Ayla is just 5 years old. Ayla has been hospitalized many times with diabetic complications. Her mom had to quit her job as a nurse to take care of her. When Ayla was 4 her family went through Heaven Scent Paws to get a service dog. Their family diligently followed all of the HSP training protocols, but sadly Ayla's "Doctor Dog" was evaluated as a dog with no understanding of the diabetic low scent, and a temperament that should NEVER have been a service dog, much less a dog placed with a child.

 

Red Alert stepped in to help. Ayla soon received a new "Doctor Dog" named Hunter. Hunter alerted to the scent of hypoglycemia the first day they received him. A month later Hunter saved Ayla's life when he persistently alerted with his trained bark signal. The mom kept checking blood sugar, but everything seemed normal. At first the mom thought she had gotten another bad dog. It turns out that Hunter's persistence paid off. The mom decided to check for ketones. When the test strip turned purple, the mom raced Ayla to the hospital. Doctors said that Ayla would have died from the high ketones if they had waited even a couple more hours to get her to the hospital. The next time Hunter alerted and the blood sugar numbers were normal, the mom checked for ketones immediately. Hunter has saved Ayla's life several times, not to mention saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on hospital bills by warning of danger before hospitalization was necessary.

 

The bad news is that now Hunter is dying. He has recently been diagnosed with some type of intestinal cancer. The good news is that RADD has been busy this summer helping 6 year old Ayla get a very special dog named Princess Shasta. Thanks to a grant from Noble Oil we were able to purchase Princess, have Alert Service Dogs train her, and then my brother Jason spent a month this summer with Princess to see if she could alert to a real life diabetic lows. It was cool of Jason to take Princess with him even when she was wearing her pink collar.  Princess is Bichon Frise and Schnauzer, which is definitely a different type of service dog than most people are used to seeing. But she is one of the best service dogs around. At 5 months old she is already able to give her trained bark signal for a diabetic low. Princess is very happy medicine for Ayla, who has been hospitalized 5 times this year with diabetic complications, plus she has to have heart surgery to fix her aortic valve.

 

RADD gets a request for help every single day. We are so sorry that we don't have the resources to help everyone the way we have been able to help Ayla. Please consider donating so that together we can make a difference in the lives of people struggling with the complications of an auto-immune disease called type 1 diabetes.

Katie Jane has a very special dog named Dot. Dot was found at the animal shelter and alerts with 95% accuracy. Dot saves Katie Jane's life every day. Dot is one of those amazingly gifted dogs and her nose for smelling hypoglycemia is fantastic. The bad news is that Dot is in desperate need of a hip operation. We desperately need a vet willing to donate all or part of the operation. Please contact us if you have any ideas on how to help Katie Jane's service dog Dot.