ROCKLEDGE, Fla. – Anyone who watched the first episode of the Netflix series, "Dogs," knows how life-changing a service dog can be for a family with a child who has a disability. The Ohio organization that trains, raises and cares for the service dogs featured on "Dogs," 4 Paws for Ability, is now trying to help a 4-year-old boy from Rockledge.
Amy and Mikel DiMeo, said their son Caiden suffers from an incurable condition known as intractable epilepsy. He suffered his first seizure as an infant.
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Caiden suffers from partial complex seizures and absence seizures daily. He has undergone tests, procedures, brain surgeries and tried various medications and special diets.
In the Netflix show featuring 4 Paws, Corrine Gogolewski, 12, of West Chester, Ohio, received her service dog, Rory, because she also suffers from seizures.
“Caiden has slept with us in our bed since he was three months old because he started having seizures in his sleep, and he sometimes stops breathing so we need to give him oxygen," Amy DiMeo said.
Amy said she home schools Caiden, but he also goes to speech, physical and occupational therapy an hour away. Having a service dog would improve Caiden’s quality of life, his mother said.
The DiMeos have been approved for a life-saving service dog from 4 Paws for Ability.
It costs the nonprofit between $40,000 - $60,000 to train and prepare a service dog, however the family only needs to pay or fundraise the service fee of $17,000.
An anonymous donor committed to matching $8,500 if the family can fundraise the other half.
Paws 4 Ability and the DiMeo family are asking for the public's help to meet the $8,500 goal.
Anyone interested in donating, click here. The money goes directly to the nonprofit for Caiden's service dog.