'There's good people in the world' Big donation gets diabetic child alert dog
His name is Rex and he’s a yellow Labrador retriever
Happy Valley-Goose Bay's Dale family now has the $20,000 they need, to get three-year-old Nathaniel a Diabetic Alert Dog.
Donations came in through an online campaign — but one St. John's-based foundation stepped up with a huge cheque to seal the deal.
"Words aren't enough," mother Rhea Dale said of all the donations that were made.
"There's nothing I can say to really tell them exactly how I feel. Just very blessed and very grateful ... very thankful."
Over $8,000 was donated from people all across the province.
Glenn's Helping Hand Foundation, which helps youth who are dealing with diabetes, chipped in the remaining $12,000, after they caught wind of Nathaniel's story.
"Our goal is to help kids wherever we could," Glenn Mulley, foundation president said.
"The money is so [Nathaniel] can get his dog, and the family can have quality of life ... and he can have a better quality of life too."
"It's people who know what can happen with this disease, the complexity of this disease," said Dale.
"Everybody just keeps saying the same thing — there's good people in the world. We found them, and they reached out to us."
Meet Rex
The family has already gotten to know Nathaniel's yellow Labrador retriever a little, via the Internet. Showing his love for dinosaurs, Nathaniel named him Rex, after Tyrannosaurus Rex.
"They have told me that he's confident, willing to please, not very excitable, which they said was good for a three-year-old child, especially for one like Nathaniel. He's very excitable," Dale said.
Our goal is to help kids wherever we could.- Glenn Mulley
"He just checked out to be the perfect dog."
The family got Rex through Diabetic Alert Dogs of America.
Right now Rex is in Las Vegas where, over the next six to eight months, he'll be trained to sniff changes in blood sugar levels. Once he arrives in Labrador, he'll be able to let Nathaniel know when his levels are too high or too low.
"He was jumping up and down," Dale said.
"He's seen pictures and he was excited — and was excited about the name Rex."
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