A Boy and His Dog: Dog Camp Day 1

Eli's Story

Eli is a wonderful 13-year-old young man with an interesting and remarkable story. He has been on a miraculous journey his whole life and this is the beginning of the next chapter.

Eli began having seizures when he was 17 months old and these quickly progressed to become life-threatening. After much testing and trying several medications, it was determined that the best thing for Eli was brain surgery to try and stop them. On May 17,1999, Eli underwent a modified hemispherectomy, the removal of most of the left side of his brain. This surgery left him seizure free, but paralyzed on the right side of his body and without speech. He has, over the last 11 years regained his speech, his ability to walk and much use of his right hand, in what we feel is a remarkable recovery.

But this world is a two-handed world and in our desire to allow him to be as independent as possible, we recently applied for a service dog for him. We hope that this dog will not only assist him in carrying things, opening doors for him when his hand is full and helping him keep his balance when he is walking in his beloved mountains, we also hope that the dog will be a bridge to the rest of the world for him, helping him connect with others. We also know that the special bond he will have with the dog will only benefit him in ways we can't imagine right now.Join us as we move forward through his journey to his dog, and the rest of his life.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Dog Camp Day 1

Eli attended Power Paws Unleashed! today as his first day of boot camp. He is getting to join an existing summer camp that Power Paws has every summer and through that camp, he is getting his training. They hope to place the dog with him this week, and he will start bringing him/her home with him soon for overnights/weekend stays!

They told him today that the dog they are thinking of for him is Quigley (you can see him in older posts) and we are happy to hear that news, as we had been thinking the same thing. But, you never know, so we will see as time goes on how they work together.

Today, he re-inforced the commands he already knows and learned some new ones, got a lot of time handling the dogs and even got filmed by a local news organization! We are not sure which channel or time, so I can't let you know! If I find it, I will try and post it!

Here are some pictures from the last few minutes of the day. Eli had switched to work with Quilter for a little while before I got there. She was a good dog and at one point when asked to "Lap" looked him right in the eyes. So sweet!!!