Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Service Dog Saves the Day

Rosie, my Psychiatric Service Dog in Training, helped me immensely today and I don't even know if she meant to. Part of my treatment plan includes exercising and I had just gotten back to it on Monday and was supposed to go again this morning. All of my muscles were sore from Monday's workout and I had not slept well so when it came time to wake up, neither my husband or son could convince me to get up and get to CrossFit.

My husband sent Rosie in to see me. She curled up with me on the bed and I was content to sleep the morning away with her. But then she started being a bit wiggly and waking me up. Then she put her paws on me and slowly crawled her way up to my pillow and pushed me aside as she took over my pillow. She has never done this before. She usually just sleeps next to me or at the foot of the bed. I don't know if she just really wanted a pillow today or if in some way she knew I needed to wake up, but she succeeded in getting me up in time for the last workout of the morning. Had she jumped up on the bed, barked, and been hyper, I would have gotten upset and put her out of the bedroom. Instead she slowly woke me up, which is always the way I need to be woken up since I have a really hard time with the loud noise of an alarm and waking up quickly. A frantic wake up tends to make me very anxious and a wreck the whole day.



Rosie is still so early in her training and she does not even know her tasks yet, but somehow she manages to help me in the ways I need it most without even knowing she is supposed to do it. My illness definitely has been better and easier to treat having Rosie in our life now.

Without Rosie I would have missed a workout which would have led to a less stable mood and a slide into a bad day that could have carried on all week. Instead she helped me treat my illness so that I have a chance at a better life.
I love life with a service dog.

Blessings,

Rev. Katie

1 comment:

  1. Hi there - I found you through a mutual friend, Bethany W. I can relate to your post. I suffer from depression and my dog and cats seemed to sense my mood and comfort me. We had to find new homes for them due to my daughter's allergies and asthma, but I still miss them so much. Sometimes I go to the shelter for some animal love.

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