A PTSD and Anxiety Service Dog for Ava

Hi All! As most of you know, Ava was affected by the 2021 Waukesha Christmas Parade Attack while dancing with her team in the parade. Since the day after the attack, she has been in therapy for PTSD, anxiety, and depression surrounding the event.

Ava has always been a fun, kind, determined little girl, but this event and the PTSD from it still has a huge impact of her everyday life. She has made significant efforts in therapy, but unfortunately, even combined with medication, the progress we had hoped to see is not being made. Most nights are filled with hours of back-to-back panic attacks, tears, missed homework or dance practice, and it is extremely difficult for us to watch her go through.

Until recently, we hadn’t been able to find a solution to help her through these episodes. One night, she requested her guinea pig (Piggy) to help her calm down. Within minutes, she was calm and this has been the case with almost all at-home episodes since. Unfortunately, Piggy cannot assist her when these occur outside of the home and our psychiatric team has prescribed a service dog.

While we know this will make a tremendous impact on her quality of life, it is a very large and sudden expense for our family to take on. Any and all support is greatly appreciated by our family. Thank you so much! ❤️