National non-profit Paws With A Cause took back the Louisville veterans’ service dog, saying the owner was unfit to care for it.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville veteran with Parkinson’s disease and dementia had his service dog, Elroy, taken away from him after spending two months together.
Paws With A Cause is a national nonprofit that trains and matches assistance dogs with people in need. But, the nonprofit is claiming the veteran isn’t fit to take care of the dog.
Elroy was stripped away from Bill Adkins in early April. Adkins says the dog changed his life and helped his depression.
“I couldn’t say goodbye,” Adkins said. “It was just too hard.”
A dog bed, crate, and Elroy’s dog bowls are painful reminders for Adkins of what could’ve been man’s best friend.
“It was like a switch,” Adkins said. “I felt good, and I felt the same. That’s what he was supposed to be doing.”
Sunday morning was the last time the Louisville veteran would see the chocolate lab after Paws With a Cause took him away.
“I could not watch it. I’d seen him before he left, he was always laying on that bed,” Adkins said. “It’s like you took part of my heart.”
Adkins served in the Vietnam era from 1972 to 1975 at nearby Fort Knox, and Fort Jackson in South Carolina.
He now suffers from Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
While he’s hoping to reunite, the nonprofit holds fast that Adkins and Elroy are better apart.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, you have to be a person who is still physically and cognitively able to interact with the dog, provide those cues,” CEO of Paws With A Cause Michele Suchovsky said. “This is for the safety of both the client and the dog.
Suchovsky said the decision was made after a trainer flew into Louisville to help Adkins learn Elroy’s cues.
“We were noticing that there were some struggles, and we even had some videotape sent to us,” Suchovsky said.
After waiting over two years for an assistance animal, and spending two months together, Elroy became family.
“I was doing what I was supposed to be doing,” Adkins said. “I was providing and taking care of what they say is a high-dollar dog. He wasn’t a high-dollar dog to me, he was my buddy.”
He said Paws With A Cause is offering up a different dog.
“You can offer me anybody you want to, and unless he’s got a gold finger, then it’s not going to be the same,” Adkins said.
Adkins said that just won’t cut it.
“If I’ve seen… Elroy to come to that front door, I’d cry,” Adkins said.
Paws With A Cause said these situations are rare, but they are discussing alternatives with the family.