I could hear the protests from the end of the hallway at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “No! NO!” Nico’s* leg had been amputated after an injury. Now he had an artificial leg. His therapists wanted him to try to walk. “No!” he shouted again. “It hurts!”
Hathaway, a therapy dog, had met Nico during earlier visits. I’m Hathaway’s human partner. The dog took me to Nico’s wheelchair. “Would you like to take Hathaway for a walk?” I asked. Nico stopped crying. He forgot about the pain. Instead, he reached for the leash and stood up. With Hathaway beside him, Nico left the wheelchair behind and walked. Then, standing and balancing on his brand-new leg in the therapy gym, he played fetch with Hathaway, his Labrador retriever friend.
A therapist shook her head in disbelief. “When Hathaway’s here,” she said, “miracles happen.”
A Black Ball of Fluff
In June of 2009, my family and I picked up an eight-week-old black ball of fluff from the airport. Hathaway was a Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) puppy. CCI provides highly trained service dogs, free of
