Friday, December 29, 2000
Doggie devotion makes life easier
By Peggy Hager
LANCASTER -- Lancaster resident Pat Morrison is a fervent believer in the benefit that dogs have for the disabled.
Put in a wheelchair by a 1996 horseback riding accident, Morrison is now assisted in her daily activities by Panda, a pit bull mix she found wandering the streets and trained to switch on lights, retrieve dropped objects and pull her wheelchair.
"I needed a dog and she needed a person," said Morrison.
Morrison found Panda as a puppy starving on a Lancaster street in August. When no one answered her newspaper ads seeking the dog's owner, she had the pooch spayed and vaccinated. Facing a two-year wait for a companion dog from a company in Santa Rosa, Morrison decided to keep the pup and train her.
Panda's first training was to paw at the light switch when Morrison said "light." It took the dog five minutes to learn.
"She was amazingly quick," said Morrison, who before her accident had trained dogs and horses.
Then Panda learned to pull Morrison's wheelchair in public, to carry objects for Morrison and to retrieve items she has dropped.
Black and white and now 11 months old, Panda wears a green vest bearing patches that read "Service" and "Ask to Pet Me, I'm Friendly."
"She does amazingly well with minimal experience. When we go to the library, she falls asleep," said Morrison. "She's so good."
Morrison was injured when the horse she was riding reared up and fell on her. The accident crushed the fourth and fifth thoracic vertebrae in her spine, leaving her without the ability to stand, weak arm muscles, loss of speech and the loss of 10 years from her memory.
A former college instructor and teacher of the developmentally disabled, Morrison went to work to rehabilitate herself.
"I had to learn to live with the fact that I wasn't going to be the noble survivor," said Morrison.
During her stay in the hospital, a friend brought in her dog to visit with Morrison, and she saw how the faces of the other patients lit up when they saw the animal.
"It made a total impression on me that this was something that could help people," said Morrison.
Morrison said she recovered her speech by practicing Shakespearean monologues to strengthen her facial muscles. Most of her memory has returned, but she still can't remember one year of her life. She also regained much of her ability to walk, but weak upper leg muscles leave her unable to stand for long.
Because of increasing scar tissue, Morrison says she will eventually be confined to the wheelchair.
Morrison has one more recent problem. Last week, someone stole from in front of her home a wheelchair she had received from A.V. Sickroom Supply through the CAN DO organization.
She has another wheelchair, but it is too wide for her and she has difficulty getting it into her car. She is asking that whoever took her other chair bring it back, with no questions asked.
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