Rachel is our beautiful, sweet, determined 19 year old daughter. She enjoys spending time with her family, going to school, community outings and going for walks and car rides (especially to a restaurant!). Rachel was born with a brain malformation called Bilateral Perisylvian Polymicrogyria and a condition of Macrocephaly Capillary Malformation Syndrome. She has an intellectual disability, uncontrolled seizure disorder, nonverbal and motor skill challenges. She works extremely hard every day to perform her daily living skills. Over the years, her seizures have become more intense, more frequent and the effects have taken away skills she works so hard at each day. 

In 2015, we learned of an organization called 4 Paws for Ability, which is a non profit organization, that places service dogs with individuals who need them. We received Rachel’s life saving service dog, Abby in 2017. As a family, we went through extensive training on how Abby can help Rachel for seizure alerting. Rachel’s seizures typically occur at night time. Since receiving Abby, Rachel has been able to sleep in her own room. Rachel’s seizures typically require a rescue medication to stop. Sadly, without Abby, many of Rachel’s seizures would go undetected and the outcome would be devastating. 

Abby is now 10 years old. There will be a time in the near future when she will need to retire from her work. Brian and I could not imagine a night with Rachel in her own room without the security of a service dog to alert us to her seizures. We are now in the process of planning ahead for a new service dog. 

4 Paws for Ability will again be our go to organization given how successful we have been with Abby. The process can take 1-2 years for training and placement. They will also guide us in the transition of a new service dog as Abby goes into retirement.

We will be required to raise $13,000 to cover the cost of a new service dog for Rachel. This organization has been life saving for our family and worth every penny.

Thank you for your consideration in donating to our cause.

Sincerely, 

Brian, Shannon, Rachel, Reagan and Reid Shavor

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.