When Laramie's big heart finally stopped a week ago, her death was a blow to the woman who'd raised and lived with the black-and-tan Doberman for nearly 15 years.
Live with an animal that long, and it's to be expected that the first day you wake up and she's not there can be as empty as any you've ever known.
I felt the loss, too, although surely not as keenly. I'd known Laramie almost all her life, and became friends with her owner, Gay Currier, over the shared interest of our love for animals. A lot of my friendships start that way, and over the years my friends and I have consoled each other when our animals have left us -- Anitra and Sara, Toni and Binky, Kippy and Doc, to name but a few, all gone but never forgotten.
But Laramie ... this dog was a part of something bigger, something that changed the lives of thousands of people for the better.
Laramie was born to be a service dog.
The concept was still new when Laramie was a puppy. People had long accepted that dogs could be trained to help people with impaired vision, but one woman thought they could do more.
Bonnie Bergen was that woman, and she thought dogs could be trained to assist people who use wheelchairs, to turn light switches on and off, to pick up dropped items and fetch others, to provide both companionship and a degree of protection. She thought dogs could also be trained to do tasks for people who were hearing-impaired.
But more than anything else, Bonnie Bergen thought trained dogs could offer independence to the people they served.
With such a dream, she founded Canine Companions for Independence, based in Santa Rosa, Calif., and sought out dogs like Laramie to help make it come true.
"Bonnie said, 'I think you'll like this dog,'" said Gay, of her decision to become one of CCI's earliest puppy-raisers. It turned out to be an understatement of the grandest scale.
Laramie grew into such an outstanding dog that she was never given the chance to be a service dog -- she was held out to be bred. She had one litter, and one of those pups went on to be a service dog.
Laramie herself, trained to respond to more than 70 commands, became a public-relations ambassador as Gay moved on to open an office in Sacramento, Calif., for CCI, helping puppy-raisers train and socialize their charges for the work ahead of them. Laramie also worked as a therapy dog, visiting nursing homes and schools.
Gay doesn't work for CCI anymore, and the organization no longer uses Dobermans in its service-dog program. But in the course of this one dog's lifetime, the work Laramie was born to do has become an invaluable and accepted part of the fabric of our society, another example of the importance of animals in our lives.
When she called with her sad news, Gay said it seemed to her that Laramie's life went by in a flash, that it was so, so very short. And she's right in one respect: I remember the leggy young Laramie as if no time at all has passed.
On the other hand, it seems long ago that there was a time when service dogs didn't exist at all -- no dogs helping people in wheelchairs, no dogs helping people who cannot hear.
All this changed, in one dog's lifetime.
"She changed my life," said Gay. "That may be an unusual concept for some people. But it happened. It happened."
Thanks to dogs like Laramie and the people who recognize their potential, it's not such an unusual concept at all.
Just ask anyone with a service dog.
CYBERLINKS: You can find out more about service dogs by visiting the Web sites of those organizations that train and place them. Canine Companions for Independence (www.caninecompanions.org), Independence Dogs Inc. (www.ndepot.com/idi), and Paws With a Cause (www.ismi.net/paws) all have pages describing their programs. The Internet also offers support for those who have just lost a special animal companion. The newsgroup alt.support.grief.pet-loss provides animal-lovers with a place to discuss their pets, and Kathie Maffitt's pet-loss page (www.primenet.com/(tilde)meggie/petloss.htm) is a good jumping-off spot for pet-loss resources on the Web.
Gina Spadafori, the award-winning author of "Dogs for Dummies," is affiliated with the Veterinary Information Network Inc., an international on-line service for veterinary professionals. Write to her in care of this newspaper, or e-mail to Giori@aol.com.
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