Help Lane and Stitch Become the Perfect Team

Let me start off by saying, this isn’t your typical sad story fundraiser. Lane has a wonderful life, Lane and Stitch both have a wonderful family who loves them so much. This is something that’s going to make Lane everyday life easier living with cerebral palsy, and your donations are going to be helping Lane continue to live his best life! If we could give Lane the world we would, but giving him this would be a huge step for us. I wish we did have the extra funds to do this, unfortunately having a handicap son makes it pretty impossible to work, on top of having a handicap son making insurance, deductibles, etc so much extra because we need a lot of therapy, appointments, and supplies for him. So thank you all in advance, you are truly helping lane in life!

Meet Lane and Stitch (aka Stitchy boy)

A little about Lane

Lane is an almost 4-year-old sweet little man. Lane has cerebral palsy. Lane had a major surgery (SDR) at 2 to help with his mobility. Although this surgery has been absolutely amazing for Lane, he still really struggles with balance issues, and we expect this to be a lifelong issue for him. We have only ever wanted things to be easier for him. Lane has worked so hard to get to where he is now, and we know he will continue to do amazing things.

Now meet Stitch

Stitch, our newest sweet family dog, is a full-blooded yellow lab and is 3 months old. Stitch got his name because he had a little accident when he was just 5 days old and needed 3 stitches. Stitch is your fun, typical puppy. He is healthy, he is fun, he is sweet, and he will be a very big boy!

Now here is why Stitch and Lane will be perfect for each other. Lane, unfortunately, will always have balance issues with his cerebral palsy. We have been doing research for months and months on getting Lane a mobility service dog. This is where Stitch comes in. Stitch is already so loved in our family and our community as he has become our little tag along to get him familiar with all types of people. We want to get Stitch into service dog training. As excited as I was about this, I was not expecting the cost to be so astronomical, making it feel like this opportunity for Lane will be out of reach. We are trying to raise half of the cost to get Stitch to the point where he can be the perfect service dog for Lane. He will go through a minimum of a year of training, specializing in mobility training. On top of these costs are mobility supplies, insurance for Stitch to be able to go into school with Lane, and travel, as I will be going back and forth an hour away for this training. We have been trying for several months to find grants, funding, anything to help with the cost and have come up empty-handed. As much as we didn’t want to need the help, we were so unaware of how expensive it is, and how quickly we need to get things going.

We want Lane and Stitch to be the best team. We want them to train together at their young ages, grow up together. We want Lane to be able to do things your typical school-aged boy can do, and we think that Stitch is going to be a huge asset to Lane as they grow up. We truly look forward to seeing their love and connection grow for each other!

We have found the perfect trainer for Stitch, Lane, and our whole family. They are based out of Des Pres, Missouri. I have talked to several different trainers, and after a very long talk with him, I felt he was absolutely going to be the best and have the best interest for both Stitch and Lane. We are just coming up short on the funding. If you can’t help, please share! And if anyone has any other suggestions or resources to help with the cost of having a service dog, we would be so grateful!

We are also fully aware that after training, things may not go as we hope. We are fully aware that not every dog is meant to be a service dog. If that ends up being the case, we are fully prepared for that. We love Stitchy, and as much as we want him to be Lane's right-hand man, we understand that things happen. But we trust that Stitch can do this, we trust that Lane can do this, and we trust that our family is prepared to do everything we can to get them to be the best duo you’ve ever seen. I intend to make a page to keep everyone updated on how things are going! Now enjoy some more pictures of Lane and Stitchy boy!