Meet the soon to be new addition to the Cheerio family!!!

This is Daisy! I say soon to be addition because right now she is currently being trained in all areas of obedience right now, and as you can see from the pics they are also working on her losing some weight. lol Daisy is a very special furry friend because she is going to be Trix's service dog! We started thinking of this idea a couple months ago. Anyone who has read my blog for awhile knows that Trix suffers from seizures, and unusually long ones at that. He is also sometimes semi concscious during them as well. The biggest worry for hubs and I is that on several occasions we have found Trix in the middle of the night suffering seizures where he was not making much noise but he was choking. Neither hubs nor I have gotten much sleep over the last few months. So we started thinking about what we could do. I had thought of a dog but was not sure a dog would do anything, until I started asking around and found out they have such a thing as "seizure response" dogs. These are dogs that are trained to stay with the person having the seizure, they can bark to alert hubs and I or even press a button. Here I thought service dogs were just for seeing eye dogs etc. As I started to research the idea I found out they now have dogs that help autistic kids, people with cerebal palsy, people with diabetes (there has actually been dogs that are trained to go get them juice or medicine) etc. The more I researched the more I became convinced that this was a good decision for us. The trouble was finding one. I checked with service dog organizations but none of them were in my state, and several turned us down, the one that accepted us wanted us to fundraise an obscene amount of money. So I did what I am prone to do when frustrated, I prayed. Luckily I found a lady through another lady etc. and she said she could absolutely help us! Dawna is wonderful! We are so lucky to have met her. She told us that while she could train a dog for us that it is not a cure all and we cannot one hundred percent rely on the dog that it would be an extra security measure. She came out with some of her dogs and taught my son a few commands and let him practice with her dogs to see how he would do. Hubs and I sat in literal disbelief and awe, Trix was amazing with her dog, he took control, and he totally calmed down. Those of you who know Trix personally would understand what I mean about him being so active and flapping his hands (part of his sensory processing disorder) he stopped jumping, and flapping his hands etc. Trix has always been afraid of dogs, he was not afraid of Dawna's probably because they are gentle and so well trained. Dawna was so wonderful she even picked out our dog! This story could go on forever but suffice it to say, Dawna has Daisy right now, and is completely obedience training her for us. She says that Daisy was already partially trained and is the sweetest dog she has seen in a long time. She said she knows after meeting Trix and our family that Daisy is the best fit for us. :) Daisy will be primarily Trix's responsibility, although she will privately train all of us how to command her etc. Trix will have a new awesome responsibility but she says he will be fine. she also said it will help a lot with his sensory issues. Again Daisy is not a cure all but she is sure to be a wonderful addition to our family,and a true best friend for Trix. :)

Till next time!
The Cheerio Queen