For those of you who do not know Francis, he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder around 2 1/2 years of age. Autism comes with many struggles but also many triumphs. Francis is a loving, happy, sweet, amazing and perfect little boy. You can not help but smile when he enters the room.  As Francis gets older we face new challenges, such as safety, different behaviors and at times as a family we feel restricted on places he can safely go. We met a new doctor a few weeks ago who felt that Francis would benefit from a service dog and we could not agree more.  The goal of the service dog is to be a companion for Francis, to recognize certain behaviors and help Francis adjust, to help keep him safe and to help us as a family go new places and try new things.  We have heard wonderful things about 4Paws and are excited to start the journey of getting the perfect match for Francis. Thank you in advance for taking the time to hear our story and help us raise money for our future family member !

Training a service dog to meet our child’s requirements can be very costly. On average it costs between $40,000-60,000 to raise, train, and place a service dog at 4 Paws for Ability. While 4 Paws for Ability fundraises to help cover a significant portion of this cost, families are tasked with raising $20,000 of that amount or $23,000 if receiving a poodle, doodle or papillon. We hope that we can receive assistance from our beloved family and friends to help make our service dog dream a reality.