Pawsome Muster & Mingle

On April 26th, we had the honor of hosting 4 Paws for Ability at our Tipp City Muster & Mingle. Those who attended enjoyed homemade Sloppy Joes and great conversation with their fellow veterans. Angelique Comer surprised us with delicious cupcakes and cookies, and we also celebrated our Board President Kayleen’s birthday with cake! After all the wonderful food and conversation, it was time to get to the business of our Muster & Mingle, puppies!

From founding in a one bedroom apartment in Batavia, OH with a single person to a purpose-built service dog training and placement campus in Xenia, OH, employing more than 75 people and hundreds of volunteers, 4 Paws for Ability has always worked to help people with disabilities acquire task-trained service dogs. Karen Shirk, founder, struggled to obtain a service dog from other agencies and so in 1998 she founded 4 Paws for Ability to help others like her access the life-changing love, assistance, and support offered by a service dog. More than 1,500 service dog teams have graduated from 4 Paws because of this commitment. We were lucky to have 2 wonderful service dogs in attendance on Wednesday, and they were remarkably well behaved throughout. KaLynn spoke about the work that is done at 4 Paws, and about the work that goes into not only preparing a dog to become a service dog but to prepare a family to receive one. She also was very transparent about the time and costs associated with the process, and everyone was left in awe of the work involved. She answered all the questions posed to her, and then everyone was welcomed to meet the dogs in attendance.

We are grateful for the opportunity to work with organizations like 4 Paws for Ability, and very appreciative of all the work they do for the veteran community. Please visit our Upcoming Events page to see where you can find us next!