Dr Kelly Fleming

I have had 3 Standard Poodles from one organization that trained them for 21 years.

After a long interview process with them last summer, I returned home and opened my mail. I received a letter to say I was turned down for a successor service dog.

I appealed and I waited. Almost 4 months later, I received another letter. No, I would not be receiving a dog from them.

Oh, how much I cried over each letter. My service dogs have given me an independence I never thought possible. And in two letters, that independence was stripped away.

My heart was broken.

I searched everywhere for a different program, even to a different country with no success.

I tried to find another Standard Poodle through several organizations, but again, more heartbreak.

Then one evening, after praying for over a year, a Standard Poodle was available. I simply could not believe it.

It wasn’t a guarantee that he would be mine. The next day I received a message that he would be available in 2 days for me to bring him home.

My heartbreak and my anxiety melted away the moment Bobby entered my life.

It will be a lot of work to train him myself to be my successor Service Dog with the assistance of a trainer, but oh the joy he has given me in the short 2.5 weeks he has been with me.

Exhausting work but joy beyond what I ever could imagine.

I’ve learnt over the years that sadness, disappointment and pain are inevitable but life still moves forward with hope, prayer and perseverance.

The future is in God’s hands but He has brought Bobby into my life and for that I give thanks.

It will be costly, beyond what I can afford to train him, but God will provide the means to raise the money to train him and a trainer who will help me shape his future as a Service Dog and I believe we will be an awesome team. The independence Bobby will give me will be a hundredfold.

I’m not one to ask for financial assistance, I always find a way to get by. For Bobby to learn (and me to learn as well) to be A Service Dog, I have had to ask for financial assistance.

Bobby has a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs of his training that I cannot do on my own without severe financial debt. Money is tight for everyone in these trying times and uncertainty that we live in. Every dollar helps to bring him one step further on his journey to be a Service Dog.

If my readers can share his story, I would be so grateful. Service Dogs truly change the lives of disabled people. They provide us with an independence that many people can never imagine.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/98p6md-service-dog-in-training?lang=en_CA&utm_campaign=man_ss_icons&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&attribution_id=sl%3Ab74fb9c7-4389-4639-b08d-96ae68380743

❤️🙏🏼🤟🏼