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    Miracle Dogs: Rescue Stories
    Miracle Dogs: Rescue Stories
    Miracle Dogs: Rescue Stories
    Ebook303 pages3 hours

    Miracle Dogs: Rescue Stories

    By Liz Stavrinides

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    78 million dogs live as pets in the USA. These are the lucky ones. Five to seven million companion animals enter shelters every year, and more than half are euthanized due to the lack of space.
    Miracle Dogs celebrates and honors the rescuers and the dogs whose lives they've saved. It features wonderful stories and photographs of dog rescuers, dog trainers, and rescue organizations such as The Gentle Barn and Tamar Geller's Operation Heroes and Hounds, along with celebrity pet owners such as Chevy Chase, Hoda Kotb, Bob Einstein, Amanda Hearst, Jamie Lynn Siegler, and Lance Bass. Each story includes portraits of the dog and its new family, followed by a concise, compelling narrative detailing the dog's journey to its new home.A professional pet photographer, Liz Stavrinides spends much of her time on projects related to animal rescue. Miracle Dogs was born out of her desire to collect and share the stories of the dogs she's met over the years, showcasing the incredible bravery and compassion of both canines and owners. Readers will be moved by stories like that of Wyatt, an assistance dog who helped a young boy with autism communicate with the outside world, or Fiona, who was found blind and starving and is now in a loving family. All of them have finally found their furever homes. Stavrinides' portraits are heartwarming—a loving and poignant tribute to man's best friend.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 7, 2014
    ISBN9781466845398
    Miracle Dogs: Rescue Stories
    Author

    Liz Stavrinides

    Liz Stavrinides is a critically-acclaimed photographer and author of Miracle Dogs and Extraordinary Dogs. In addition to also photographing people, architecture, and interiors, Liz has particularly combined two of her greatest passions in life—her love for animals and photography—into a meaningful career. Unleashing her creative eye in the studio and on location, Liz exclusively uses FUJIFILM X and GFX Series cameras. Her work has been published and exhibited widely, including Forbes, Modern Dog/Cat Magazine, Coastal Canine, Pebble Beach Magazine, FujiLove and Carmel Magazine.

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      Book preview

      Miracle Dogs - Liz Stavrinides

      1    Wyatt

      In the Field of Dreams

      Danielle Townsend

      I typically get about two kisses per year from Ashton. One on his birthday, and one on mine, maybe. Before he will agree to it, I have to wipe down my lips, and he insists on touching them to make sure they are dry. And then, the kiss is as quick as he can possibly make it. It has kind of turned into a joke in our home, but when I really stop to think about it, it’s sad.

      I carried Ashton in my belly for the full nine months, delivered him naturally, and had so many plans for all the hugs and kisses I would smother him with for the remainder of his life. Life didn’t quite turn out like that, though. Instead, when Ashton falls and hurts himself, which is relatively often, I have to painfully watch from about two to three feet away. I wish I could grab him, kiss what hurts, and make it all better, but I now know that doing any of that will only make his pain worse. So I watch, trying to will some of his pain to transfer over to me.

      When you have a child with autism, you read all these stories of how expensive treatments are, how there are a bazillion possible new causes, or how so many kids are on the spectrum now that the word autism has become as mainstream as ADD was twenty years ago. What you don’t hear about as often, is the feeling of inadequacy that you feel as a parent. Suddenly, you question every decision you made during pregnancy. Are all of the therapies worth it? How much are you making the rest of your family sacrifice? I have actually had my other children say that everything we do is always for Ashton, Ashton, Ashton. And it is true. He needs more than they do. But how do you explain that to a six-year-old?

      I’ve had feelings of guilt that we failed as parents of an autistic child. I still have not been able to reconcile with the fact that I can’t comfort Ashton when he gets hurt. And even worse were the times he would disappear. I would be in the front yard pulling weeds with all the kids playing behind me. When I would look back, suddenly Ashton would be gone. No noise, no screaming, no one saw what happened to him, he would just simply disappear. Usually, it was because someone had upset him, and he decided to leave. I always found him in time before anything catastrophic happened, but I always felt that one time I might not. He has darted into elevators, right before the doors closed. He’s run into the street, missed only by slow, careful drivers. I have received calls from school saying that he was missing. I was always on edge.

