{"id":24911,"date":"2019-08-13T15:11:25","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T19:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=24911"},"modified":"2019-08-13T15:11:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T19:11:30","slug":"fellow-commissioners-surprise-cozzone-with-service-pup-named-in-her-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=24911","title":{"rendered":"Fellow commissioners surprise Cozzone with service pup named in her honor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Commissioners Terence Farrell, Kathi Cozzone and Michelle Kichline, with Kathi the Canine Partners for Life service puppy, named by Commissioners Kichline and Farrell in honor of her colleague Commissioner Cozzone.<\/p><\/div>\n

WEST CHESTER \u2014 A traditional charity check presentation at today\u2019s Chester County Commissioners\u2019 public sunshine meeting included an element of surprise for one Commissioner.\u00a0\u00a0 As part of the recognition of Chester County non-profit Canine Partners for <\/em>Life, Commissioners Michelle Kichline and Terence Farrell presented their fellow Commissioner, Kathi Cozzone, with a service puppy named in her honor to recognize the tremendous service she has provided to the people of Chester County. <\/p>\n

Commissioners\u2019 Chair Michelle Kichline said, \u201cEvery year we set aside funds to present to worthy Chester County non-profits, both collectively as the three commissioners, and individually.\u00a0 One of my selected charities this year is Canine Partners for <\/em>Life, a Cochranville-based organization that trains service and companion dogs for individuals with physical, developmental and cognitive disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I contacted the organization to confirm the $1,000 donation, I found out that with the donation came the opportunity to name a puppy that would eventually be trained for service.\u00a0 I have always admired Kathi\u2019s personal commitment to service so thought it would be fitting to give the puppy \u2013 and future service dog \u2013 the name Kathi in her honor.\u00a0 When I mentioned the idea to Terence, he was totally on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Terence Farrell added:\u00a0 \u201cThe foundation of Canine Partners for<\/em> Life is service, and the dogs certainly help to improve the quality of life for their owners.\u00a0 In her 12 years as a Commissioner, Kathi Cozzone has professionally \u2013 and personally \u2013 served our citizens by championing great causes, investing in crucial county programs, and leading many state-wide initiatives, all that improve the quality of life of everyone living and working in Chester County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to her namesake, Kathi the puppy has a lot to live up to,\u201d added Farrell.<\/p>\n

Three-month old puppy Kathi will go through two full years of training with Canine Partners for <\/em>Life (CPL) to become a service or companion dog.\u00a0 Her first full year, led by volunteers, is focused on learning basic obedience skills and being socialized in many public environments so that she becomes familiar and comfortable with different sights, sounds and smells.\u00a0 She will spend a few months in a community volunteer home and a few months in one of the prisons that participates in the Prison Puppy Raising program.\u00a0 At 14 months, Kathi will return to the Canine Partners for <\/em>Life kennel to learn more advanced service skills including retrieving items, opening and closing doors and paying cashiers.<\/p>\n

Janie Cramer, Executive Director of Canine Partners for <\/em>Life, thanked the Commissioners for the donation and noted the different pathways open to puppy Kathi as she goes through the two years of training.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn her second year, we will determine whether Kathi will become a service or companion dog,\u201d said Cramer.\u00a0 \u201cAll of our service dogs are placed with individuals who have physical or cognitive disabilities so in addition to the more \u2018traditional\u2019 service dog functions, we train seizure alert, cardiac alert and diabetes alert dogs.\u00a0 Our companion dogs are often placed with young children who have down syndrome or autism, but they can also be placed with an elderly individual or as a courthouse or residential companion.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being presented with the surprise, Commissioner Kathi Cozzone commented, \u201cI am very honored and surprised \u2013 it was such a beautiful thing for Michelle and Terence to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a dog lover, and who doesn\u2019t love a puppy?\u00a0 So to have one named after me who will be of service to someone in the future is very special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST CHESTER \u2014 A traditional charity check presentation at today\u2019s Chester County Commissioners\u2019 public sunshine meeting included an element of surprise for one Commissioner.\u00a0\u00a0 As part of the recognition of Chester County non-profit Canine Partners for Life, Commissioners Michelle Kichline and Terence Farrell presented their fellow Commissioner, Kathi Cozzone, with a service puppy named in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3736,20,46,3912,263],"class_list":["post-24911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-canine-partners-for-life","tag-chester-county","tag-commissioners","tag-featured","tag-kathi-cozzone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24912,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24911\/revisions\/24912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}