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Last year my husband developed a terrible disease.Dale became fearful of going anywhere alone or of being alone as some of his seizures(发作)were quite severe, even putting him in the hospital on three separate occasions.
We decided that a trained medical service dog would greatly help Dale.It would be a companion for Dale, and the dog would be trained to stay with him.If he had a seizure, with a service dog beside a downed person, others could see and will be more likely to help.
A local person sold us a black Labrador puppy at a reduced price.Nevaeh was eight weeks old when we got her.At that point, we turned to the local papers for help.We hoped that getting Dale’s story out would help raise funds to pay for the puppy’s training.Dale has been on disability, and his need to have someone with him at all times means I can not work either.We don’t have a lot of money left over at the end of the month.
Fundraising started off with the help of family donations, but we had a long way to go.Then one day there was a knock at the door.I went to answer it; a stranger stood there holding the newspaper article about Dale in her hand.She introduced herself as June and told me that her daughter’s dog had warned her to a cancer she never knew she had, probably saving her life.Now, she felt obliged to help our dog because a dog had helped her.She shocked us when she gave us $100!We never expected such caring and kindness from a complete stranger.
Dale had been feeling the world didn’t care, but this help renewed his faith.The next thing that happened was that Dale emailed local vets, asking for care for our puppy.We received a response from Dr.Noonan, who has since provided Nevaeh’s care for free.The staff and the vet are the most loving, caring people we have met.They even helped us find a local trainer who cut the training costs by more than half.If it weren’t for such amazing people, Dale probably would have become a total recluse, feeling he could never go anywhere alone.
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