Many of you know that five years ago we started the process to receive a service dog for Logan. We decided to go with a local organization based in the kitchener/waterloo region. National Service Dogs has gone over and above any of our expectations.
In January of 2007, we recieved a call from Chris Fowler, informing us that our name had come to the top of the waiting list and that in March, we would be invited to team training and receive our dog, a beautiful chocolate lab named Milo. A dog that we fell instantly in love with.
Over the course of the next year and a half we would grow and bond with our dog and our new family, that is NSD. Our experiences weren’t exactly what we had hoped for, but NSD stepped up to the plate and helped us through our difficulties and ultimately made the decision to release milo from the program. So once again we were placed on a waiting list for a dog. I just want to say that ours is an exception to the rule, rather than the norm. In October of this year NSD became only the 2nd Service Dog organization in Canada to become accredited through Assistance Dogs International. They are highly reputuable and I would absolutely do it over again, even with our disappointing outcome.
This morning I received an update from Chris Fowler, co-founder of NSD, here is an excerpt from his letter:
In 2006 NSD received an annuity from the Banyan Tree Foundation in the amount of $190 000.00 every year for 25 years. It was because of this annuity that NSD was able to jump ahead and begin the process of reaching our goal of placing 40 new Service Dogs per year much quicker then we had hoped for. This would have meant that we may have been able to cut our waiting list from 3 to 3.5 years down to 1.5 to 2 years. Our program actually started with a waiting list in 1996 and we have not been able to “catch up” to date. NSD received our first 2 payments in 2006 and 2007 towards this annuity without a problem. In 2008 however, we were informed that Revenue Canada has revoked the charitable status of the Banyan Tree Foundation and we would not receive any further funding from this source. Keeping in mind that to place a Service Dog is about a 2.5 year process, we had started planning on minimizing the waiting list when we received our first payment of $190 000.00 and increased the number of staff, breeding dogs and puppies in our programs.
At the beginning of November we started to feel the financial hardship and we were forced to lay off 7 staff members of NSD, this was an extremely difficult decision. From 1996, NSD has always been like a second family to Heather and I and to all of our staff. I am sure that you have heard us during your team training “welcome to the NSD family”. The loss of this annuity will set NSD back at least three years and possibly longer. All of the staff at NSD are so passionate about the jobs that they are doing and are with NSD because of the reward and NOT the paycheck that they receive.
As you can see, this is a difficult time for them. I wanted to take the opportunity to ask you to pray for the NSD organization, for Heather and Chris. I also want to ask you to make a donation to their organization now. Without them, many families would be in a difficult position. Having a service dog provides a child with autism a sense of independence and belonging, it provides comfort and ultimately it provides safety.
Here are a couple of examples of how having a service dog helped our family.
During one of our walks with Logan in town, Logan decided that he was going to dart out into the road. Thankfully at that point we had Logan and Milo tethered together. Without Milo, Logan probably would’ve been hit by a car as we were walking down the main street which is a highway.
Abby had to get some blood work done, and after one brutal experience she was terrified to even go into the hospital. But we had milo with us, and she cuddled up to Milo lying there on the floor and suddenly what could’ve been a very difficult and challenging situation, Abby was able to connect with Milo and feel comforted by his presence.
I do hope that you would consider partnering with NSD to provide families like ours the opportunity to have a service dog in their lives, changing the life of a child with autism forever.
