top of page

Create Your First Project

Start adding your projects to your portfolio. Click on "Manage Projects" to get started

Paws4people give local family service dog

CHARLOTTE - In the mornings, 6-year-old Jack Swiger likes sleeping in, playing with Thomas the Tank Engine and watching television. Full of curiosity and an independent streak, he asks questions and isn’t shy around new people, but he sometimes seems to space out.
As a result of Shaken Baby Syndrome and a traumatic brain injury when he was an infant, Swiger is constantly stricken with seizures that look as if his body shuts down. “It’s like the lights are on, but nobody’s home,” said his mother, Lisa Swiger, who adopted him in November 2006 on National Adoption Day.
The seizures have grown progressively worse, and when one grips Jack, all his family can do is wait. His mother holds his hand and stays with him until he comes back. The episodes don’t last long and when they’re over, he is right back to smiling and talking.
Small bruises speckle his limbs. They are caused when seizures strike while Josh is standing. He has to wear braces on his legs to help support his shin muscles. That doesn’t slow him down, however, when he’s determined to do something, like chase the family’s two dogs, Maggie and Momo.
This fall, Jack will receive another dog, this one especially for him. The paws4people organization announced last year that it was evaluating Jack to receive a service/rehabilitation assistance dog for free. Normally, these dogs each cost $30,000 to $40,000.
Caylie, a golden retriever, is currently being trained in West Virginia. She is learning more than 100 commands so that she can help Jack with day-to-day living and independence.
The Swiger family’s only obligation is to return the favor – to “pay it forward” – and help raise money so another family can receive a dog. So far, the family has raised more than $6,500 through fundraisers and selling jewelry.
Ever since Jack was a baby, he took a shine to service animals. When he was admitted to the hospital in February 2005, he was mute and couldn’t control the right side of his body. While at the hospital, he was introduced to a therapy dog named Ditto, whom he liked to play with. “Dog” was the first word he said after the trauma.
Jack met Caylie before. The Swigers visited the training dogs in West Virginia in February to see which dog Jack would receive. His mother remembers the day vividly. “Jack was having seizures really bad that day,” she said, and he had another one while petting Caylie. Caylie just put her head in Jack’s lap and waited for him to stop seizing.
At another point, Caylie laid on Jack, an unusual gesture for having just met.
That’s when Lisa Swiger knew.
Caylie visited the Swigers’ home in the university area on Memorial Day weekend. The pair had fun getting to know each other again, and now Caylie’s picture hangs on the refrigerator. Jack also practiced walking with a harness on Caylie’s back. Some of the dog’s responsibilities will be helping Jack with balance when walking and going up and down stairs. Now, the family is waiting for Caylie to finish training.
Raising Jack requires the entire family, including Lisa’s husband, Eliot Swiger; their two sons, Kris and Jake; and Kris’ fiancée, Shannon. They also have support from their church, Advent Lutheran, and the medical community. Church member MaryLou Koklentz told Lisa Swiger about paws4people and helped her apply for Jack.
Created by Kyria Henry, paws4people is an organization that trains therapy, service and private placement dogs. The emphasis of the program is the dogs themselves. That’s why the organization’s name is lowercased, and the organization’s press releases always capitalize all the letters in a dog’s name.
For all the hardship and struggle Jack has endured, a visitor wouldn’t see it on his face.
“Jack, my brother, has shown the same cheerful face every morning for the past four years. He doesn’t slow down to feel sorry for himself,” brother Jake, 20, wrote in an Feb. 4 article in the Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In a September 2008 operation, doctors installed a pump in Jack’s abdomen to deliver medicine directly into his spinal column. He still has difficulty using the right side of his body. Though doctors say half of his brain has been damaged, Jack attends mainstream classes, in addition to one-on-one tutoring.
He speaks at grade level and can walk with the assistance of a cane. “Caylie will not be going to school with him,” Lisa Swiger said.
When Jack and Caylie are reunited later this year, they will need time to get to know each other. They will practice moving as one. But they already have a bond.

bottom of page