Service Dog Saves Owner, Inspires Poetry

posted on Apr 19 by Admin in the Advocacy, Disability News, Fun, Guest Authors, Interesting Links, Wheelchair Accessibility category

John Clark, a 6th grade teacher for 20 years, finally retired when his disease, progressive spinal muscle atrophy, became too much to continue. Regardless of the disease, Clark continued his education from home, receiving a Master’s degree in poetry, which he writes with the use of a mouth stick. In 1998, he was even published in the American-Irish Historical Society’s journal, The Recorder, and several other publications.

Despite the seriousness of his disease and the physical limitations it put on his life, he never thought he would qualify for a service dog because he always thought there were others more in need of one than himself. On a suggestion made by his brother-in-law, Clark finally applied for a service dog from Canine Companions for Independence, unaware that he had just begun the journey that would change his life as he knew it. After being accepted into the CCI training program, Clark and his family learned quickly that, in addition to an extensive vocabulary of a 125 words and 70 commands, Lex could also become Clark’s companion, life saver, and most recently, his muse.

Lex became Clark’s hero one day when a hickory nut that was lodged between two flagstones of the driveway caused John’s wheelchair to go into an uncontrollable spin, sending him into a stucco wall, where he became wedged in with three of his four wheels off the ground. Lex came to Clark’s aid with no verbal prompting and began to inch the wheelchair by pushing the right then left sides of the back of the chair slowly back onto stable ground.

Clark, overjoyed at the dog’s heroic feat, wanted to thank his dog in an appropriate way and immediately decided that the dog’s actions went above and beyond that of an extra bone to chew. He began to write his rescue dog a 150-page book of sonnets, inspired not just by the disaster from which Lex saved Clark, but also by the everyday “rescues” as well.

The sonnets are about everything Lex can do, according to Clark. “The work that he does picking up my mouth stick if I drop it, turning on lights, that sort of thing. It also shows that he’s got a sense of humor. It shows his marvelous personality.”

The Joy of Lex: Life with a Service Dog boasts an introduction from critically acclaimed author, Dean Koontz, and was published on Clark’s independent label, Black Lab Books (www.blacklabbooks.com), where you can find other work by Clark as well.

Clark’s message to others who are disabled is the hope that they will not wait, as he had, to apply for a service dog to enrich their lives, as Lex has enriched his own.

Source: http://bronxville.patch.com/articles/a-dog-a-wheelchair-and-a-story-of-dedication-and-redemption