TOLEDO, Ohio — Two-year-old Stella is she's a skilled companion therapy dog who has become fast friends with 10-year-old Noah Henderson.
"I really needed a best friend, I was really worried about going to middle school this year and she helped me not feel like that," Henderson said of the labrador.
Stella, a therapy dog from the Ability Center of Greater Toledo, has been comforting Henderson with his anxiety and sleeping issues.
The Ability Center is currently asking for volunteers to foster or train new dogs to help families.
"We could not do what we do without our amazing volunteers and fosters," the Ability Center's Client Services Coordinator Jordan Kwapich said. "Our dogs are raised and trained in foster homes. They are housebroken, they are crate-trained, they are trained in the home, they bring them here for training classes, so we are always in need of great fosters."
The center's need for volunteers is greater during the holidays because they would rather the dogs spend time in a home on Christmas, Kwapich said.
"We always need sitters and fosters, so if anyone is available during the weekend or an extra week here and there, it's really helpful for us to have those extra people around the holiday seasons," she said.
The only thing that foster volunteers have to do is enjoy the extra comfort because everything, including food, dog beds and dog crates, is provided by the center.
The journey for volunteers doesn't end when foster care is complete, either. Stella's foster family still gets updates on her training and how her new relationship with Noah is going.
"(Foster volunteers) are able to feel like all their hard work has paid off and see how happy their dog is doing exactly what they've been trained to do, and they get to see how special of a person Noah is," Kwapich said.
said Kwapich.
If you choose to volunteer, the journey doesn't end when your foster care is complete. Stella's Foster family still get updates on her training and, how her new relationship with Noah is going.
Kwapich said,
"They are able to feel like all their hard work has paid off and they see how happy their dog is doing exactly what they've been trained to do, and they get to see how special of a person Noah is."