My name is Ashlyn Wood. I’m a 22-year-old student studying Book Arts and hand papermaking at the University of Alabama, and I have dysautonomia and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. When I’m not having impromptu floor time, I love to crochet, bedazzle, write poetry, and fight monsters on my D&D podcast!

February 20, 2025

Hello Loves!! We are at just over 25% of our goal and time until Clover comes home!!It's been a new and exciting 6 months since being accepted to the K9 Service Companions program and starting this fundraising journey with you all. As you may recall, I started with a service dog prospect named June. Unfortunately, we found early on that the poor baby got so carsick every single time she was in a car that she just wasn't a good fit for service work. Luckily, June's breeder had another pup, Clover, who passed her service work screening with flying colors! As a cardiac alert and mobility service dog, Clover will go absolutely everywhere with me, so her comfort and safety in a moving vehicle are of the utmost importance to us.And Clover is doing fantastic in her training!! She is learning to smell the changes of hormones in my blood and saliva as my heart rate rises before I pass out. This means we can act quickly, and she can find me somewhere safe to sit down up to 5 minutes before I even start to feel dizzy. She will also provide mobility support, like counterbalancing when I'm unsteady, deep pressure therapy to help lower my heart rate, and perform tasks like dropped item retrieval (to prevent me getting dizzy from bending down), pressing access door buttons while I'm using my walker, and her favorite: sock removal! She's doing fantastic in her training and making wonderful progress with her trainer, Trinity. This fundraiser helps me pay not only for Clover herself, but also provide adequate compensation for Trinity's hard work with her. If Trinity worked with Clover for only 40 hours/week, for two years, she'll make less than $10/hour while she's training Clover. But Clover is in active task training every single day, and is also learning proper public behavior and household manners with Trinity and her service dog (who has many of the same tasks that Clover will have). And for the change Clover will make in my life, that is well worth it to me!

April 19, 2024

My name is Ashlyn Wood. I’m a 22-year-old student studying Book Arts and hand papermaking at the University of Alabama, and I have dysautonomia and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. When I’m not having impromptu floor time, I love to crochet, bedazzle, and fight monsters on my D&D podcast!

I’ve been mostly isolated for the last several years because it’s difficult for me to know when my symptoms are going to flare and handle them when I’m not home.

This usually leaves me lying on the grocery store or Student Center floor, desperately willing my heart rate to go down so I can stand up and get to my car or a bench without passing out.

My doctors and I have decided that the best next step toward regaining my independence is to get a cardiac alert and task-trained service dog, to alert me before my symptoms flare and help me get to a safe place to manage them.

Thank you so much for reading this and donating, so that I can once again be a strong(-minded), independent person who can go grocery shopping by herself, and live a life that *is* for the faint of heart!