Imagine a day like any other day when you get up in the morning, have breakfast, say goodbye to your family and head off to work. This particular morning as you're driving, you find yourself reflecting back to a recent vacation and the laughs you shared with your family. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a car pulls out in front of you and you collide. All you hear is the sound of metal scraping. You are in shock. Your car is totaled, but your body seems to be ok. You think how lucky you are.

The following morning you wake up, almost unable to move, reeling in pain throughout your body. It's a complete surprise that you were actually injured. The simplest task like getting out of bed seems nearly impossible to perform. As days go by, you still suffer with pain that you’d expect from a car accident, but nothing seems out of the ordinary. As weeks and months go by, you proceed to feel worse, experiencing frequent pain throughout your body and are unable to get a good night’s sleep. Headaches, body aches, and fatigue dominate your daily life.

Realizing that your body seems to be getting worse instead of better, you seek help your doctor, but all your doctor is able to do is prescribe pain and sleep medications. Pain pill after pain pill, nothing seems to be helping. You've tried everything your doctor prescribed, but still no relief. The pain and sleep medications make your brain feel hazy, leaving you unable to concentrate on the tasks of your job and your daily life. As each day goes by, you become more frustrated and depressed with a feeling of total helplessness in your attempt to get back to feeling normal again.

Simple decisions can be difficult to make and you forget things much more easily than you ever did before. The day-to-day stress of your situation is compounded by continuous battles with sleep deprivation and being surrounded by people who can't relate to how you feel and often doubt that you actually have pain at all. Your body doesn't exhibit any physical injury or handicap which makes your condition seem invisible to everyone around you, leaving you feeling lonely and isolated.

The condition described above is often referred to as Fibromyalgia and affects 10 million people in the U.S. alone. Thousands of cases have been linked to the impact of a car accident on the body.

Paws for Comfort® was founded by Nancy Gordon as a result of her search to find relief from the chronic pain she frequently experienced after developing Fibromyalgia following a car accident. Unable to focus or concentrate on daily activities as a result of prescribed pain and sleep medications, she needed an alternative that would allow her to function better. Heating pads seemed to be the only source that provided that relief.

Suffering from chronic pain almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, she had no choice but to use microwavable hot packs and electric heating pads as her sole method of relief. One day she learned about an ancient and rare dog breed called Xoloitzcuintli, more commonly known as the Mexican Hairless or Xolo.

Dogs have a normal body temperature that is 103°F as compared to humans 98.6°. We don't typically notice the difference since most dogs have a coat of fur that insulates their skin from ours when we pet them. Since Xolos have very short hair or are hairless, they feel hotter to the touch, similar to a heating pad. Xolos were used as ancient hot water bottles by the Aztecs to provide relief from "arthritis-like symptoms" by placing them next to the areas of pain on ones body. Discovering this gave Nancy the idea of replacing her microwave heating pad with a Xolo she named Toaster.

Xolos can provide the same relief from pain as electrical heating pads without getting burned and they are much more convenient than a microwavable pad that only lasts 20 minutes or so. Xolos become very attached to their owners and most often love to snuggle with them. In fact, they are often referred to as "velcro dogs", making them happy heating pads. When trained as service dogs, they can be taken virtually anywhere to provide continuous pain relief.

Paws for Comfort® created Xolos for Chronic Pain Relief™ (X-CPR™), a 501(c)3 nonprofit, which is a service dog placement program whose mission is to help others experience this amazing source of relief and comfort by matching Xolo puppies with persons living with chronic pain conditions that respond to heat therapy.

Since its inception, Nancy has successfully placed numerous dogs with people who suffer from chronic pain. She has received many emails informing her of how much the dogs have changed their lives, from decreasing their dependency on pain medications to giving them the ability to return to some sense of normalcy in their lives.

Paws for Comfort® receives emails every week from people whose chronic pain has forced them to give up their jobs and live on disability income, and consequently, cannot afford a Xolo to help relieve their pain. This is where we need your help. These dogs are rare and expensive. Helping others to find the right match for their particular needs, afford the Xolo, and provide training consultation is the very heart of X-CPR™.

Your donation helps subsidize the costs of acquiring these expensive, rare breed dogs for those in dire need of pain relief.

Your donations are tax-deductible under the 501c3 requirements. On the left corner of each page of this website is a Donate button which links to Paypal. You may also donate through our fundraising website by clicking the Firstgiving button above the Donate button. Please make any written form of payment out to X-CPR. Thank you so much for helping us help others in pain.

Paws here to discover our current available pups. Caution:Xolos may be irresistible!

Sadie was happily placed in Wa. in Jan 2011.

These are only some of the Xolos placed to be of service to owners with FMS, Arthritis, and other conditions with muscle pain.

Click here to get involved with X-CPR™.