      My feelings of incapability have always been outweighed by love, though. However tired I am, I never give up. If he needs an advocate, I am there fighting. If he needs therapy, we make it to those appointments. If there is a program that might help, I am going to make sure he is a part of it. I have no interest in curing Ashton. I think he has a lot to offer just as he is, and if I changed that, I would be doing this world a disservice. I just want to help make his way through our world a little easier. In that quest, I found Assistance Dogs of the West (ADW).

      I had heard of service dogs being used as tools for people with autism a while back, and, when Ashton was almost five years old, I looked into several organizations. I chose to go with ADW because their methods were so thorough. They train rescue dogs and some dogs also come from accredited breeders. During their two years of training, the dogs live with several different people, that way they don’t bond with one particular person before they are matched with their recipient. Kids help train, so the dogs get used to children giving orders, instead of just adults. People with various disabilities are also used to train the dogs. Not only does this provide jobs for these people with disabilities, but the dogs become desensitized to wheelchairs, walkers, slurred speech, or emotional outbursts. ADW has some of the most accomplished and amazing trainers and staff of any facility we visited.

      We began the interview process with ADW in July 2010. They spent a lot of time getting to know us and our needs, and they listened to what I said we needed for Ashton in a dog. One of Ashton’s autistic symptoms is that he has an extremely difficult time making new relationships, so he needed a dog that really wanted to bond with him. Our process took much longer than expected. We interviewed with dozens of dogs, and Ashton almost got placed with a chocolate Lab named Trevor, but Trevor developed some health problems that made our family a difficult match for him. There were times that I became a little discouraged, but ADW always assured me that we would get the right dog, and we definitely did. In June 2012 we finally found Wyatt, our little golden retriever. The first time we met Wyatt, he was only eight months old. It was love at first sight. Wyatt just knew. He knew what Ashton needed from him. He knew what I needed from him. He knew just the right amount of energy to have. And that FACE! Really, no one can resist him.

      Once we brought Wyatt home, there was an immediate change in Ashton. He began to develop a certain amount of patience and empathy that we had never seen in him before. He and his younger brother, Nathan, are now inseparable almost all the time at home. It definitely wasn’t like that before. Ashton would isolate himself. Now, when I meet with school staff, they explain how Ashton is so well liked and social in class. Last spring, Ashton and Wyatt joined a Little League team for special needs kids. Ashton is a fielder and hitter, and Wyatt is the mascot and sometimes pinch runner alongside those who need to borrow him for a little encouragement. I never thought I would see Ashton play any type of sport. It’s such a huge change from where we began. When we are out, Ashton loves to tell people all about Wyatt, and how he belongs to just him.

      During Wyatt’s training at ADW, both the trainers and Ashton worked exhaustively with hide-and-seek. Since Ashton is what we call a bolter, we needed Wyatt to be able to find him in a hurry when Ashton disappeared. This was always one of the main goals for Wyatt. But Wyatt and Ashton had ideas of their own. Although they still love to play hide-and-seek, they have just decided that it would be better if they stayed together all the time, and that it would be better if Ashton didn’t disappear anymore. It was a consequence of Wyatt being around that I had never even considered. When we are out, Ashton always holds on to Wyatt’s leash, so he does not have the opportunity to wander off or hide. At home, instead of running off when he is upset, Ashton is comforted by Wyatt. Although he rejects any comfort from people, Wyatt doesn’t seem to have to follow the same rules. If Ashton scrapes his knee, Wyatt comes and licks it, and then he licks Ashton’s face, and then lies next to him and takes his mind off of what happened. If Ashton is having a meltdown, Wyatt comes and lies on top of him to calm him down. When Ashton needs to go to sleep, Wyatt hops in bed with him, or Ashton crawls and sleeps with Wyatt on his bed. Ashton is finally getting a good night’s sleep for the first time in his life.

      Has Wyatt cured Ashton? No, of course not. But Wyatt gives Ashton an outlet. He gives him protection. He gives him kisses. He gives him comfort. And by proxy, he gives the rest of us all of those things, too. I even sometimes bribe Ashton to give me a hug by telling him that I won’t feed Wyatt until he does. Call it what you will, but I’ve easily doubled my hugs! I’m only doing this because I really care for you! he tells Wyatt.

      I still feel like I come up short sometimes. I assume every parent does at some point. But now Wyatt is like my helping hand. Even though he has only been with us for a short time, I could not imagine life without him. He finally gave Ashton a connection to the world and for that I will always be thankful to him, and to all of those who had a role in bringing him to us.

      2    Dingo, Foster, and Lily

      What Money Can’t Buy

      Lance

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