LEXINGTON, Ky. -- When Laura Helvey met Catherine Gabbard in her yard in the summer of 2023, she was sitting on the ground next to her dog, Bossy, crying.

Gabbard was about to disregard her court orders to go to addiction treatment for one simple reason: she couldn’t leave Bossy behind. Gabbard was packed and ready to run into the woods with Bossy, just so she could stay by her side.

Bossy, a pitbull-hound mix, was also pregnant and the only source of constant affection and support Gabbard had for the past couple of years, some of the worst times of her life.

“She helps me if I am sad,” Gabbard told the Herald-Leader. “She feels what I am feeling. When I was getting high, she was feeling the trauma from all of that, too.”

Helvey, a stranger to Bossy and Gabbard, sat and consoled the pair and ended up bonding with the dog. Helvey made the decision to foster Bossy so Gabbard would feel at ease to leave for treatment.

A few days later, she was fostering seven dogs — Bossy and her six newborn puppies. They were nicknamed “the recovery pups” and named after recovery facilities in Kentucky: Hope, Isaiah, Ethan, Spero and Arc. One puppy, Spark, did not survive.

Helvey, who lost her son Daniel to an opioid overdose in 2019, operates SPARK Ministries of Madison County, a centralized community center which runs as a non-profit to point families and people with substance use disorder towards rehabilitation programs, detox programs, support groups, churches, job opportunities and more.

At its core, Helvey’s office helps remove barriers for people seeking recovery.

Helvey: Fosters are the biggest need for group to thrive

It wasn’t until another woman came to the small SPARK office building on Main Street with her dog every day, resisting treatment because her dog had no place to go, that Helvey recognized another barrier.

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