People ALWAYS ask about our Paws 4 Autism dogs and their shoes.
Our service dogs wear shoes when there’s snow/ice on the ground to protect their feet from the ice melt/salt used to treat sidewalks and roads. They should also wear them when the ground is hot enough to burn their feet.
Bandit wears them EVERY TIME we go out, here’s why:
To keep us and him in practice. Dogs, like people, keep their skills sharp by using them frequently.
To protect their feet from things other than heat in the summer and salt in the winter. For example:
Sharp rocks
Glass shards
Chemicals that may be spilled on the ground in places like Home Depot, Lowes, or anywhere else.
Floors are slippery
Poodles have HAIR instead of fur, so it needs to be cut. Dogs have hair on their feet and between the pads of their feet. It grows just like the rest of the hair on their bodies. And it makes hard surface floors slick. It’s like trying to move around in socks – it’s slippery. The shoes give them traction.
Here’s how this played out in real life a couple days ago.
The other night we went out for dinner. After I was done eating, I took Bandit outside so he could sniff around – I found out it’s a calming thing for them and he’d had a long evening. I wanted to stay in front of the restaurant because that’s where the light was. As we walked down the sidewalk, I noticed things sparkling on the ground. Broken glass was everywhere. If Bandit hadn’t been in his shoes, he would have been stepping all over it.
As a special needs mom, when we go out, I’m ALWAYS going through all the possible scenarios of what could go wrong. Then I figure out how to handle it or figure out an “escape route” in case I can’t. Then I play through all the ways to notice if something’s going to go wrong so I can step in before it goes wrong. I do this for both of my little boys (it’s exhausting). I also look around for things that Bandit might encounter that could startle, upset him, or put him in danger.
I will never be able to see all of the possible pit falls, so I prepare the best I can. For my boys, that’s a bag that has different things in it that usually help if they’re getting overwhelmed. For Bandit, it’s things like shoes.
I can’t predict everything, but I can prepare for many things. I’m so glad we took that extra step getting Bandit ready. It saved us a lot of trouble, but more importantly, it saved him from getting hurt.
And because dog shoes are so important, we’re always on the look out for really good ones. Shoes that stay on. Shoes that fit well so they don’t leave hot spots on the pup’s feet. Shoes that hold up since we’re using them all the time. If you have a personal favorite, feel free to let me know in the comments. We’d love to check them out 🙂
To find out more about our dogs and our organization, you can visit us here: Paws 4 Autism
To find out more about JJ and Bandit and our fundraising efforts, you can visit us here: JJ and Bandit
In the last post, I mentioned the one fundraiser I was able to put together. It’s Christmas ornaments 🙂
I have 24 designs for you to choose from. Half are pet themed, the other half are snarky ’21 themed. They can be ordered in JJ’s Magic Store on his fundraising page here:
The last half of 2021 has been HARD you guys. We’ve lost four family members since the beginning of October. Six people total, if we include friends, since July.
I’ve had these great ideas for fundraising…most of the supplies are still sitting on the rocking chair ten feet from me. But here we are at Giving Tuesday and I haven’t been able to pull much of it together.
So, if you would consider us for a donation on Giving Tuesday (or any other time) we’d appreciate it.
Paws 4 Autism is a not for profit group that trains and places special dogs with special people. We rely completely on the fundraising efforts of our member families to continue providing dogs to families that make some of the biggest differences you may NEVER see.
For instance, you may not see my son have a panic attack when he’s in new and unfamiliar situations. You may not see another of my sons melt down in the hall at church.
What you’ll probably see is a bond between these pups and their people that looks sweet, but is just so much more than that.
We were lucky. Bandit and JJ matched while we were fostering Bandit during training. This allowed JJ to find his dog much sooner than we expected, but we haven’t met our fundraising goal yet. What that means, though, is that ALL of the money we raise, goes back into the program and is directly responsible for helping more families find that missing piece that makes all the difference in their quality of life.
All funds raised this holiday season will be matched (uptown $2,000 per family) by a generous donor. It’s an amazing opportunity to make any donations we receive go twice as far.
