How much would you spend to keep your child safe? What would you do to raise the money if you didn’t have it? Heather and Neil Whitaker, their family and a few friends, are about to start cooking and selling spaghetti dinners in the hope of raising $13,000 for a “guardian angel” for their daughter Annabelle.
No, not an angel with wings. A four-footed angel with a cold nose and a warm heart.
Their hope is to obtain a trained “service dog” from an Ohio group called “4Paws for Ability”.
The cost isn’t for a pedigreed pooch, because these service dogs, trained to be protectors and best friends for disabled children, may be of any breed. (Annabelle’s dog will probably be a big one, since she’s already tall for her age at 10.)
The cost is for the intensive training that teaches these dogs to look after the children in their care.
Once the dog is ready, Annabelle and her parents will go to Ohio for 10 days for an intensive final training. The dog will be able to protect Annabelle from danger, calm her down if she is losing control, and find her if she somehow slips away and gets lost.
Why does Annabelle need such a dog?
Well at first glance she’s just another lively ten-year-old. Cute-looking, dressed in the latest pre-teen style, with big brown eyes and wavy brown hair curling around her face. We met her at McDonald’s with her mom and dad, Heather and Neil Whitaker, her grandmother Linda Whitaker and sisters Megan, 7, and Aubrey, 1. (Her other grandparents, John and Kinnie Russell, are also a big support, but couldn’t be there.)
She never ate any burgers and fries, though. Annabelle’s not much for sitting down and staying still. Little sister Megan smiled for the camera, but Annabelle decided on the spot that she didn’t want to be photographed. She was off and running, a whirlwind of activity. For the next hour and a half, alternating between making the most of the indoor play equipment and urging her grandmother to take her to the pet store, she never really settled down. Impulse seems to be her driving force.
When she talks, her speech is hoarse and halting—one word at a time, sometimes mispronounced or just shortened to a single syllable. Or she gets her needs and wishes across with gestures.
She has a sleep disorder, based on insufficient melatonin, that leads to her taking impromptu short names through the day, and but staying wound up in the evening.
Putting it simply, any child can be a handful sometimes, hyperactive sometimes. Any child can pitch a tantrum sometimes, act without thinking of the consequences sometimes, have a hard time settling down sometimes.
But for Annabelle, all that is the norm.
She’s got her strengths, too. Underneath her sometimes erratic and unpredictable behavior, there’s a bright and loving child who wants to be part of the things. She is very affectionate with those she loves, and never forgets anyone she’s met.
She loves “anything Disney,” and anything to do with University of Georgia football. Also, while her mother says she never cared much about toys, she’s very good with technical things, like cell phones, and has downloaded photos and made long distance calls to people she knows – not by reading their names so much as recognizing them as she scrolls down the list.
Those familiar with autism might think in a brief encounter that Annabelle is autistic, and there are some similarities, but that’s not the diagnosis.
This little girl was born with a rare disorder called Smith-Magenis syndrome. She is missing Chromosome Number 17, and her case is one of fewer than 600 that have been identified worldwide.
Smith-Magenis syndrome leads to a variety of problems, ranging from frequent tantrums and difficulty paying attention, to head banging and repetitive behaviors. Those who have the disorder, frequently have hoarse voices, as Annabelle does, and some physical abnormalities, which Annabelle doesn’t have to any noticeable degree.
They feel little pain, which is a problem because they are inclined to pick at themselves and not to notice cuts or other small injuries.
The Whitakers, who live on Lake Joy Road near Perry, started out with their first baby knowing that something wasn’t quite right.
“The neonatologist at the hospital thought that she showed signs of being a preemie even though she was full term,” Heather says.
And then there was the problem of Annabelle’s frequent choking and turning blue, which turned out to be severe reflux which led to her being placed in the hospital and taking three different medications until she was a year old. She was a late walker, and a frequent screamer.
“She would scream at the top of her lungs if she had to ride in a car, “ Heather says, ‘for either five minutes of five hours. “
By the age of 2, she hadn’t started talking at all, and her worried parents just got told that some children develop later than others.
Finally though, she was referred to the ‘Babies Can’t Wait,” program and admitted to the special education pre-K program at Matt Arthur Elementary School at age 3. She still attends Matt Arthur.
Her correct diagnosis didn’t come until she was five, and went to the Marcus Institute on Atlanta where she was seen by a host of specialists, including a developmental pediatrician who had just diagnosed another child with the rare disorder and recognized the symptoms.
It took three weeks for the chromosome test to come back with a positive diagnosis of Smith-Magenis syndrome.
It was very hard on Neil and me,” Heather says. “you never want anything to be wrong with your children, but then at the same time we finally had someone actually tell us what Annabelle had. Once we knew what was wrong we could find out what we needed to do to help Annabelle. The speech pathologist discovered that Annabelle had a sub-mucus cleft palate.”
That has been corrected by surgery at Scottish Rite Hospital.
Now, where does the dog fit in to this picture?
Dogs trained by “4 Paws for Ability,” know how to protect the children in their care, how to anticipate their anxiety and calm them down, how to pull them back from danger and how to find them if they get lost.
Annabelle, who acts very much on impulse and may bolt and run into the street without a thought to her safety, will have an animal companion – actually tethered to her – whose job is to protect her.
To raise the money for the dog, her family is going to cook and sell spaghetti dinners. They have one date set up at First Baptist Church in Warner Robins, from 5-7 p.m., May 17. All donations are tax deductible.
They are hoping to have another at First Baptist in Haynesville, and would love to hear from clubs and churches willing to help with this fund-raising project. They’ll do the work, but they need the space and help with getting out a crowd.
To learn more, contact Heather or Neil Whitaker at 447-6673 or 338-3852 or by email ,hnwhitaker@comsouth.net. Annabelle’s website is at www.4pawsforannabelle.com.
To contact 4 Paws directly call 937-374-0385 or check out their website at www.4pawsforability.org. The website is full of photos and stories about kids with their doge.
