Okay - here's more....

For the first time in her life - the vet came to our house this morning.  

It was time for Sadie to have more blood work taken to see how or if we needed to change any of her medications.  I just thought it would be too hard on her to get her in the car and have all of the "going to the vet" drama.  She shook so hard last time.....

The vet (Dr. Val) thought she looked better than what she was expecting from my description.  Have I said that when it comes to Sadie, I lose ANY objectivity that I might have...?

Dr. Val thought that Sadie was doing so well that she might not start "slowing down" until the first of the year!!

Woooo whoooo - I can breathe!!

Sadie - at the end....

Hello everyone,

Sorry - I haven't blogged about Sadie since last June. You see, Sadie got very sick at the end of last May. I thought that we were going to lose her last summer. It was one of the worst summers of my life, until this summer. The summer of 2011 is not that I will soon forget.

After her "retirement" from Maricopa Medical Center, Sadie was getting restless to get back to work. Ann, from the Maricopa Medical Center left and was hired by Hospice of the Valley. She got the perfect job in being one of the Pet Therapy coordinators. The first thing was to call us and ask Sadie to come out of retirement and for the two of us to be a "pet therapy" team for them.

We agreed and found ourselves volunteering once a month at Huger Mercy Living Center.
See volunteered there for almost 2 years but it wasn't the same as Maricopa Medical Center and her kids. At this point, she cared more about chasing the birds in the courtyard then visiting the people in their rooms.

Last May (2010) we were playing Frisbee (her favorite game) when, while she was running hard for the Frisbee, she suddenly stopped and came up lame. I will NEVER forget the look she gave me when she turned around! I knew that she was seriously hurt, I just know how "hurt" she really was.

More....

Sadie, the Guide Puppy in Training

Sadie was born on June 19th, 1999 in Phoenix, Arizona. Her mother is Jasmine and was a breeding dog for the Eye Dog Foundation. Here is what Jasmine’s “Mommy Raiser” (Peggy) had to say about the birth of Sadie and her 10 brother and sisters:

Announcing the birth of 11 guide puppies to Jasmine, our sweet guide dog mom. Jasmine is a pure black German Shepherd. She is a breeder for Eye Dog Foundation for the Blind in Phoenix, Arizona Jasmine's puppies will be going to puppy raiser's homes at approximately 7 weeks of age. In the meantime, we are having so much fun cuddling and loving them! They are truly remarkable puppies. Way to go, Jasmine! 7 girls and 4 boys. 7 are black and tan shepherds and 4 pure black shepherds (2 girls & 2 boys).

#9 - Friends of Animal Care and Control – Hero Award

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Kent was one of the two children (Ann is the other) who was there and help present Sadie with her "Hero Award" at the Friends of Animal Care and Control Award Fall 2005 Fund Raising Banquet.

[Help them out Here:]http://azfaccs.org.mywebsitebuild.com/events/hero.php

FACCs has created the Hero Awards to recognize and honor the impact local animals have had on human lives through truly heroic efforts of service or personal survival. Each year we recognize animals for their heroic impact on Maricopa County residents. The winners are selected from hundreds of dogs, cats, horses, and birds nominated by pet owners or people in the community for their heroic efforts of service or stories of personal survival. Each was judged for their heroic efforts in acting to save or protect the life of a person, for performing services within the community, or having to overcome their own devastating circumstances to survive.

What does it take to be a hero? Acts of loyalty, community service and the ability to survive against all odds and thrive are behaviors that our animal heroes exemplify. All of the nominees were special and it was difficult to pick just seven to be honored.

The other winner in the Service to Community category was almost ready to become a full-fledged guide dog, when Sadie suddenly came up lame one day. She recovered from that only to face a bigger challenge, a rare disorder that no German shepherd had ever survived (until Sadie). With the help of her pet parent, she battled her way back to the land of the living and now helps human children to do the same. Her work as a therapy dog has earned her the nickname "Sadie the Wonder Dog."

"These animals have shown remarkable courage and compassion," said Ann Damiano, chair of the Hero Awards. "We hope that these stories, and this event, help to highlight the positive impact that animals have on our lives."

#8 - She guarded the door

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He was in the process of dying when we asked the charge nurse to please check with his mom to see if we could visit. Ann, the Child Life Specialist, thought that the parents really could use a "Sadie visit." She knew that this family loved dogs and knew the work that Sadie has done through the years to help families at this time.

I always have to call PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) before we enter the floor. No one ever knows what each will bring to that unit. Many times we can come in, but there have been days that we couldn’t because of procedures that were being done, the status of the kid’s cases, etc.

Even once we enter the unit, we still need to check with the nurses because of the volatile nature of the their health status. The charge nurse wasn’t sure if we should go in.