If you want to make a straight donation, that can be done on JJ’s page, here:
BUT, I will also have a holiday ornament fundraiser featuring pet themed sayings as well as snarky sayings for 2021, so please watch for that.
Thanks for stopping by, and please, feel free to share so we can try to get this opportunity in front of as many eyes as possible this holiday season ❤
My sweet sister-in-law lost her mother this week and I play with paper so I made a card for her. This is the first time in a LONG time that I’ve absolutely fallen in love with a card I’ve made. But let’s be honest, I just don’t have that many chances to sit and make a card anymore. At first, I wondered if I’d forgotten how, because it wasn’t working. I regrouped, tried something different and got this. I did really like the chance to make my son’s wedding invitations, but those weren’t “mine” as much as they were “theirs”. An awesome opportunity, but not in the same way.
So after this gushing, I hope you like it, too.
In a few days, I’ll be starting another, and it will be one of the most meaningful, but also the hardest that I think I’ve ever done. We lost my 25yo cousin this week and she earned her wings before she ever left this earth. I’m not sure how to pull this off, but I feel driven to do so. The world lost a light this week, but it seems a little bit of my cousin’s light was left with every person she ever met.
Anyway, here’s this one, and like I said, I’m so happy with how it turned out.
Besides being a mom to some awesome little kids, I’m a mom to some awesome big kids, too ❤️
One of those big kids is getting married next month. It’s a weird place to be. He’s my baby, but he’s not 😔
He was the first little one to call me mom. The first to hold my finger and smile up at me. The first to think I hung the moon.
I really like his soon to be wife. She just fits. So I was very honored to be able to make their invitations. It took some time, there were 150 of them, but every single one of them was made with love and wishes for an amazing future.
I was able to play with wax seals and had an absolute blast coming up with just the right color combinations for the wax.
This is the outside. The band holds everything together and simply slides off to open it.
Once opened, invitations, registry info, rsvp info, and map info can be found inside. And of course, a picture of the sweet couple.
I found the file in the Silhouette design store and cut out the envelope pieces and attached them.
Then I gathered the info, printed it, and cut it out. All of the cutting was done on my Silhouette Cameo. There’s NO way I would have been able to pull this off without that machine. It’s one of the best paper crafting tools I have 😀
Last night I had the opportunity to speak with someone about Bandit and all the good he does. We also talked about why he’s “dressed” in his vest and shoes, and why we have a good leash. Besides being really attached to these pups, service dogs are NOT cheap and we come to rely on them. We take MANY precautions to make sure they can do their jobs and not be injured or lost.
I looked at her and then at the new to me car we downsized to last week, and then back before saying, “This pup costs more than the car I drive.”
So why put in all the time and energy for fundraising? We’ve been trying to fundraise through out covid, when things are uncertain and topsy turvy. Why sit back and come up with ideas you *hope* will help bring some donations in? Honestly, it can be very overwhelming, and I’d really hoped to be much further along than this.
But then there’s a day like we had this week. And it reaffirms why, and it motivates me to try harder. Because Bandit reaches my son on a level I can only dream of.
JJ has started hyperventilating when he’s upset. And of course asking him to calm and breathe doesn’t work – it doesn’t work for most people I know.
But I asked him to come sit with me – which he did and that’s HUGE for him, he usually shuts down and shuts us out. We did some of the things we’ve found that *may* help him calm, but it’s very hard to focus and concentrate.
But Bandit, that boy was on it. He came to us (he wasn’t far) and INSISTED on attention, lol. At first JJ wasn’t touching him, but Bandit wasn’t deterred, he kept rubbing up against his boy.
I helped my son reach out and start petting Bandit, start running his hands through the hair on top of Bandit’s head. And when JJ put his hand on Bandit’s neck, Bandit moved so JJ’s hand ended up sliding down and back up Bandit’s back.
Very quickly, JJ was able to calm and start actively regulating himself. Then he pet his dog on his own. Once he calmed, we talked and ironed things out and he was no longer upset.
