Olympic Torch lighting Relay features two extraordinary service Dogs
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Photo taken by Michael Smith
As I’ve pointed out before, my dogs and I sit in awe of the extraordinary work of service dogs. While researching for my book, The Power of Wagging Tails, I had an opportunity to connect with some fantastic people who have service dogs. hearing about the extraordinary work of these dogs inspired my terriers to form the Doggie donation Corps – a motley group of dogs who use their cuteness to help beg for donations to help fund the training of service dogs for disabled veterans in the us through the Pawz For wounded veterans program. I also met an fantastic women who fights for rights for people with disabilities in the UK, Wendy Morrell, and her service pet dog Udo.
Wendy has seen the independence that can be achieved through partnering with a service pet dog in her own life and in the life of her friend Karen Ruddlesden, whose service pet dog Coco informs Karen to impending symptoms of a severe condition called Addison’s disease. Wendy’s pet dog Udo helps Wendy do those seemingly basic everyday tasks that would be a struggle, like pulling off socks or taking laundry out of the dryer, turning lights on and off, and retrieving dropped objects, the phone, or the mail. Coco is a medical detection or alerting pet dog who lets Karen know when Karen’s hormone called cortisol begins to drop, so Karen can treat herself to keep her cortisol level on balance. Without this early detection, Karen could develop very severe and potentially life-threatening symptoms.
Wendy has become an advocate and role model for people with disabilities. Wendy and her service dog Caesar carried the Olympic torch across London Bridge for the 2008 Beijing games. and this year, both Wendy and Karen were selected to participate in the torch carrying ceremony. On Saturday, July 14th, I proudly enjoyed on the BBC’s live torch relay broadcast as these extraordinary women and their service dogs carried the Olympic torch toward London. You can hear about their journey to this moment and see some footage of the ceremony in this video.
Kudos to service dogs anywhere for the extraordinary work they do, bringing independence, hope, and happiness to people in so lots of walks of life. and a special thanks to Udo and Coco for supporting the Olympic spirit of peace and harmony for people and pups across the world.
health benefits of PetsService Dogs