West Island woman with rare condition says service dog gave her ‘a new lease on life’

A West Island woman who once feared she’d have no choice but to move into assisted living has found new independence, thanks to her new service dog, Remi.

“It didn’t feel real until I was actually able to see her and touch her,” said Josée St-Onge. “I just couldn’t believe it was finally happening.”

When CTV first spoke with St-Onge in the spring, she had launched a fundraising campaign to cover the $35,000 cost of a trained service dog.

The wait lists for local non-profits such as MIRA were too long, and St-Onge’s condition was worsening.

She lives with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a painful connective tissue disorder that leaves her ligaments and tendons fragile and unstable.

“Because I don’t have any functioning ligaments in my wrists, the pulling of the fridge actually hurts,” she explained. “If I do that 20 times in a day, then I have excruciating pain.”

Remi, trained to respond to 46 specific commands, can open and close doors, help with dressing, and even assist when St-Onge feels faint.

“She’s able to navigate me through any crowd and find the nearest wall,” said St-Onge. “Then she braces herself and lets me sit. She provides pressure therapy to help increase my blood pressure.”

Instead of travelling to Alberta for a week of training, a trainer from Medicine Hat came to Montreal to work with St-Onge and Remi.

“As she said, it’s not Remi that needs the training, it’s you,” St-Onge said. “We spent an entire week training me to understand the commands and how to build that bond.”

That bond, she says, was instant.

“Immediately, she came to me with a wiggling tail, so excited to meet me. I think there was an instant connection between us,” she said.

Now, St-Onge says she feels confident leaving the house, knowing Remi is there to protect her from falls and injuries.

“At 52, you don’t want to go into assisted living,” she said. “I wasn’t living before Remi came. I was afraid to go out, afraid of getting injured. Now I have my life back.”