I don’t think I could have done this without Bandit. I’ve always been on the outside. And when JJ can’t regulate, we go for DAYS of him trying to get back on track. And it’s hard and exhausting for everyone.
THIS is why we do the hard things.
I’m so grateful for Bandit and for finding Paws 4 Autism ❤️
As always, here’s a link to JJ’s fundraising page. Because Paws 4 Autism is a not for profit organization, ALL of the money we raise goes directly back into the organization to help provide dogs for other children who need a buddy like Bandit.
Thanks for stopping by, and look for some fun fundraising ideas coming up 😀
One of my favorite things to do is play with paper. I like making it dimensional with color and design. I’m not skilled enough to design something that will be 3D once all the pieces are assembled, so luckily there are places like
SVG Cuts who has some amazing files to play with. I worked with this one, Flower Pail Box Card for this project. If you don’t already know, one of the great things about box cards, is that they fold flat-ish for mailing, then they can be popped open for display, like you see here 🙂 At the tallest point, this card is about 9 inches, and about 3 inches across when open. When folded flat, it’s about 4 inches across the bottom.
The leaves and flowers were cut out of white paper. Then I used markers and pencils to color them. Yes, I could have made this project easier and less time consuming by just cutting them out on colored card stock, but like I said, I like to add dimension through color 🙂
After I cut out and colored everything, I assembled it. I have a nice envelope and I’ll design an address “label”, print it, then cut it out so the card can be sent.
If you scroll through my last few years of blog posts, you’ll see they’re mostly dominated by topics like autism and service dogs; by foster care and adoption.
If you go back further, you’ll see paper projects, but it’s been a while.
But I got to play this week – yay!
I made a rose /vase box card. There are things I’m not happy with, but I’m rusty so we’re just going to go with it lol
I used this file from the Silhouette Design Store.
I cut out the pieces on my machine, and because I’m extra, I hand colored them with my markers and colored pencils.
The beginning of the flower buds
The finished flower buds
The leaves and stems still on the paper
I like to color things while they’re still on the cutting mat. I don’t have to be as precise, I don’t loose anything, and I have better control of the paper (small things are hard to hold).
The leaves off the cutting mat. You can see the difference between adding colors to the cardstock and leaving it as is.
The finished card.
I had fun playing with paper and colors again. I hope it happens again sooner rather than later, but there’s a lot of other things to focus on right now, so we’ll see ❤️
Because we have special and medical needs in my family – like, a LOT of them – we’ve been home the last 14 months. We’ve had lots of things delivered, done lots of carry out, shopped once a week and as quickly as possible. We’ve masked up every time we’ve gone out. We’ve sanitized after leaving places other than home. I carry three different sanitizing options on my purse and we have sanitizing wipes in the car. I say all this so you believe me when I say we were very cautious this last year.
But because of the limited time out, we haven’t had a lot of trips out of the home with Bandit. We’re now at a place that we feel like it’s time to start adding things back in, like therapies, more shopping trips, dinners out, and church. And I’ve noticed a few things that I probably would have noticed sooner, if not for covid. I wanted to share those things with you, to help you incase you have the pleasure of encountering a service dog when you’re out.
The rules, when it comes to service dogs and entering public spaces are pretty simple. Those at the location, may, if they feel the need to, ask only TWO questions; is that a service dog, and what task does the dog perform. That’s it. They’re NOT allowed to ask for a demonstration of the task, or about your medical needs.
Where it’s a little different, the airlines. They have slightly different rules that they just started implementing because the previous rules were being taken advantage of.
Exemptions: Churches are NOT required to follow ADA guidelines and rules. We have to rely on the people there to do the right thing and in Christian churches welcome and minister to the “least of these,” in the way that’s best for that person. Another exemption, people’s homes. They are allowed to deny entry to a service animal because it’s a private space. Other places might need some negotiation, like hospitals. I’ve had service dogs in the hospital with children and it was fine. But realistically, you wouldn’t expect the pup to be in an operating room with their person. Or expect hospital staff to care for a service dog if the owner is incapable. But, it’s very likely a family member can bring the dog to watch over his or her person.
