there for everyone, and I wanted to be there for him.”
If you want to help Waters and Rocky get home to Australia together, you can donate to the GoFundMe by clicking this link.
If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.
If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.
