Lady Gaga’s Dog Walker Asks for Help With GoFundMe During Sabbatical

Lady Gaga’s dog walker, Ryan Fischer, is taking a cross-country journey to heal from the gun wounds he sustained in February when two men kidnapped the pop star’s dogs while he was walking them. Fischer is already two months into his six-month journey but launched a GoFundMe campaign this week because his van broke down. He is trying to raise $40,000.

A few days before launching the campaign, Fischer’s 1991 Ford Falcon rental stopped working and he had to say goodbye. Although he now feels physically healthy, Fischer wrote that he needs to strengthen his emotional and mental health. This helped him “frame what I needed from the rest” of his journey, which he referred to as a sabbatical. He sought out “communities that support the process of growing from trauma,” including retreats, trauma programs, queer healers, creatives, and spiritual leaders. “And I can’t wait to honestly share in the process and heal with you all along for the ride through writings, discussions, and quirky videos (and maybe an interpretive dance or two),” he wrote.

Two months into the journey, Fischer says he is at an “impasse” because he is without a vehicle, apartment and money after running through his savings. He was surviving on donations from his family and friends. Now, he realized that he has to reach out to others for help.

“I have set up this GoFundMe page in supporting a van purchase, travel expenses and welcome all input on retreats for trauma throughout the country as well as queer spiritual leaders and healers, and how best to highlight and share with you along the way,” Fischer wrote. “I love you, and thank you for all the ways you have supported me throughout; I truly can’t wait to see how the next step of this journey unfolds for us all.”

Back on Feb. 24, Fischer was walking three of Lady Gaga’s dogs when two men jumped out of a car and attempted to steal the animals. One suspect carried a semiautomatic handgun and shot Fischer. He was hospitalized for over a month. He suffered significant damage to one of his lungs and needed part of it removed. “It became quite clear that my lung was not healing, and the bullet wound had scarred my tissue like a burn,” Fischer wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post. “It could take months, if ever, for the hole to seal. Lunches of grilled cheese and tomato soup and art walks blurred into one until the day came to remove portions of my lung.” During his time in the hospital, Fischer learned that “working through trauma is way more than dealing with one unfortunate moment in life,” he wrote.

Earlier this month, a source close to Fischer told Radar Online he drove across the country to return to his family in New York. Sources said Fischer is still on good terms with Gaga, but he just needed to leave Los Angeles. “He is still close with Gaga but needed to get away from the scene of the crime and recover with his friends around him back in his low-key life in his small town,” sources told Radar.

As for Gaga’s French bulldogs, the suspects stole Koji and Gustav, while Asia escaped and was found by police. Gaga, who was in Europe filming House of Gucci at the time, offered a $500,000 reward for Koji and Gustav’s return. A few days later, a woman found the two dogs and returned them.