Puppy Therapy

Walking in the room, I will admit to initially viewing the experience as something else I had to do, something else in a crowded schedule, that quickly changed. I learned about the difficulties associated with training and raising a seeing eye dog as well as their ultimate purpose. Then I switched my full attention to the puppies. Yahtzee was her name. The one-year-old black labrador (and future seeing-eye dog) was without a doubt the best thing to happen to me all semester. We all were settled around the dogs in little circles. Yahtzee ran up to me as soon as her trainer told her “say hi!”. She licked my face with ridiculous amounts of enthusiasm and saliva. I was smiling without having to force it on my face, something that had become a rare occurrence with the stress of the ongoing semester. For a couple of hours I set aside the worries and anxieties, and allowed myself to be a girl with no concern greater than winning tug-of-war.

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