Pawsitive Pawsibilities

My name is Tabitha and I am a seventeen year old girl with a debilitating form of muscular dystrophy. Since my diagnosis in fourth grade, I have struggled endlessly with physically getting around school and my home. After six surgeries on both legs and my spine, I was unable to get around my large campus and began to study at home. I missed my interactive academic life and daily encounters with my friends, but was forced to remain home because of my severe balance and strength deficits in my legs and core.

All of this changed when my parents purchased my trained service dog Sunny. Sunny is a beautiful, shy, seven year old German Shepherd. We immediately bonded. Sunny was trained to support me while I walk, pick anything I drop up off the ground and run messages for me around my school and home. He is amazing. After several months of training together, Sunny and I were a team. I entered eighth grade at the Waterford School in Sandy, with Sunny by my side. We both thrived at school, I quickly made friends who all loved Sunny, and he rapidly adjusted to the routine of school, walking down school hallways as if he owned them. I am now a junior in high school and Sunny has been with me ever since, I couldn’t have done it without him!

With the help of my sister Hannah, my family and my friend Morgan, I decided to found Pawsitive Pawsibilities in order to raise funds to train and place service dogs with other children. After meeting a service dog placed with a wounded warrior, I decided to expand to veterans as well. The process of selecting, training and placing service dogs is lengthy and expensive, consuming approximately 20,000 dollars and 2 to 3 years of training. My foundation seeks to raise money to fund service dogs for families unable to afford one. I know how Sunny changed my life, and I want to offer my experience to others. Pawsitive Pawsibilities seeks to fund service dog teams across the country for children with physical disability, teams that are confident in any situation and allow the human partner to experience the unconditional love of an animal and a confidence and freedom previously unknown.


So far, we have succeeded in raising money for the placement fees for 3 service dogs, Atti with a child in California. Mary Catherine received her service dog in October 2014. We also have placed Stark with Eric as a PTSD service dog, Eric did three tours as a sniper in Iraq and is now successfully a fire marshall and is able to function in society with the help of Stark. Our latest placement has been a Labradoodle named Toby with a ten year old boy named Seth with severe Autism. These dogs have been an immense help to their owners. As our organization is entirely donations based, any help is much appreciated and is tax-deductible. 100% of donations are set aside for the purchase of dogs; all legal and promotional costs will be covered personally.