She knew that I wasn’t going to leave until she asked the family but she was trying to prepare me for a "no visit, thank you from them." She came back from the room with a "wow, they said yes" look on her face.

It would be the first time that we went into a room when a child was "actively dying," and I didn’t know how Sadie would react.

I gently knocked and slowly opened the door and peeked in. The mom and her sister were the only ones in the room. The mom was sitting and slowly rocking herself with her hand on her little son’s back. Her sister was standing and watching.

I introduced us and told them that we provide comfort to the families and the children and wanted to know if it was all right for us to come to visit with them. The sadness in the room was palatable and I wasn’t sure how Sadie was going to react.

She went over and sniffed the crib and the baby and understood, so she turned to back to the crib and faced the door as if she was guarding it. That seemed to make the mom and aunt relax just a bit, as if Sadie was holding death at bay.

Since I had shut the door behind me, I knew that I could drop her leach and go and give both the mom and the aunt a hug, so I did. I asked if I could say a little prayer over her baby and she said yes. I then went and got Sadie and she went over to the aunt for a moment but I could tell that she wanted to go to the mom.

She got between the crib and the chair and put herself in a position where the mom could hug her. I watched in amazement as she made herself available for a hug. I never taught her that. She didn’t learn that for being a Guide Dog, but that’s Sadie, the Wonder Dog.

I wasn’t sure what the mom was going to do. But at that point she reached over and hugged Sadie. She cried right into her shoulder like Jose did. I had a flashback to that moment. While the mom was crying, her sister came over to comfort her. Sadie sensed that the two sisters needed some along time, so I walked me to the door. We said our goodbyes and they thanked Sadie for the hugs and for watching the door.

The baby died later that afternoon.
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#7 - I just want to be able to grow up and help like you

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"When I grow up, I want to be able to train a therapy dog. Will you help me," he asked?

"You betcha'" I said.

His arms and legs don’t move very well because of the Muscular Dystrophy but I know that he absolutely fell in love with Sadie the minute he laid eyes on her. He can’t pet her like the other kids, but he sure loves when Sadie licks him.

We have watched Kent grow up over the last four years. He was finishing the last couple of years of grade school and now going into high school. Kids with MD need both loving parents and their wheelchair to move around. He needs a lot of help from his mom to move from the hospital bed to the chair where Sadie could get at him. There were times when I think this was hard for him having us watch, so I always tried to get Sadie to do something else like putting her in a sit or a down so that Kent didn’t think we were staring at him.

I think this is another hard part of being a long term volunteer when you see the same kids coming in and out of the hospital. I would much rather visit with them at a birthday party at their house then see them back in and not feeling well.

I have to tell all of you that Sadie really likes to lick men’s goatees and beards. I think that they tickle her and she loves it. This past year it looked like Kent was trying to grow his first mustache. That was very cool. So, back to me helping him train his dog….

Kent has a little Chihuahua dog that he thinks would be perfect as a therapy dog like Sadie. He can’t do all of the training and wanted to know if I would help. Of course I would.

When you have a relationship with kids that have MD, the topic of life expectancy may or may not come up. Since I was never sure if Kent would ask me about this, I went to the MD website and found out that "most boys with your disease live into their mid-20s, some even longer."

We last caught up with Kent as he was conducting his own fundraising to help himself get a service dog. He made his own Photoshop picture of him at his high school zooming around the track in his wheelchair, in five different wild costumes.

I love that Kent asked me if I would help him train his dog and I love that he wants to help others. I love that he went out and composed his own photo and was taking his own fund raising into his own hands. But I think the thing that I like most of all about Kent is that he said, "Donna, when I grow up... .

I wanted to put my arms around him, give him the biggest hug and tell him how "grown up" I think he already is.

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#6 - I’m too old to run with you

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I was warned that he can't talk and that he might hit Sadie. It's one of those stories that just make you want to cry. His parents had locked him into the crib for his whole life (3 years). He spoke his own language, but his grandmother seemed to understand. He only felt comfortable in his locked crib so they had to make a modified one for him while he was in the hospital. Ann warned me and asked if we still wanted to visit him and we, of course, said yes.

Being a "pet therapy" team isn't just about bringing in your dog and letting the kids just pet it. It's really about working with the staff and finding out how you and the dog can help the child with their healing.

So Ann said that they were hoping that Sadie's visit would get him to try to walk, to see if he could speak any Spanish or English (instead of his own language) and if he could try to pet Sadie without hitting her. I told Ann, "yeah, no problem, and would you like us to walk on water at the end of the visit too?"

So, I was a little bit cautious going into his room and tried not to have Sadie pick that up from my body language or energy (sure…).

