Variety, The Children's Charity of Texas

Last spring we were inpatient at Baylor Dallas for 34 days.  During this time Grace was first assigned a facilities dog - a therapy dog that is a resident of the hospital. The dog she was assigned was named Lily. We got to see first hand how she responded with a therapeutic dog. I was a skeptic when the team first suggested it but I left a believer. Here is a picture since it is #TBT

 

 

Grace looks like such a baby in these pictures! Anyway, when it came time to talk discharge planning one of the things her team addressed was how well she did with Lily when it came to controlling her anxiety. Lily was trained to do stress and anxiety response as a therapy dog. We knew this was something we wanted to pursue for her to have at home. We talked to the Baylor staff and began pricing trained animals. We found the price range to be between $18,000-$30,000. We did not have  that kind of money and insurance did not cover a service animal.  The social worker at Baylor encouraged me to write grants for a dog.  She suggested a few sites and that is what we did. Our biggest funding partner was Variety, The Children's Charity of Texas. This amazing foundation helped make Gator a reality.  They rely on generous donations from people across Texas.  On Tuesday we had a chance to represent Variety at the Dallas Stars Game where they got a donation from the Stars Foundation. We are so thankful for people and organizations that support Variety and make dreams like Gator come true.