Skilled Companion dog EAC Blue has been with Eva, now age 9, since December of 2017. Eva was diagnosed with diabetes when she was just 2 years old.
Having a child with diabetes can be very isolating; mostly, you're on your own. When something happens you just have to sit down and not pay attention to anything else, and for me, that's very difficult because I really don't like public eyes," shares Katie, Eva's mom.
"For example, right before we had our daughter Eva’s Skilled Companion Dog EAC Blue, we went to a funeral and you're taking time to grieve. But I couldn’t do that because diabetes interrupted. Or, you might be in a bookstore and something occurs, and you have to pull out the checker or get some candy. People wouldn’t necessarily recognize what is happening. A lot of times it simply looks like the child is misbehaving. The presence of the dog helps people understand this is a medical situation. They're a lot more inclined to be sympathetic or empathetic when they recognize that if there's a child crying or sitting on the floor in the grocery store, it's not necessarily because of misbehavior.
Blue’s alerting makes life at home easier, too. Once we had some friends over for dinner and we weren’t paying as close attention as usual to Blue or Eva’s continuous glucose monitor. Blue is normally very docile and quiet, but that night he made it his agenda to be intrusive. He interrupted us, blatantly bowed, made direct eye contact, and barked.
Blue never barks; this is one of only two times he’s ever barked. So we had to notice him. We checked Eva’s sugar and she was very low. It was powerful because we were ignoring him and her sugar, and he wouldn’t let them happen.
He’s become part of our family and he's been such a comfort in Eva’s life. She’s said that one of the biggest positives about diabetes is it means she has Blue.
As for us, we adore him. He’s the perfect fit in our family. You can’t imagine the way he looks at us and his complete dedication to his service to Eva. He’s a wonderful dog," said Katie.
Comentarios