I got my package from the service dog organization yesterday.
It has really brought home to me that this is ‘real’ – that Hudson and I really are going to train together this summer, and I will have this furry friend around to help me.
At the same time, it is bringing something else home – the price tag.
When I applied for the service dog, I really only thought about the price of the dog – 10% of your income or $1,000, whichever was higher. As I am a student, and have virtually no income, I will be paying $1,000.
There are so many things that thousand dollars doesn’t cover. There’s 3 weeks of training, where I’ll need a place to stay (I’m estimating at $2,500). $120 of mandatory fieldtrips. Feeding myself for 3 weeks while staying in a hotel. Hudson’s equipment, which will be customized to us. Bedding and toys and food and grooming supplies.
All told, I expect this to cost over $4,000.
The real kicker is this: because I will be in training for 3 weeks right in the middle of the summer, I cannot take a summer job. I will need a significant amount of time to recover after training, and besides that, Hudson and I will need to get used to working together.
Worse yet, this news comes just a few weeks after I had to pay $2,500 to have my car repaired. It was, unfortunately, a repair that could not wait as it would only get worse.
I am…doing the only thing I can do now. I’m asking for help. Please, if you can help…getting a service dog means the world to me.
Every little bit helps.
This is strictly curiosity, I hope you don’t mind — what sorts of things will Hudson do for you? I’m guessing he can pick things up for you — and that’s about where my brain stutters to a stop on the subject.
I don’t mind at all!
Hudson will help me balance, replacing one of my crutches. He’ll pick things up for me, retrieve things for me, open doors, push elevator buttons and handicapped access door buttons, help me to stand from either a chair or the floor, carry my bag, help bring in groceries, and he can drag around the laundry basket – if we had front-loading washers here, he could even do the laundry!
He’d also be with me 24/7 for the minor assistance things like getting me up off the ground that are actually enormously difficult for me, and which sometimes prevent me from doing all the exercises I should, because many of them I do on a mat on the ground. I’d be able to take a bath – I’ve been restricted to a shower unless I have someone here because I have such a terrible time getting up out of the bath.
He’ll also be company. One of the hard things about being as disabled as I am is that you spend a lot of time alone because you don’t have the energy to go out and do anything.
Thanks! Wow, the dogs do a lot more than I imagined they could.
Good luck!
(btw, I’m here by way of Naamah_darling.)
One thing my Service Dog can do, is a series of ‘compounded’ reactions to a health crisis:
She is trained to watch for a siezure or for me passing out. (she nudges me to see if I respond, and if not, becomes more insistant, to wake me)
If I do not respond to nudging/licking/pawing, then she brings the Cellphone to me. She attempts to give it to me, (and whacks me with it sometimes. heh heh!) to see if I will rouse, and call someone to come help.
If I do not take the cellphone, and reward her with petting and praise, she will run to a special big red button- it is attached to an automatic phone dialer. It dials 911 and plays a pre-recorded message requesting the EMT’s to come, because I have siezures and am prone to life-threatening dehydration collapses.
It’s awesome to think that this dog understands such complex things- but it’s a chain of training. Each one is a trick ‘extrapolated’ from the last.
Over time, she learned not only to RESPOND to a crisis, but to ANTICIPATE them. She often sniffs my hand, or catches my eyes and sniffs me… and then occasionally, she Alerts (a specific act of sitting and pawing/nosing insistantly in a specific way) on me. I know then, I WILL have a siezure or collapse, and to take my medicine NOW. As a result, I have not had a siezure in over a year. 🙂
It is no exaggeration to say she has given me back my LIFE. Service Dogs are amazing.
They really are just incredible! I don’t have seizures, but my service dog organization also does alert dogs, and I’ve been absolutely amazed by their ability to predict seizures. One of the women who has a dog from there has hospital-worthy seizures, and as she was in the emergency room for something else, her dog not only alerted a seizure on her, but on a complete stranger in the waiting room!
I think in terms of crisis, the biggest thing that Hudson will do for me is help me off the floor when I’ve collapsed. If I trip, or if one of my joints moves wrong, down I go. If I am not near something like my sofa that I can pull myself up off of, I’m in a bad spot – crawling with a dislocated kneecap is really more like wiggling across the floor because you can’t put any weight on that knee!
It’s so awesome to hear how your service dog has changed your life – I have high hopes for the way Hudson will change mine!
~Kali
I am one of the lucky people who have been that disabled (I was barely walking, and in a wheelchair some of the time) who actually improved. I can now get up on my own if I fell, or bend over with care to pick something up- but that was not the case when I got my first dog, Axel- if I dropped anything, I could do nothing about it. If I fell, I had to wait for someone to help. I TOTALLY get what that is like!! It just makes your whole world stop, because you cannot perform even normal everyday tasks safely.
My dog Big Bertha is a Rottweiler, and she has powerful front legs and chest- she pulled me in my wheelchair in a 5k run for charity, and she still helps me get up if I fall now, which makes it so much less embarassing. (I have bone-on bone joints in one knee and hip)
I know you will find that bond too. Dogs are amazing that way. I look forward to hearing more about how you do with Hudson (or any other dog, if for some reason that changes!)
Good luck, Kali. I hope you and Hudson get to stay together, and go far together.
Thank you.
Kali, I was linked here from… oh dear, I can’t remember now.
What hotel will you be staying at, do you know? I work in the hotel industry and may be able to help get you a lower rate, although the service dog organisation may already have a cheaper rate than I can look into.
I’m going to look at my finances tonight and see if we can slip you anything. You’re in the US, yes?
