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Yearbooks Go to the (Service) Dogs

Over the past few years, some service dogs who accompany students and teachers to school have rightfully gotten their own photos in the yearbook, and I really hope this commendable trend continues.

This year a photo of Presley, a 5-year-old Goldendoodle, appears next to that of Seph Ware in the 2016 yearbook for Good Hope Middle School in West Monroe, La.

Ware, 14, has had Duchenne muscular dystrophy since he was 3 years old and is confined to a wheelchair. For the past four years, Presley has helped him by picking up things he drops, turning on lights, opening drawers and performing other tasks, both at home and at school.

School officials came up with the idea of including Presley’s photo in the yearbook.

“Seph says that it took about 10 minutes to get Presley to look at the camera — and who knows how many shots,” his mom, Lori Ware, told AL.com.

After Presley’s yearbook photo was shared on Facebook this week, it went viral.

“We’re kind of stunned at all the attention,” Lori Ware told FoxNews.com today. “It’s humbling. I’m glad Presley is making the world happy.”

Last year, the hundreds of photos in the 2015 yearbook for Minnesota’s Blaine High School included those of Caramel Thomas and Dakota Comancho.

Caramel is a service dog belonging to Rebecca Thomas, who is hearing impaired and teaches American sign language at Blaine High. For the past 10 years, Caramel has joined her in class.

Dakota, a certified therapy dog, belongs to Vicky Camancho, who teaches a special education class at the school and brings in Dakota once a week.

“The students love seeing the service dogs in the yearbook,” Thomas told Yahoo Canada.

Including the two dogs in the yearbook started a couple of years ago, when Dakota’s photo was taken for an identification badge on class picture day.

“When we got the disc of student and staff photos, we automatically flowed the pictures into the yearbook page sections,” Faculty Adviser Jill Farrell told the Star Tribune. “The editors and I giggled like mad when we saw that a picture of Dakota was included in the images.”

Lynn Florman, head of the special education department, told Yahoo Canada the photos send a positive message.

“Sometimes the unique services they provide are not understood or valued by others, so seeing them recognized in such a public and memorable way as a yearbook sends a strong message to all that they are an integral part of the team that supports our students,” Florman said.

Photos via Facebook; Twitter

Off-Duty Cop at Dog Park Shoots Deaf Woman’s ‘Aggressive’ Service Dog

At first LaToya Plummer of Greenbelt, Md., couldn’t figure out why her service dog, a Pit Bull mix named Cleo, was limping and bleeding as they left a dog park Sunday.

Because she is deaf, Plummer could not hear the gunshot that sent a bullet into Cleo’s side. It was fired by an unidentified off-duty Metropolitan Police Department officer who claims Cleo, with her teeth bared, aggressively charged her and her small dog.

Plummer finds this difficult to believe. “She is the most calm and gentle of my dogs,” she told WUSA 9 through an interpreter.

The officer immediately reported that she’d shot a dog, but by the time Greenbelt Police officers arrived, Plummer — thinking Cleo had been bitten by another dog — had rushed her injured dog to a vet.

It’s unfortunate that no one witnessed the shooting. Even if Cleo did run toward the officer, it seems both dangerous and unnecessary to fire a weapon at such a public place.

“I think she should be charged with felony animal cruelty,” Plummer told WUSA 9.

Plummer said Cleo was walking behind her when the shooting occurred. She didn’t say why she wasn’t keeping an eye on her or why Cleo was off-leash outside the dog park.

The Greenbelt Police Department is investigating the case and has not yet filed any charges.

As for Cleo, WUSA 9 reports she is a very lucky dog and is making a “remarkable” recovery.

“I love Cleo,” Plummer told WUSA 9. “I cherish my dogs.”

Photo via Twitter

SeaWorld Sued for Hawk Attack on Terminally Ill Man’s Service Dog

SeaWorld, which announced this week that it would end its killer-whales-doing-tricks show and instead move the orcas to a bigger tank, where they’d still be held captive — an “improvement” criticized by whale experts and animal welfare activists — is now being sued by a terminally ill man whose service dog was attacked by a trained hawk inside the San Diego theme park.

Robin Revel of Wilsonville, Ore., suffers from chronic progressive chorea (also known as Huntington’s disease), a fatal condition that causes the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. He was visiting SeaWorld in February with his wife, a couple of friends and his service dog, a Pomeranian/Poodle mix named Yogi, when a hawk suddenly swooped down from the sky and clutched the small dog in its sharp claws.

“He came down with both feet and just grabbed a hold of him,” Revel told KATU. “Total terror. It happened so fast.”

Revel was told by SeaWorld staff that the hawk is released by his trainer for the purpose of flying around the park and chasing away seagulls.

Yogi suffered puncture wounds on his stomach, legs and tail. Not long afterward, lumps appeared on the dog’s side and tail.

The lumps were removed and tested positive for valley fever, a potentially fatal fungal disease that’s usually contracted through the lungs. But Yogi’s lungs were clear.

