Cosmos Working Dogs

EMILY

Emily is an 18-year-old living her best life despite many challenges. In a word, "Overcomer" describes her. Emily was adopted at birth, significantly drug-affected. Their childhood was marked by frustration and meltdowns as her parents struggled to meet her needs and identify the underlying issues. Discovering a diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome gave clarity, but a poor outcome. The average life span of someone with FASD is 34. This reduced life span is often due to external causes like suicide, accidents, and poisoning. Emily’s brain experienced trauma due to drugs and alcohol while developing in the womb of a kind individual struggling with addiction. Estimates rate persons with FASD as half their chronological age mentally (learning is profoundly difficult), socially (making friends is easy with their "woo", keeping them is very hard), and emotionally (unregulated emotions lead to flight at school or home, and sometimes lead to dangerous outbursts). Emily has received inpatient psychiatric care 27 times in her life. But with work and grit have shown significant improvement, resulting in no hospitalizations in over a year! Emily will never give up. NEVER. She is finally in 11th grade, beating the odds every day. She is a natural entrepreneur and sells baked goods and marked up sodas to neighbors and classmates. She hopes to be in the military, practice welding, or become a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Her most proud accomplishment at present is thriving in JROTC. Emily loves animals of all kinds and thrived in horse therapy while doing inpatient treatment. Emily believes a service dog will be her best friend, the one that never abandons her. A service dog could sense her rising anxiety and disrupt her dangerous behavior by calmly touching her. The love of a dog can make even the loneliest moments bearable. A dog could attend school with her, calming her during extreme test anxiety, reducing impulsive exits, and being a loyal friend always at their side. A dog could teach her the joy and work of daily care and responsibility as she cares for the dog.

Please help us raise the money we need for a dog to be matched with Emily!

SEbastian

Meet Sebastian, a bright and talkative 9-year-old boy from the Dayton area who lives with high-functioning autism. Sebastian is full of curiosity and has a heart overflowing with love—especially for dogs. His very favorite? Cosmos Breeding Dog, Stormé.

Stormé has given Sebastian a priceless gift: a puppy made just for him—Atlas. Atlas is more than a puppy; he’s the beginning of Sebastian’s dream coming true. Right now, Atlas is with a puppy trainer, learning the basics of good behavior and life in the world. In about a year, he will move forward to advanced service dog training so he can grow into Sebastian’s loyal partner, protector, and very best friend.

But this journey takes time, dedication, and resources. Cosmos Working Dogs is committed to making sure Atlas becomes the service dog Sebastian needs, but the cost of raising, training, and preparing a highly skilled service dog is significant. We need to raise $20,000 to support Atlas as a Service Dog in Training (SDIT) and ensure he’s fully equipped to meet Sebastian’s needs.

For Sebastian, Atlas won’t just be a service dog—he’ll be a constant companion who always understands him, who loves him exactly as he is, and who helps him navigate a world that can sometimes feel overwhelming. Sebastian dreams of that day: when his furry best buddy is by his side through every challenge and every joy.

You can help make this dream come true. Every gift brings Sebastian one step closer to walking through life with Atlas by his side.

🌟 Together, we can give a boy his dream—and a best friend who will love him forever.

Donate to Cosmos Working Dogs

Your donation will help us train and place working dogs!