Hello Canine Angels Friends,

We are so very grateful that you have chosen to be part of our family of supporters. Since our formation in 2007, so many of you have been cheering us on, and you help keep us all motivated to put in the long hours and hard work needed for our program to succeed. CAST is looking toward a bright future where we'll be able to help many more kids achieve independence.

I am excited to tell you that we have a new and easy way you can support Canine Angels. Through continuous monthly donations, you can help CAST count on a specific amount of funding coming in regularly so we can better plan our work throughout the year. We have set up a Giftberry fund drive for this new program. All you need to do is sign up once and decide on a monthly donation you'd like to make. Giftberry will automatically process a donation each month on the anniversary of the date you first signed up, and will send you a donation receipt via email. You can sign up for this program at www.giftberry.org/castmonthly. Be sure to check the "Donate Every Month" box.

Another option is to use your own bank's web bill pay system to set up recurring payments to Canine Angels. You can list the address of our headquarters on your bill pay profile.

Every gift, no matter the size, is truly appreciated. Thank you for caring about Canine Angels!

Sincerely,

Kelly Stack
Executive Director

In September I welcomed Izabelle the Facility Dog to my practice, Sage Therapy, where I work as a speech therapist. She is a gorgeous Golden Retriever with deep brown eyes, silky fur and an easy and loving disposition. 

Izabelle does a variety of things depending on the clients I see. One 2 1/2 year old boy had very few words. I used his interest in Izabelle to practice language. He said "Water" and "Here ya go!" when filling her water bowl. We talked about the action words of "brushing" and "petting" while we stroked and groomed her. When I asked, "Where is Izabelle?" or "What is she doing?" he got practice answering questions.

Another boy practiced saying "n" in words by giving Izabelle the commands "down", "on your bed" and "in your kennel". For another child, playing with Izabelle was his reward for continuing to participate in testing. When given the command "up" she put her paws in his lap and snuggled in for a big hug.

For some children having Izabelle perform a trick at the end of their therapy session is their chosen reward. Other days the kids enjoy finishing their therapy session by walking outside with me to let Izabelle go potty. 

She is also a welcomed companion to many of the family members of my clients. One mom told me, "While I was waiting, Izabelle gave me a hug. I didn't realize how much I needed that hug." Sometimes when it is just the two of us in the office, I ask her for a hug too.
 
Judy and Izabelle are shown at Team Training in the November 2010 issue.

We are excited to announce our new Graduate Mentor program, and to introduce our first Graduate Mentor, Elina. In the lower photograph, Elina shows her excitement at being awarded her new position and an official CAST name tag.

Hi! I'm Elina, and I would like to tell you about what it's like to be a Graduate Mentor for Canine Angels Service Teams. You might not know, but sometimes kids who are just about to get their service dog might be a little scared to ask the trainers what Team Training is like.

I get to be the one who answers questions like-I don't know what questions I'll be asked, but I'm the one who prepares kids for Team Training. I get to give an idea of things like what to expect, what it feels like, things like that.

I don't know if I can thank Canine Angels enough for all they've done, but thank you, Canine Angels Service Teams for making me your very first Graduate Mentor! I will try to do my best to help you out more from now into the future! I also have hope that Canine Angels will have a few other Graduate Mentors besides me in the future. It's kind of like having one team that has a little smaller team who supports it. Anyway, I am proud to be the first graduate mentor for Canine Angels Service Teams!

Six months ago, Wyatt, a Labradoodle, joined the Canine Angels family as a puppy in training. Since then, he has been working on learning his obedience commands and basic puppy manners for going out in public. He has been to all types of stores and restaurants with me but here are some of the highlights of his first 6 months as a pup in training.
 
In October, he attended the Canine Angels graduation in Grants Pass and then he did a trip with me down to LA and celebrated Halloween at Disneyland. He was still pretty young at the time so rather than having him walk we rented a stroller for him and he got to ride everywhere. Kerri with Astro and Cathy with Tycho were also with us and we were quite a hit that night with the pups (all in strollers) in their Halloween costumes Trick or Treating at Disneyland. They all handled the crowd and all of the attention very well.

In November, we were invited to dinner at a country club. This was Wyatt's first big dinner outing. In addition, a friend of ours was joining us who has a guide dog. I was so proud of Wyatt as he stayed under the table for about 2 1/2 hours. I think the hardest thing for him was to not be able to visit with our friend's guide dog.

Just recently I was invited to do a presentation about Canine Angels to a group of about twenty 9-10 year olds at their school. Wyatt did a great job of greeting all of the kids and laying on the floor so that everyone could pet him. He was a very good representative of Canine Angels and I was very proud of him. Stay tuned for further adventures of Wyatt and some of the other CAST pups in training.