Counting Down & A Plea For Help

We have 131 days till we meet Thor's service dog!

That's 4 months, 1 week, and 3 days.

This trip won't be possible without the help, support and continued donations from all of you. We still have $8000 left to fundraise until we're able to book our flights, hotels, car, etc for the 2 weeks of training it requires for Thor and his pawtner to become a certified service dog team.

Ideally I would like to have the funds raised by June 1st so there is ample time to book everything (hotels book up quickly), and like I mentioned there is still $8000 left until we meet our goal. To meet our goal by June 1st (57 days from today) that breaks down to...

• $4000 per month; or
• $1000 per week; or
• $140 per day

Put in even easier terms? We need to find 800 people to donate just $10... surely there are 800 people that are able & willing to help a little boy get the independence he so desperately needs by donating as little as $10?

So I'm putting a call out to my blogging community...to all our friends on Facebook & Twitter...if you're not able to donate $10 to Thor's cause, please PLEASE share his story.

Thor is a loving child who wants nothing more than to be part of the world as best as he can. He becomes easily tired and overwhelmed if presented with too much unknown all at once. He is a creature of habit, with a strict adherence to the plan as it is laid in his mind. A buffer, in the form of someone familiar, helps to ease his fears. And this is where the service dog would begin to make the greatest impact: allowing him the security to transition between the familiar and that which is new, giving him the additional support to keep moving forward.

A well trained Autism Service Dog can make the difference between Thor becoming a fully functioning child, or one that must hide when something new is introduced into his life. This dog could be life saving. Did you hear about the 3 year old Autistic boy in Quebec last Spring? He was playing with his siblings in the yard and in a split second he was gone. They found him a month later on the bank of a river. Another young Autistic girl in the US wandered away and was found the next morning, she had drowned in a water-filled hole at a construction site. (these stories continue to happen, as "elopement" is so very common among Autistic children, and Thor is no exception) Had either of those children been lucky enough to have a service dog, their stories may have ended differently. I am terrified that Thor will end up being one of those stories, and I am determined to make sure that doesn't happen.

Please consider sharing Thor's story, and maybe even donating as little as $10 to help us reach or goal. We have 3,000 miles to travel and every dollar raised brings us a little closer.