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Holidays with Robbie are always a special time. I continue to be in awe of his ability to walk past obnoxious Christmas decorations in stores without balking, his ability to move quietly by my side through the crowds in stores (though, lately, we're given more berth - thank you inadvertent positive virus side effects), and his absolute impulse control as tissue paper and wrapping paper alike are torn apart and tossed all around him at our annual family Christmas gathering. Christmas is special for another reason, too, though. December 23 is Robbie's estimated birthdate, based on the age he was when he was surrendered to a shelter as a young puppy. Christmas is a time when I reflect on all that I have done with Robbie, all the ways he has changed my life and the joy he has brought me, and what the future may hold for my team. This Christmas may look different in terms of family traditions, but celebrating Robbie's life with us and our adventures to come will be our constant. Robbie will be 7 years old this Christmas. By February, he will have been in my life for 6 years! It feels like it has just flashed by. this upcoming year, we will be starting to prepare our house, our budget, and our minds for welcoming a second dog into our lives by 2022, when I'll hopefully begin training service dog #2. Robbie is doing well, and not close to retirement, but I'd like there to be overlap between the successor being trained and Robbie still actively working. We've already made some steps. We built a porch fence to end Robbie's days of extreme acrobatics on and off the porch at warp speed before he gets hurt, and also to have extra containment for while we have two dogs to wrangle who will have wildly different levels of training for a bit. I started lists and notes on plans to make and things to buy. I've begun working more in earnest to teach Robbie a right side heel for the time when I need to walk two dogs at once. Come spring, we hope to buy new rabbits, to finally fill our old hutch, long empty since the loss of Flopsy. It has been difficult seeing the hutch without her fluffy face awaiting Robbie's each morning. Christmas is also a solemn time, because it reminds me of seeing her go downhill last year, and her passing away at the start of this year. I miss her every day. I sense that Robbie does, as well. It has been a turbulent year, to say the least. I've been hit with being cut off from friends and family, like so many others, I've gotten new information that greatly impacts my disability management, I've busted my butt to finish setting up my dog training business and still am not ready to take clients yet, Robbie missed out on a lot of public access maintenance training, we had to home renovations during a pandemic and push my pain to new limits, and I lost a very dear friend and guardian. Everyone has had their battles this year. We are no exception. Still. I am grateful that I am mostly healthy, and the ones I love are healthy. When I asked for help, people stepped up. Above all else, the day before Christmas, I can celebrate the goofy, stubborn, and loyal service dog by my side. For the last 10 years, I've been putting together a puzzle of my life with CRPS. The piece that started the story, the piece of research that reveals more of this mystery disease, the piece that showed me the way to manage it, and so on. I thought I had the puzzle mostly put together, willing to accept that some pieces would never be found, when I was gut-punched again. One of the pieces that looked small actually belongs to a larger, more complicated puzzle that's been hidden away for 28 years, only now coming into the light. Pretty sure my life with CRPS is about to be turned upside down. Everything I know about how to move, how to act, how to walk, and possibly, how to work with Robbie is about to examined and potentially altered. Hopefully for the better, to move more effectively, act more effectively, walk more efficiently, and work with Robbie more efficiently as well, but change is hard. And in my case, change is painful. I can only hope that our team is strong enough to take the waves. |
My Name is Sally...I have a condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. This blog is about my journey training Robbie, a dog who helped me regain independence, confidence, and achieve the impossible in the face of my disability. It continues on with the training of Austin, Robbie's successor. Check Out... - "More than a Dog" was published on a site called The Mighty Categories
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