04/12/2022
*Posting with Admin Approval*
April is Autism Acceptance Month, and our family is exceptionally Neurodiverse. In our family of 7 we have 4 individuals with Autism, 5 with ADHD plus various other complexities. This can be overwhelming on even the best of days. After conferring with our family’s medical and psychological teams, we were recommended to get service animals; one that was large enough to physically assist, and one that was small enough to be a lap dog to even the children.
I spent months looking for programs that grant these animals to our family but was not successful. I was advised to reach out to insurance since our providers were the one suggesting it, only to be told it was an explicit exclusion from our policy. After researching and looking for months, we came to the conclusion we would need to take on this project ourselves. So our search began. We looked high and low for the perfect animals, months of visiting breeders and trying to find the right pups for us.
Recently we came across Dungan Family German Shepherds (A breeder in this group) and found our first pup. Her name is Reika (rye-ka), German for “power of the home”. She is a mellow little sweet girl that immediately clicked for our family. We also happened to find our small match just the next day with a small private breeder of toy poodles. We have an adorable little girl named Ember.
We spoke with many trainers in the area looking for one that could not only work with the pups from the start, but be a continued resource to our family and help with their service training as well as refer us out for specialized training. Friends of ours suggested Hilton Butler (another local business), a former Iraq veteran who served with his K-9, and we ultimately decided he was the best fit.
Unfortunately, this venture is an enormous investment. So, for April, Autism Acceptance Month, I created a shirt fundraiser that will directly benefit the training of our service animals, and you get a cool shirt to show your support for the Neurodivergent and Autism community. We have various sizes, colors, short and long sleeve… so much to choose! Please check out the link to see the pups and the kiddos they will be benefiting and even if you chose not to purchase, please consider sharing our cause 💙
https://www.bonfire.com/paus4acause/?fbclid=IwAR3i4IBBBXaWDCanPz9RFa4HrGkEKbccrPAwNlWSr_jRKZNGDrjVHCAxwOo
Help us fund service animal training for 2 pups benefiting the Oatis Children with Autism.. We are a family of seven . Three of our five children are on the Autism Spectrum...