“The veterinarians are saying the talons of the hawk introduced valley fever directly into the bloodstream of the dog,” Daniel Petrov, Revel’s attorney, told KATU.

So far the vet bills for Yogi’s treatment have soared to more than $8,000. Revel is also starting to have symptoms of valley fever, and he thinks SeaWorld should pay the bills.

“I want all of our medical paid for and for his medical to be paid for in the future,” Revel told KATU.

On Wednesday, Petrov filed a liability lawsuit against SeaWorld.

David Koontz, a spokesman for SeaWorld, told KATU he was unaware of the lawsuit.

“Safety is and has always been a top priority for SeaWorld,” he said. “We strive to ensure our guests have a safe, enjoyable and enriching experience while visiting the park.”

Revel told KATU he wants SeaWorld to take responsibility for the attack and prevent other guests and service dogs from being harmed. He is praying for his own service dog’s recovery.

“Yogi is everything to me,” he said. “He’s my support. He keeps me calm.”

Photo via Twitter

Service Dog Grieves for Mom He Saw Killed in Oregon College Shooting

Sarena Moore’s lifelong dream was to have a ranch where handicapped children could ride horses. When she was a young girl, she performed gymnastics on horseback to raise money to benefit horsemanship for the handicapped.

On Oct. 1, the 44-year-old mother of three was attending a class at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, where she was working toward a degree in business. Because she suffered from severe back pain due to sciatica, Moore used a wheelchair and had a service dog, Bullet, who was always by her side. Moore had trained Bullet herself.

As usual, Bullet was right by Moore’s side when a shooter ordered everyone in her classroom to the ground. They all obeyed him, including Moore.

Her classmate Tracy Heu, who was wounded, told FOX8 the shooter told Moore to get back in her wheelchair. As soon as Moore did so, he shot and killed her. She was one of the first victims.

During the entire ordeal, Bullet lay next to Moore’s wheelchair, cool and calm.

“That’s what he is trained to do,” Moore’s grieving fiance, Travis Dow, told FOX8. “He’s trained to stay right next to her no matter what.”

Dow feared the worst for Bullet. But the day after the shooting, police officers brought the dog, his tail wagging, to Dow and Moore’s apartment in Myrtle Creek.

“I was ecstatic,” Dow told FOX8.

But Bullet — who got his sadly ironic name from his previous owner — has not been the same, Dow said. “He’s been acting really droopy. He knows she ain’t coming home, ’cause he was there when the fatal day happened.”

The two have spent the past week comforting each other.

When Dow received Moore’s personal belongings from the college, he gave Bullet the hat Moore liked to wear. “He uses that, lays down on it and everything else,” Dow told KOIN. “I’m not going to take that from him because it’s part of who she was. He walks around every now and then with that in his mouth.”

Bullet was a part of Sarena, Dow told FOX8, “and I was happy to get him back.”

“Sarena Moore will be missed for many reasons, but the one that stands out the most is that Sarena had a caring heart that was bigger than life itself,” her family said in a statement, according to KPTV.

“Whether it was for the horses she loved, the dog she adored, the family members or even the many friends she had since being a young girl, she cared for them endlessly.”

Photos via Twitter, Twitter

Service Dog Serves as Best Man at Veteran’s Wedding

Gabe’s a little hairier than most guys who serve as the best man at weddings.

The 4-year-old Golden Retriever is not only a service dog for U.S. Army veteran Justin Lansford, but he also served as the best man and ring bearer when Lansford married his longtime girlfriend, Carol Balmes, during a ceremony Saturday at the Bayou Club in Largo, Fla.

“I was behind closed doors but from what I could hear, everyone said, ‘Aww,’ kind of simultaneously,” Balmes told Mashable regarding the wedding guests’ reactions to the furry best man.

At the reception afterward, Gabe “made his rounds of visiting all the tables,” Balmes said.

Wedding photographer Brad Hall told USA TODAY Gabe was one of the most cooperative bridal party members he’s ever worked with.

The best man was “easy, quite frankly, a lot easier than we typically see with groomsmen at most weddings,” Hall said.

While on tour in Afghanistan in 2012, Lansford lost his left leg in an IED explosion. Back at home, he was assigned to Gabe, a recent graduate of the nonprofit Warrior Canine Connection, which provides support dogs for wounded veterans to help them cope with injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“The less I use my wheelchair, the more I need his help in smaller tasks and the more he is there,” Lansford told ABC News in March 2014. “It has been very comforting to know that.

“He helps me with one thing to the next. I can use him as a stable surface to lean on, as I get to and from the ground. If I fall, he’ll come up running next to me and I can use him to push off of to get up off the ground.”

With Gabe at his side last year, Lansford proposed to his high-school sweetheart Balmes on — appropriately enough — Veteran’s Day.

To make a donation to help the Warrior Canine Connection train more support dogs, click here.

Photos via Twitter