Family Searching For Service Dog
We all know how much service dogs mean to the humans they assist. Just imagine if you had a service dog and he or she went missing. That’s what has happened to the family profiled in this Chicago Tribune article. Thanks to Casey, Rajah Q.’s human, for barking in about it!
Casey Riffe wrote:
I didn’t know if you had seen this story from the Chicago Tribune about a lost seziure alert yorkie, “Faithful” and the mighty reward for the little guy.
Family offers $10K reward for lost Yorkie
By Mary Ann Fergus and Charles SheehanChristine Sheetz has had epileptic seizures since she was a toddler. For much of her life, she lived in fear, not knowing when the next one might strike. Then five years ago, her mother gave her a Yorkshire terrier named Faithful.
Showing an uncanny ability to respond to seizures, the Yorkie changed Sheetz’s life. Moments after she was stricken, Faithful barked and jumped on her, summoning others, often helping her avoid a fall in her Johnsburg home.
The dog’s noisy response also alerted Sheetz’s mother, Connie, when her daughter had a nighttime seizure.
But on May 10, Faithful ran away after a run-in with an unleashed dog. In a last-ditch attempt to find its beloved dog, the McHenry County family is offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who leads them to Faithful.
“He couldn’t have meant more to me,” Christine Sheetz, 28, said Thursday. “I haven’t had children and I don’t think I will. He’s like the child I’ll never have and like my mom’s second child.”
Connie Sheetz bought Faithful from a McHenry breeder for $750 to provide companion for her daughter as she recuperated from brain surgery for epilepsy.
Faithful wasn’t trained to respond to seizures; it was just a happy accident. But experts say an increasing number of people with epilepsy, diabetes and cardiac conditions are seeking dogs to respond to a medical problem or even alert them before they’re stricken.
