"Pet ownership is becoming more of a privilege instead of a right. And what we want to do with Bo's Fund is rebalance that."
– Dr. Brendon Laing, Co-Founder and Veterinarian
WHERE IT BEGAN
A dog, a debt, and a turning point
At 24, Emma had just moved into her first apartment, newly home from graduate school overseas, with no stability, no savings, and no regrets. Everyone told her not to do it. She got a dog anyway.
"Everyone told me I shouldn't do this. Everyone said that I was making the wrong decision, that I was broke, with no stability and no support to care for a dog. And that's actually all true... but I needed a dog," Emma reflects.
Almost immediately, Bo developed a chronic cough. What followed was several months of weekly vet visits during business hours – trips that meant taking time off work, incurring walk-in fees every time, no clear answers. No accessiblity. No path forward.
Bo was eventually diagnosed with lungworm, only after Emma maxed out her credit card with $10,000 in debt trying to get there. Bo survived. But the experience left a lasting impression on Emma, and determined to make sure other pet owners had more accessible path forward.
WHAT FOLLOWED
From patient to pioneer
Emma didn't just leave the experience heartbroken – she left it furious. Frustrated with inaccessible hours, impossibly high fees, and a profession full of people who genuinely care, trapped in a structure that makes it difficult to act.
That experience became the foundation of Novel, a clinic built around the idea that access to care is a right, not a privilege. Bo's Fund, internally called The Novel Fund at first, was one of the first things Emma and co-founder Dr. Brendon Laing built into the buisness. Not an afterthough, but a pillar.
When Bo passed away in February 2026, the team knew immediately what they wanted to do. The fund that had been quietly changing lives inside the clinic had a new name – and a new purpose.
CARING FOR THE CAREGIVERS
A profession built on compassion
Everyone who enters veterinary medicine does it because they care.
They enter a system that measures success in revenue. A system where the hardest moments happen silently and far too often. Compassion fatigue and burnout are epidemics in this profession.
Bo's Fund doesn't just help pet owners. It gives our teams back the thing they came here for: the ability to do good work, without being held back by what a family can afford.
