Of Dogs and Angels,
By Roger Caras
During my years in animal
welfare work - I served as the president of the American Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - I have heard
wonderful stories about the power of the human-animal bond. One
of my favorites is about a girl and her very special dog.` When
the girl was born, her parents were stationed with the U.S. Army
overseas. The tiny baby spiked a fever of 106 degrees and when
they couldn't help her at the military base, the baby and her
family were flown home to the United States where she could
receive the proper medical care.
The alarming fever kept
recurring, but the baby survived. When the episode was over, the
child was left with thirteen different seizure causes, including
epilepsy. She had what was called multiple seizure syndrome and
had several seizures every day. Sometimes she stopped breathing.
As a result, the little girl
could never be left alone. She grew to be a teenager and if her
mother had to go out, her father or brothers had to accompany
her everywhere, including to the bathroom, which was awkward for
everyone involved. But the risk of leaving her alone was too
great and so, for lack of a better solution, things went on in
this way for years.
The girl and her family lived
near a town where there was a penitentiary for women. One of the
programs there was a dog-training program. The inmates were
taught how to train dogs to foster a sense of competence, as
well as to develop a job skill for the time when they left the
prison. Although most of the women had serious criminal
backgrounds, many made excellent dog trainers and often trained
service dogs for the handicapped while serving their time.
The girl's mother read about
this program and contacted the penitentiary to see if there was
anything they could do for her daughter. They had no idea how to
train a dog to help a person in the girl's condition, but her
family decided that a companion animal would be good for the
girl, as she had limited social opportunities and they felt she
would enjoy a dog's company.
The girl chose a random-bred
dog named Queenie and together with the women at the prison,
trained her to be an obedient pet.
But Queenie had other plans.
She became a "seizure- alert" dog, letting the girl
know when a seizure was coming on, so that the girl could be
ready for it.
I heard about Queenie's amazing
abilities and went to visit the girl's family and meet Queenie.
At one point during my visit, Queenie became agitated and took
the girl's wrist in her mouth and started pulling her towards
the living room couch. Her mother said, "Go on now. Listen
to what Queenie's telling you."
The girl went to the couch,
curled up in a fetal position, facing the back of the couch and
within moments started to seize. The dog jumped on the couch and
wedged herself between the back of the couch and the front of
the girl's body, placing her ear in front of the girl's mouth.
Her family was used to this performance, but I watched in
open-mouthed astonishment as the girl finished seizing and
Queenie relaxed with her on the couch, wagging her tail and
looking for all the world like an ordinary dog, playing with her
mistress.
Then the girl and her dog went
to the girl's bedroom as her parents and I went to the kitchen
for coffee. A little while later, Queenie came barreling down
the hallway, barking. She did a U-turn in the kitchen and then
went racing back to the girl's room.
"She's having a
seizure," the mother told me. The girl's father got up, in
what seemed to me a casual manner for someone whose daughter
often stopped breathing, and walked back to the bedroom after
Queenie.
My concern must have been
evident on my face because the girl's mother smiled and said,
"I know what you're thinking, but you see, that's not the
bark Queenie uses when my daughter stops breathing."
I shook my head in amazement.
Queenie, the self-taught angel, proved to me once again how
utterly foolish it is to suppose that animals don't think or
can't communicate.
