Service dog message board

Katie's family recently set up Autism Service Dog Central Canada, a message board for people who want to share information about getting a service dog.

Thinking about getting a service dog? This message board is for you!

Autism Service Dog Costs $18,000 – Please Help Family Raise Funds

Katie is a happy, loving 7 year old. She was born with Tetrasomy 18p which among other things, results in a developmental delay and autistic tendencies, such as a pervasive, potentially dangerous trust of strangers, a lack of social boundaries, and extreme sociability.

Autism Service Dogs are specially trained to provide companionship, safety and independence for people like Katie. They can guide her, stop her from running into traffic and ensure she doesn’t leave the house without an adult. Most importantly a dog like this can also notify Katie’s parents when Katie wakes during the night. Currently, Katie awakens sometimes two to three times a night, five nights a week on average.

Katie’s mom says, "It has been seven years since I slept well. I sleep with one ear open. It has been trying."

Katie gets sick often and when she does she sometimes ends up in hospital, which consumes much of her mom’s time. In spite of that, Katie’s mom Lorrine, still manages to volunteer at her son’s school as well as with a disabled woman in their community. Katie’s dad, Gord, is an avionics technician with DeHavilland. Katie’s little brother Alex, is a fun-loving grade one student at Valleyfield, an inner city school in Toronto's west end.

Lorrine also founded and runs the website http://www.tetrasomy18p.ca which is a free resource (including interactive message boards) for individuals and families affected by any disability including but not limited to Chromosome 18 abnormalities to meet and share information.

How you can help

Thank you for your interest in helping Katie get an autism service dog. There are many ways you can help: If you know of an organization that may be interested in sponsoring some or all of Katie's dog, please contact the family at: katieservicedog [at] yahoo [dot] ca Spread the word. Share this cause on your blog, through Facebook / MySpace or send links to this site by e-mail*. Talk about it with family, freinds or with whomever you think would like to participate or donate. The more people who know, the more people there are to help. (If 18,000 people, each gave one dollar, we'd be done!) Send comments, suggestions and feedback to Katie's family at: katieservicedog [at] yahoo [dot] ca Donations from individuals are always welcome! Here are some ways to donate money.

Add this button (140x140px) to your blog by copying and pasting the code below: <a href="http://dogforkatie.blogspot.com/" title="ASD for Katie P"><img src="http://www.tetrasomy18p.ca/KatieP_ASD_140x140.gif" style="width: 140px;" border="0" alt="ASD for Katie P" /></a> Add this button (140x80px) to your blog by copying and pasting the code below: <a href="http://dogforkatie.blogspot.com/" title="ASD for Katie P"><img src="http://www.tetrasomy18p.ca/KatieP_ASD_140x80.gif" style="width: 140px;" height="80px" width="140px" border="0" alt="ASD for Katie P" /></a>

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* Please DO NOT cut and paste text from this site and e-mail it to all of your friends. It is not our intention to be a source of e-mail spam. We do not want to have the e-mail message show up in our inbox five years from now! Practice responsible internet fundraising! Linking directly to this site makes sure that interested people always have the most recent information.

How to donate

Donations can be made directly to the bank to the "Service Dog for Katie" account at:

TD Canada Trust
Branch # 0193
Bank #004
Account#01935215671

And the Swift code for bank wires: TDOMCATTTOR

Donations can also be made via PayPal

Or contact Katie’s family directly and they will send you their paper mail address:

katieservicedog [at] yahoo [dot] ca

For direct donations to the service dog trainer please see his web site at http://autismdogservices.ca or his mailing address below and send payments* to:

Autism Dog Services
139 Hewat Street
Cambridge, Ontario
N3H 4H2

*with a note saying the donation is for Katie P's service dog.