Graduation day bittersweet for Canine Companions program in Santa Rosa

As with any graduation, it’s a bittersweet day when a Canine Companions puppy raiser surrenders a pup for the next stage in its life as an assistance dog.

It is celebratory, but sorrowful, too, marked with cheers, applause and a splash of tears.

But participants gathered Friday at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa to honor the organization’s latest group of graduates said they are sustained by the awareness of the rich dividends the program pays out - the knowledge that the role they play helps supply love, support, practical help, even freedom to someone disabled and in need.

“You have to really keep your eye on the prize,” said Cheryl Gregory of Red Bluff, who, with her husband, James, was preparing to hand over a dog named Anikan, their companion for the past several months and the fourth puppy they’ve raised for the organization.

“If we had a nickel for everyone who said, ‘How do you give them up?’ we’d be rich,” she said. “But how can you not? They’re so full of potential.”

The couple were among the dozens on hand Friday to witness 17 people receive their new assistance dogs. A total of 43 puppies were were turned over by raisers such as the Gregorys for professional training.

Canine Companions for Independence, headquartered in Santa Rosa, depends on such volunteer efforts to raise and place dogs that act as service guides and skilled companions for the disabled. The organization has graduated almost 4,800 teams since its founding in 1975.

Some volunteers keep breeder dogs and, if they’re female, care for resulting litters during their first eight weeks of life.

Others take on the young puppies, work with them daily and take them for training to ensure they have the foundation for success later on.

They hand them over at 18- to 20 months old for professional training at one of five regional centers, where just under half complete the six- to nine-month course and ultimately meet their partner during a final two-week team training that ends with graduation.

Ceremonies like Friday’s, held locally four times a year, pay homage to each step in the process. The event pays particular attention to those who once raised a puppy now paired with someone else, allowing them to meet over lunch before the puppy raisers take time for a reunion with the dogs on their own in advance of turning them over for good.

As she hugged Fritz, a clearly happy blond dog she last saw in February, when she relinquished him for training after 17 months of care, Yakima, Wash., resident Sara Caricchio wiped her wet face and admitted, “I’m a total mess right now.”

But Caricchio, 30, insisted it would “not be hard at all” to pass him onto his new companion, a 19-year-old college student named Caitlin Cox, who no longer has the use of her legs.?“I just feel so lucky I got to know Fritz and see him make such a difference in someone’s life,” Caricchio said.

Those on the human side of the equation receive their dogs one at a time, in heartfelt exchanges on stages with the puppy raisers.

Matthias Molnar, 10, of Bellevue, Wash., rushed to greet his new dog, Aubrey II, initiating a prolonged group hug with his parents and puppy raisers Susan Cassady and Neal Thompson, of Vancouver, Wash.

Ben Lewis, 18, of Granite Bay, knelt on the stage to receive Gelsey, a blond beauty he later described as “the newest family member” he couldn’t wait to bring home.

Bob Shalon, 67, waited in his wheelchair while Nettie made her way across to him. Her partnership means “that I’m part of a family,” the San Ramon man said.

“It just makes coping with the bad break I had - as far as the stroke - that much easier to cope with,” he said. “My life is just great.”

Results like those are what have made it possible for Kathy Zastrow of El Dorado Hills to raise 23 puppies, the last of whom, Clyde III, starts professional training today.

Zastrow said she’s learned not to cry when she let’s go of the leash.

“He’s going onto bigger and better things than just staying with us,” she said.

Judy and Bill Fleenor of Davis have raised 12 puppies for Canine Companions since 1998, including Piazza, who entered into further training Friday.

“We’ve seen the miracles that they make and the fabulous change they make in people’s lives,” Judy Fleenor said.

“It makes it easier,” she said, pausing only for a moment. “It doesn’t mean I’m not going to cry on the trip home.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@?pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.