I don’t actually know yet. There’s a chance I may get a ‘host’ family, and stay in a home instead of a hotel – that would be low or no cost, which would chop my costs in half, but I have to plan on staying in a hotel to make sure I have the money.
I’ve misplaced the paper from my service dog organization that tells me what hotels are near their location. Just looking on the web, it looks like the closest hotels are Day’s Inn and Hilton Garden Inn.
As the service dog organization is small, I don’t know that they have negotiated rates (and it’s generally better that a hotel NOT know you have a service animal when you book – they do things like stick you in smoking rooms and demand pet deposits that are illegal discrimination)
Yes, I’m in the US.
Hmm. Sadly I don’t think my hotel chain is affiliated with them. 😦 But, I hope that there is a host family for you.
Good luck with this – I tossed a wee bit of cash your way (I asked if you were American because of the exchange rate).
Aha, I found that sheet!
I haven’t looked up the distances yet, but the paper they included lists:
Hilton Garden Inn
Hampton Inn
Holiday Inn Express
Super 8 Motel
Sleep Inn, Inn & Suites
Fairfield Inn
contributing! good luck!
Thank you! Every bit helps!
Hi, I’m just a random stranger, here by way of Naamah. I hope my bit helps a little. Good luck!
Thank you
Most of the donations I have recieved have come from strangers. Every dollar brings us closer to Hudson coming home!
Hey, we *were* strangers, now we’re your blog readers 😎
Haha, I like that!
Hi.
I don’t know who you applied to, but there are organizations that provide the trained dog free of charge and do the placement in your home instead of a hotel, so you can save money and not abandon your job. You may want to look further before settling.
Assistance Dogs International, our trade association, has many members that do not charge. My organization, Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota, (www.hsdm.org)is an example of a regional program that would make a dog much more affordable for you without so many sacrifices. There may be one near you or that seres your state. Good luck.
Al Peters
The organization I applied to is an ADI member.
I chose it in spite of the $1000 for the dog because the group that provides dogs free of charge has approximately a 3 year waitlist. With everyday things like pulling open doors and carrying my school bag doing irreparable harm to my joints, I am in a position where the extra time is a far greater sacrifice than a summer of not working and the cost of a dog. I am sacrificing my pride to ask for this help, yes, but I am slowing the “progress” towards being in an electric wheelchair.
I also like the group I’m working with because of its size – it’s a small program, graduating between 20 and 30 dogs and partners each year. They have ongoing training seminars every month, free of charge, and while you’re there they’ll do things like trim nails and have in a vet and a chiropracter to take care of your dog.
I do thank you for your comment and concern, though. Were I in a position to wait longer, I might have chosen another group.
~Kali
Hey there! I’m happy to chip in anything I can- I’ll be sure to donate to the cause!
I just wanted to offer my support in other ways, too. I have a Service Dog- she is my second, and I have learned so much over the years I have had them. I have pretty good Dog-Training skills (I trained before I was disabled) and can also help a bit there- there’s so many easy tricks to customizing all the things your dog can do for you! Even just help finding inexpensive equipment sometimes, I am willing to help.
When I got my first dog, Axel, I had a lot of trouble really seeing things from his point of view- I mean, here he was, a dog, in a human’s world, expected to interact with it! …so I started a blog, written from his point of view. It grew very quickly, and when he died, the grief was shared by many. They also helped support my getting my current Service Dog, Big Bertha. She has her own website too, for the same reason. She is so different from him, and yet she does so MUCH for me. It’s fun for others to read, but it also helps me to always keep in mind, she is a dog who is always coming up against new ad strange things, that I need to help her understand as much as I need her to interact ‘properly’ with them! I hope you feel welcome to drop by either her journal, or mine. Email if you wish, I’m always around.
Big Bertha: http://bboa.livejournal.com
My Journal: http://clayshaper.livejournal.com
Another stranger here by way of Naamah, I donated what I could, but it isn’t much 😦
I hope this works out for you!
Every dollar gets us closer! Thank you for your support.
I’m sending all good thoughts that this works out. Do you need to have the entire dollar amount right away, or do you have some time to gather it? (Here from badgerbag, btw.)
I have until May 10 to gather half the amount (which I have nearly reached), and then I’d like to have the entire amount by the end of May, but will have the donation button up until we ‘graduate’ in July.
I just tried to donate, but though the shopping cart *seems* to give the option to donate from Canada, in fact I can’t complete the transaction because it won’t let me enter “BC” as my “state” (province). If you get that fixed, let me know.
Hmm, I will contact paypal to ask them how to fix that. Thanks for the heads up!
here via pecunium.
sorry I can’t offer more, although I’ll try to come back when my financial situation is more stabilized.
Please, please don’t feel like you need to apologize! By giving ANY amount, you are still doing more than most people will, and you’re helping me get to Hudson and training.
Here via Pecunium on LJ. I wish you all luck and success with your new service dog.
Thank you!
Hmm,
I hope my €10,- will do any good:)
cheers,
David
Absolutely, it will.
€10 will pay for about 1/3 a bag of Hudson’s food, or about 2 weeks’ worth. Thank you!
Hey Kali,
If you run into trouble with more public sites doubting the veracity of your situation, please feel free to point them at my public blog:
http://rabbi.vox.com/library/post/my-friend-kali.html
I’m happy to vouch for you to anyone who is in doubt.
Thanks, Len. I really appreciate your help
[…] things celiac disease and gluten free related for one sitting, I invite you to check out my friend Kali’s site and her quest to raise enough money to bring her service dog home to her. Kali, a young lady with […]