His grandmother was resting in a hospital chair and Jake was in his so called crib. I knock before I enter the room and my little knock stirred the grandma. She only spoke Spanish and when I told her our names and that we were there for a visit (my Spanish isn't too great but she understood me, whew). So, she got up and opened the crib, took Jake out and sat him on the floor as I put Sadie in a "down" on the floor near him. There were some toys on the floor but he really just wanted to stare at Sadie.

I put myself between the two of them because I wasn’t sure what either one of the them was going to do. Jake seemed to get very excited after starring at Sadie for a couple of minutes. While Jake was starring at Sadie, Sadie was starring at Jake. It really was the most amazing thing. He started to talk with his high pitched squeal language and that made Sadie cock her head back and forth at him. It seemed to me that the two of them were doing their own set of talking to one another.

Once Jake started squealing, his grandmother started to get up out of the chair and that distracted me. Jake was quick. He jumped up with a toy truck in his hand and I thought he was going to try to hit Sadie on the head with it. I turned it time to see that he was just showing her his truck. He held it up to her face and was explaining something to her. I moved so that I could grab it if he should start to bonk her with it. He never did.

He put the truck down and sat next to her. He was somewhat spastic in his movements because of the time that he spent locked in his crib, but he did his best to try to pet her. He got his face very close to her face and when that happens I have to very, very quick. See, Sadie will absolutely give the kid the biggest kiss on the face every single time and sure enough, Jake got one.

He seemed surprised for a second and then let out a huge squeal and started to try to laugh. I’m really not sure if Jake had ever tried to laugh before but it seemed like a laugh to me. I took a quick look at grandma and see had the very biggest grin on her face and a single tear coming out of her left eye. I guess it was okay that Sadie kissed him and the four of us were enjoying the moment.

The next thing he did was to grab at Sadie’s leash as a lot of the kids do. (I need to let all of you know that I constantly have a death grip on that leash when the kids get close for that very reason. I don’t need to have Sadie get spooked, stand up and pull the kid across the floor. Of course, that has never happened but the kids do grab the leash.)

Jake stood up and was pulling at her leash. When Jake stood, Sadie stood.

Jake’s eyes got big as saucers because he didn’t realize just how big Sadie is. He tried giving her a hug around the neck but Sadie was nervous with his spastic movements. So, I asked the Grandma if it would be okay if Jake took Sadie for a walk down the hall. I assured her that I really would be the only controlling the leash even though Jake currently wouldn’t let go it.

Ann had come back to the room and told her what we were about to do and she said to try it and she and the grandma would watch from the door.

I looked at Jake and figured I’d try both Spanish and then English and asked him if he walked to walk Sadie. No language was really necessary because as we were walking out of the room, he had her leash and a smile and that’s all that mattered at that point.

So, off we went down the hall with the Jake-Sadie experiment. The pediatric ward (PEDS) is configured in a "t" shape so we were going to walk from one end of the hall to the other and not try to make any turns. So Jake was ahead of me with his hand in the leash but I had it wrapped so that I took all of the tension. We started of walking but that didn’t last too long.

Once Jake discovered his "freedom" from his crib and the room, he thought it would be great fun to run down the hall. Of course, Sadie liked that idea too. So, we started running Jake style. He began to really laugh now that he knew what that sound was.

WE run up and down that hall for over 20 minutes. At several times, all of the nurses at the main nursing station stopped what they were doing to watch Jake and Sadie. People were in shock, were amazed and then the happiest that I had ever seen them. They were poking each other, pointing and then going and getting staff and doctors to watch.

I know that I kept thinking that I am way too old for this but it was absolute joy. Joy for Jake, for Sadie, for his grandmother, Ann, the nurses, and the entire Peds unit and me. It was one of Sadie’s greatest miracles and if I had the stamina, I would have liked to have never stopped.

I wish that I could have captured Jake’s laughter and put it in a bottle. It was the absolute greatest sound that I had ever heard in my entire life. It was the sound of freedom, fun, joy, experimentation, and healing all rolled in to one great laughter.

Jake was didn’t want to stop.

I knew that this was hard on both Sadie and me and we didn’t want to stop either.

His grandmother called to him and he knew it was time so he tried to take us down the other hall with a quick turn. I had to put the brakes on. Man, that was one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do during one of our visits. I told Jake that I would let him pet Sadie but we needed to go back to his room. Grandma came and got us and we headed back.

Jake and Sadie sat on the floor again and this time Jake just hugged her and let her turn and kiss him.

When the time was up and Jake had to go back to the crib, I thought my heart was going to stop. We took a Polaroid with Jake and Sadie and gave it to him. Since Jake didn’t know what that was, he preceded to crumple it into a ball. Good thinking Donna! So I handed him his truck and asked if I could trade the leash for the truck. Again, no way!

So, grandma came over, told Jake to let go and then said the best thing that we could do was to turn and quickly walk out the door and she put him back in the crib. She took the leash out of his hand, picked him up and we turned and walked out of the room.

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