SFSD Fall Newsletter 2025

The marriage part we took care of first! With tons of help from my parents and sister-in-law, and our collective families and friends, we had quite the joyful shindig in April 2024. The emotions and glow of that whole weekend are still fresh and exposed like a live-wire across a road. It was more beautiful than I could have fathomed! The dog process proved more complicated than getting hitched! I have to thank my bestie, Lucy, for keeping the pressure on me (hounding me, if you will). She knew I wanted it to happen, but also that I’m a lifelong procrastinator. I gave her the task of researching organizations and connecting me with leads. Turns out, our best bet was right in our neck of the woods, Saint Francis Service Dogs in Roanoke, Virginia. They do all the puppy raising and two years of training before matching their dogs with partner humans. At no cost to the human! Two of their eligibility requirements tripped me up, though. You must have a fenced in yard. And you must be able to provide care for the whole lifespan of the dog. Well, ALS doesn’t make any promises about lifespan… But the coordinator at Saint Francis Service Dogs encouraged me to apply. They had matched dogs with partners with ALS before. Ok, maybe they could match me too, even though it Elizabeth and Sally (cont. from cover)

felt like a long shot. We were living in a third floor apartment and would need to move at some point anyway. So the hunt for an accessible first floor home with a fence-able yard began in earnest. In October 2024, the same week as my first diagnos-iversary, we moved into a new rental home! It had first floor accessible everything and a backyard that we could fence-in if matched with a dog! In April 2025, the same week as our first wedding anniversary, we went to Roanoke for a week-long, in-person training with our service dog match!! She was a two year old yellow lab/golden mix named Sally! Ok, let’s rewind. Once our move finally happened, we immediately loved our new place! With ramps, I can roll in and out by myself, cruise the street, or off road in the yard. And trike, too! Yener has a driveway where he can work on and wash his car. We got a grill for the back porch. Our cat JimJim has embraced his new, wild world of our quiet cul-de-sac. We even semi-adopted the two stray cats on our street, and one of them is very much in love with Yener.

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