Things couldn’t have been better for Chloe. She was 21, had a part-time job, her first apartment and was starting to break out of her shell and make friends. She had also applied to finally receive her first guide dog, a dream she’d had since meeting one at nine-years-old.
Then everything came crashing down around her. Chloe was sexually assaulted by someone she had considered a close friend. She no longer felt safe in her apartment, and her day-to-day life became little more than flashbacks and anxiety. She also had to spend a day in the hospital, where she miscarried from the assault in question.
When she was desperate for hope, just two days after going to the emergency room, she got the call she had been waiting for… her application for a guide dog was accepted!
Training with Kinley was one of the hardest things Chloe had ever done, but it was also one of the most life changing. Kinley hasn’t just helped Chloe by guiding her from point A to point B, but he has been her sunshine — the ray of hope she’s clung onto.
Kinley has remained by Chloe’s side through PTSD, anxiety, self-doubt, homelessness and the discovery of who she is as a young woman after a life of chronic trauma and hardship. Without him, Chloe wouldn’t have had the courage to venture into the unknown, to believe in herself, or to do what is right.
Chloe describes Kinley as bright, curious, sensitive, loving, tenacious and everything she could have asked for in her first guide dog. Now, Kinley is the 2022 Guide/Hearing Hero Dog in the American Humane Hero Dog Awards®! You can vote for Kinley to be named the 2022 American Hero Dog at www.HeroDogAwards.org! Show your support for Kinley on social media using #HeroDogAwards.
