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A woman’s best friend
By Denise Dick
HUBBARD
A lot of pieces came together in the meeting of Katie Costello, Annette Williams and Tony, an Australian goldendoodle.
“I really feel like this was meant to be,” Costello said.
Her father, Anthony Matola, died last month from lung cancer attributed to Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War.
Causes that help animals and veterans were close to his heart.
Costello, co-owner of The Learning Dog Training and Enrichment Center, trains dogs and recently started The Together Journey, a business, for which she is pursuing nonprofit status, to train service dogs.
Williams served stateside in the U.S. Air Force veteran during Operation Desert Storm. She said she’s known since she was 9, watching black and white movies that she wanted to serve her country.
She was working as a veterans’ representative for Ohio when she suffered a traumatic brain injury. She was coming through a doorway when someone else was coming out, and Williams was struck in the head by a steel door.
She started getting debilitating headaches, losing her balance and becoming disoriented, but it took a few months for her to connect the problems to the injury.
She underwent brain surgery and had to relearn to walk and talk but still suffers from seizures.
Williams needs a service dog to alert her when she’s about to have a seizure and to alleviate her anxiety while in public.
Because of her asthma, she needed a hypo-allergenic dog. After a four-year wait with another service dog organization, Williams was turned down.
She was referred to The Together Journey, which Costello runs with Lorri Matey, by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and applied.
After Matola’s death, his family was trying to decide the best way to honor him. They decided to combine two of his loves. Any money contributed in his memory went to defer the cost of service dogs for veterans
That decision was made by Costello, her mother, Kathy, and two brothers, Tony and Jason Matola.
Because she’s passionate about animal rescue, Costello uses dogs only from pounds, shelters or rescue groups for the service-dog program.
While Costello and Matey were reviewing applications for the program, Williams’ jumped out. Costello can’t say why.
Soon after, Costello got word that a group of goldendoodles — a mix of golden retriever and standard poodle — was rescued from a puppy mill.
The rescue, Safe Haven in Cleveland, had one left, an Australian goldendoodle, which adds Australian shepherd to the canine mix.
Costello knew it was more than coincidence.
“My dad had three dogs,” she said. “His favorite was Duffy, an Australian goldendoodle.”
Williams agreed to name the dog Tony to honor Matola — that was the only stipulation.
On Aug. 6, Costello and Matey traveled to Lorain to pick up Tony and delivered him to Williams at her Youngstown home.
Because Tony came from a puppy mill, he’s never lived in a home before and he’s a little skittish.
He’s warming up to Williams. “For the first three weeks he’s just decompressing and learning to be a dog,” Williams said.
Then the training starts.
Not all dogs are cut out for service, and Costello won’t know if Tony has the stuff until training starts. Because the breeds in his lineage are noted for intelligence, she believes he’ll be successful.
Williams, who underwent brain surgery and had to relearn to walk and talk, believes her struggles mesh well with Tony’s.
“We’ve both been through a lot,” she said.
She credits her mother, Mary Curtis, for helping her through everything and for never giving up.
Costello believes the union would please her dad — and that he’s amused the dog is named after him.
“I can just hear him saying, ‘Oh, Katie Lynn, you can’t make her name that dog Tony,’” she said.