Our stories

They say expecting parents go through a “nesting process” before baby arrives. Well, no human babies here but before I brought my sweet little Puppy-in-Training Arrow home in September 2015, I nested for what would become the most heartful endeavour I’d ever embarked upon in my 30 years of life so far.

Barley gave me freedom. To go for a walk by myself, to go shopping, to travel, to continue working when part of my job was going from building to building across campus. I was never alone because I had Barley with me. No longer did people stare at me because I was in a wheelchair. They stared at Barley and his amazing ability to pull. No longer the lady in the wheelchair going slow, I was the lady with the dog everyone loved and he brought a smile to their faces.

I could write a book about Caber. The book would begin with an idea. The idea that a dog could help victims of crime in ways that humans could not. Like some ideas that seem to fizzle, this idea stayed front and centre in my mind until I did something about it.

One day, on the way to cuddling, I stopped at the hospital to visit my beloved uncle. While I was there, the Doctor advised my uncle that his cancer was terminal. After crying my heart out I continued to puppy cuddle. When I stepped into little Quaker’s kennel he sat there staring intently into my face, then when I sat down with him he licked a tear off my face then pressed hard against my body as he slid into my lap. He continued looking into my eyes and I believe he could feel my pain and was saying “I’m here for you”.

Kane has not only assisted countless victims of crime and tragedy in our community for the Moose Jaw Police Service and the Moose Jaw RCMP, but he has provided an extra something special for our police service without any judgement or hesitation.

For me, it was a chance to meet someone who was volunteering their time raising a puppy, knowing they would be giving it up to help someone.

At first, I thought I wanted to be an Education Assistant, because of how much I love being in the schools (Silky loves all the attention she gets from the kids, too!) After spending two years back at school myself, as a student, I realized how much more I can do to help other people in wheelchairs now that I have Silky by my side.

In my previous life as a physiotherapist, my patients used to tell me that when you sit in a wheelchair people don’t talk to you. I didn’t really believe it until the first time I was out in public in a chair.

Vespa was a hard worker, and yet so easy going. She enjoyed a night out on the town or an evening in to nap when I wasn’t feeling well. She was quite happy to accompany wherever I went and we were never at any loss for people to talk to. People loved to approach us and ask questions or chat and I certainly didn’t mind chatting with strangers. She was a great conversation starter.

Murphy was serious about her alert work. She loved those treats, which meant never having to miss a knock at the door, phone call, any alarm, or the minute my morning coffee finished percolating.

I received PADS Accredited Facility Dog Milan in July of 2016. The work that she does with my clients and the enormous impact that she has had on my workplace goes with out saying. She is exactly as advertised.

Marshall alerted me to all the sounds in my environment that I cannot hear – the smoke detector, timer, telephone, alarm clock and people knocking at the door. With his help I was connected to the world of sound around me. He took his job very seriously and I learned to trust him completely, he was never wrong. He worked 24/7. He gave me confidence. He could, by virtue of his smoke detector alerts, even safe my life.