Day 1 of shadowing my mentor and her therapy dog

Today I got to shadow my mentor and her therapy dog at two elementary schools. I feel so blessed to have witnessed what I did. We worked with numerous autistic children, children with speech impediments, children who are emotionally unstable, etc. I saw children, who had not spoken in a week, open up to a therapy dog by choosing and naming the color of a tennis ball out of five colors, throwing it to the dog, and counting to 3 before letting him fetch it. I saw special ed children eagerly line up to read outloud to a dog.  I saw children who cannot focus and hardly walk or talk become excited to walk and play fetch with a dog.  I saw a little special ed girl who was sick and too scared to go to the school nurse climb into a wagon with Titus (therapy dog), get wheeled to the clinic, and open up enough to get her temperature taken while the dog "watched the thermometer" to see if she was okay.  She only allowed us to take her temperature after we took the dog's temperature under his ear.  :)  I saw learning disabled/mentally disturbed students walk Titus around the room and sort through colored rings to put over cones, but only after making Titus sit at every station.  I watched children do all these things with smiles on their faces because they had a dog by their side.  These are things many of the students would not do if they did not have a therapy dog by their side.

Today I watched God work through a very special dog and a very special lady who volunteers their time every week to help special needs children.  I feel blessed to have witnessed the work they do.