2. The ADA does NOT require service dogs to be identified with vests or paperwork. In fact, the ADA does not even recognize certification papers you can buy online for a service animal – remember, people can only ask two questions, and asking for papers is not one of those questions.
I thought it was interesting that the pups are not required to wear vests marking them as a service animal. That vest is actually a courtesy to those around the dog, letting them know the dog is working. It also seems to really help Bandit know when he’s on and off duty.
And those papers you can buy…not necessary, but you’ve helped someone make some money. However, if you’ve got things going on that you need a service dog, you probably don’t want to spend money on something that not only isn’t necessary, but isn’t even valid and recognized by the ADA.
3. I’ve seen two sides of a coin. The coin itself is the, “that’s so cool! It’s amazing what animals can do,” coin.
I’m watching to see if there’s some kind of pattern, but sometimes, the “coin” is really cool, until it affects someone else. For example: A restaurant owner saying how cool service dogs are, but when it’s their restaurant the handler and dog want to dine in, its suddenly not so cool because they’re now facing something new. They might need to make different accommodations and do things a little differently. The really tired side of me, the mom trying to give my son some independence, really isn’t bothered that someone else might have to put in a little more effort or try something a little different, not when we’ve been doing this for YEARS for everyone else. And still doing it, even with a service dog, the pup just makes things easier. Also, this was a fictional example, not an actual experience, but we have experienced things like this. The other side of the coin, is the people who say how awesome it is, then welcome you in, regardless of the fact that the situation might need a little more work than typical. You can decide which reaction is heads and which is tails 🙂
4. We’ve been asked on more than one occasion if he actually needs the dog for xy or z, because some situations may require more out of the box thinking.
Here are some things to think about;
Service dogs are living, breathing pieces of medical equipment for someone dealing with physical or mental disabilities. In the context of medical equipment, would you ask someone in a wheelchair if they needed it because it was too inconvenient to make space for? Or should you ask someone, like my son, who needs medication to function well, if he needs to take it because you weren’t comfortable with it?
For JJ, Bandit stops panic attacks. Can stop elopement. Bandit helps him focus and be present so he can take in what’s going on, and follow directions better – which could easily be a safety issue. And asking the team to separate, could cause panic in my son AND his dog. Just like the wheel chair and the medicine in the examples above, Bandit helps my son have some independence he wouldn’t otherwise have. He helps JJ better enjoy his experiences and get something out of them because he’s not busy fighting anxiety, and believe me, EVERYTHING causes anxiety in this child. Bandit is the BEST thing for regulating JJ’s emotions so he’s not cycling through fight, flight, or freeze all the time.
Sometimes, new things make people uncomfortable – I completely understand, I live this – but when it comes down to it, medical devices, including service dogs, are there to balance a deficit somewhere and those situations aren’t about OUR comfort levels, they’re about making life better for someone else, specifically for someone who is struggling.
Flip side of this, service dog owners shouldn’t be jerks about it. This is something I need to watch for in myself because emotion has a way of taking over when I’m fighting for my children’s right to exist in a world that isn’t set up for them. But often times, misunderstandings can happen on both sides and a little bit of grace can go along way.
Hopefully this gives you something to think about, or helped you learn something new. Thanks for hanging in there with me 🙂
This post was a little heavy, so here’s some pictures 😀 Bandit and JJ ready for church this morning ❤
As always, here’s the Paws 4 Autism page if you’re interested in learning more about our organization.
And here’s JJ’s fundraising page. Most things in the store are currently available, like the mom hats, and we’re planning more things.
Quick post. I can’t make a Mother’s Ring, but I can make a Mother’s Cap commemorating the birth of my children 😀
I’m doing these as a Fundraiser for Paws 4 Autism and JJ and Bandit 😀
If you’re interested in purchasing one (or some) for yourself, or as gifts, the cost is $23, all of which will be going to Paws, because I’m matching the supplies cost, so together, we’re nearly doubling the fundraising impact.
You also have your choice of cap color and style. You’re not locked into this color or style of hat 🙂
ajdurrant 