For the past couple of weeks now, I have wanted to shout off the rooftops of any and every building that I could possibly get to about how excited I am about what I'm about to write about! As some of you know, but most of you don't, it has only been just recently that I have seen this 10 year plus goal almost become a reality! I'm so overwhelmed with emotions at this point that I'm not even sure what I'm feeling!
See, for 10 plus years now I have been trying to get a service dog. Growing up in the small community that I'm from in South Dakota, there were no service dog agencies. I started searching for a way to obtain a service dog when I was about 10 years old. I contacted agencies from as far away as Ohio to St. Louis. Each and every one of them told me that I was "too disabled to handle a dog". Not only that but the fees that they were charging in order for the client to get their dog were astronomical, and they didn't even include travel expenses, or anything else that I would need during my stay of a minimum of two weeks while I trained with the dog. Then in 2001, I found an agency here in Minnesota by the name of Helping Paws. Finally, an agency within driving distance that wasn't gonna charge me an arm, a leg, and a left foot to get a dog. Yes, exactly what I needed...or so I was sadly led to believe...
Once I found them, I immediately wrote them a letter explaining my situation, and did my best not to beg for their help because begging never looks good! 
They took forever, and yes, I do mean forever to get back to me. When they finally did, what they told me was even more heartbreaking than if they hadn't responded at all. They told me that they couldn't, and wouldn't help me because I wasn't a Minnesota resident at that time. Okay, fine, whatever! If they were gonna be that silly about it, it wasn't meant to be! I would keep looking.
So I did, but to avail. Then in 2004, I moved up here, and six months later, became a resident. Shortly after that, I wrote Helping Paws another letter explaining that I was now a resident, and I was ready to GET THIS PARTY STARTED! This time they took even longer to get back to me. Still having heard or seen nothing from them at the six month mark, I began to lose the hope that I had sustained for many years of ever seeing this dream become a reality! It was at this point that I decided to completely put on the back burner the idea of ever having a service dog. Everything that went with the dream of having a dog, including the heartbreak was just beginning to take its toll on a lot of levels, and I wasn't prepared to deal with it any longer. Essentially I was taking a hiatus from my service dog journey.
During this hiatus, my mom, who was still living in South Dakota at the time, called me and said, "I was talking to the lady who deals with my insurance today, and somehow we got on the subject of you really really wanting a service dog, but not having much luck with the agencies you've been working with. She then went on to tell me that her husband trains search and rescue dogs, and also does the occasional service dog. I gave her your number so that he could get in contact with you. I'm thinking that he will be contacting you very soon." As I ended that conversation, I was thinking to myself: sure, I'll believe that when I see it! I think I probably have a better chance at walking than I do of actually getting a service dog. Needless to say, I wasn't getting my hopes up until I saw it with my own two eyes, which to my surprise was only a couple of weeks later.
When he called, we ended up talking for several hours about the type of dog that I wanted, and what I wanted the to be able to do for me because that does make a difference when you're selecting a dog. I told him that I had my heart set on having a Yellow Labrador. He said he didn't have any available right at that exact moment, but that he would contact some of the breeders that he knew, and let me know when he had found a dog that he thought had good potential.
Approximately 3 weeks later, he called me and told me that he had found a Yellow Labrador retriever just outside of where he lived on his way home from our initial meeting. He also told me that the reason it had taken him so long to get back to me was because he wanted to make sure that the breeder was reputable, and someone he could trust. Looking back, that statement in itself is a little ironic, but that's another part of the story for later on in this blog. Anyway, the reason he was calling on that particular day was to ask me if I wanted him to go pick her up. After discussing it a little bit further, I told them that that was indeed what I wanted him to do, and he said he would. He assured me that he would call me within a couple of days to let me know how things are going, and how she was doing. As you continue to read, keep in mind that what happened in this paragraph took place on August 30th, 2005.
A couple days went by, and although he didn't call me, he did something better. He sent me an e-mail containing some pictures of her, and told me that he had been calling her Sophie, but felt it best that I named her myself since she was going to be my dog. I liked that idea, and I decided to name her Lola Rose.
Over the next year, things went extremely well! Her training was progressing nicely, and I was involved every step of the way. The week prior to Labor Day weekend of 2006, he wrote me an e-mail and told me that he would like to bring her up over Labor Day weekend so that we could start our team training together. When he didn't show that weekend, looking back I should have known that things were only going to go downhill from there. At that time, however, I was choosing to be completely naïve to what was going on right in front of me because I didn't want to believe that it was happening again. After the no-show on Labor Day weekend, I wrote him at least a dozen e-mails to try to find out how she was doing, and where her progress was. A great share of those e-mails went unanswered, and when he did he take some precious time to answer them, his replies were always short and snippy. For instance, "Danielle, Lola is doing just fine. I understand that you're getting excited and anxious, but these things take time, and you NEED to understand that!"
My last e-mail to him was in October of 2006. To this day, that e-mail has not been replied to in any way shape or form. However, on a much more positive note, I am working with another agency, and once again things are progressing very nicely with Fergie and I! That I do want to shout off every rooftop that I possibly can! At this point we've only met a couple of times, but something about this entire situation just feels right! I'll write more as things progress!