Changing Lives—Building a Relationship

Guest post by Robin R. about her service dog, SSD Lynsey

We changed each other’s lives, really.

This is the story of a Labrador retriever whose owner had died and who had “kind of” been left on her own. No one wanted her. She was overweight, alone, sad, and ill. I was underweight, alone, sad, and also ill. Because of a stroke of fate, for which we would both always be grateful, we ended up together.

At first, there was trouble. I was being dragged all over the place by the leash. Lynsey has picked up bad habits from neglect, and there were lots and lots of hair and spitcicles. But one day, after many hours of hard work, she started to pay attention, and I found love, safety, and companionship. A true relationship began to develop.

One day, I inexplicably found myself looking at the room upside down. I realized I was on the floor, wondering why a smelly walrus with prickly whiskers was licking my face! The realization finally dawned that I had passed out and the walrus was my dog who was trying to wake me up! Lynsey went and got the telephone and sat patiently as I waited for the world to right itself again.

It was the beginning of a team. I had become quite reclusive, but with Lynsey by my side, I began to go to the grocery store, the mall, movies, and even an occasional restaurant again. Lynsey even go the chance, to her great joy, to find out that she was a water dog—and a retrieving one at that—when she saw her first lake at age five. We had a reason to get up in the morning and a reason to love again. Our lives were changed profoundly.

In one of life’s moments that seem to make no sense at all, Lynsey because very ill suddenly and passed away within only one week. I have been told that the bed she now sleep on is a cloud turned inside out by God, and that she turned round and round in until it was just right. She’s in a place with many friends to play with in forever green fields. I can live with that. However, I will never forget one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.

Rest in peace, beautiful girl. You changed my life forever.