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| Name: |
Willow
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Age: |
Four years old
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| Gender: |
Female |
Breed: |
Golden Retriever
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| Home: |
Missoula, Montana, USA |
This
is Lakesyde's Willow, just Willow for short. On Willow's first day
with me when she was eight weeks old she came to work at the law school with
me. I was once a practicing lawyer, but I went back to school, got a
degree in computer science and I am now the Director of IT and Classroom
Technology at the law school. On her first day we took photos of Willow
in a law school seminar room. Over time Willow made many friends at the
law school so last year's graduating class invited her to be a part of the class photo.
When Willow was very young we got a book entitled "Teach Your Dog To
Read" by Bonnie Bergin and Sharon Hogan. I made six flash cards for
Willow and worked with her until she could pretty reliably read and
respond to "woof," "paw," "left," "sit," and "down."
On July 4, 2009, Willow was five months old. Her five month birthday was
a great day. She went to swim in the lake, then came home to share in
grilling on the back deck and then at the end of the day went out to see
the fireworks. We went to sleep about 11 p.m. Willow was in her crate
facing the back deck on the south. The air conditioning was on and the
doors were closed, but about 4 a.m. Willow noticed a fire through the
sliding glass doors on the south deck and began barking. She was barely
old enough to recognize when something was out of the ordinary and her
barking woke me. I walked six steps to the north to get the cordless
phone, but when I turned back to look at the fire I saw that in the
short time it had taken me to get to the cordless phone the fire had
progressed from deck level to the top of the deck doors because the
safety valves on the propane tanks had released. At that point I dropped
the phone, opened the crate and took Willow out on to the front porch.
When the fire department arrived they told me that had it not been for
Willow's barking I would likely have died in my sleep of smoke inhalation.
Willow is now a Pet Partners Therapy Dog. She regularly visits nursing
homes, hospitals, Ronald McDonald House and Law Students during final
exams as part of the "Stressless" program. There is a big wooden fence
on the west side of Willow's back yard. She has dug a hole that is not
big enough to get through, but that is big enough to allow her to see
the black lab that lives on the other side of the fence.
See more images of Willow!
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