A Caregiver with a Tail

A caregiver with a tail has been coming to our church services and activities for about four months now! KODA is an eight-month old sheepadoodle dog who is being trained to sniff out life-threatening allergies for his teen-age master, Tyler. The family has named him KODA, which is an anachronism for Kids Overcoming Deadly Allergies. Right now they are teaching Koda to "Search!", so that he can later find the foods that will harm Tyler. He will learn to react to each allergy with a different response. Koda loves playing ball with Tyler and his sister Becca, and this ball will be his reward when he finds the threatening foods for Tyler.~~~The important job of all parents is to prepare a child with special needs to be able to live on his own in the future. These days, when there is a party, his parents will make it a special point to put the foods Tyler can eat in a bowl especially for him. In this way, others helping themselves to the main bowls (ie. potato chips, cheese curls, taco chips, etc.) will not contaminate the bowls with dangerous food on their hands. He has his own food at school and at church. As Koda completes his training, he will help Tyler go through his high school years by sniffing out allergies, and if Tyler does have an attack Koda will pull his medication from his backpack and bring it to him. Therefore, Tyler can live a life at school, at college, at work without the constant worry about foods making him sick. How amazing new developments for children with special needs have become! (Photo is of Tyler and his dad putting Koda's working vest on him at church.)