That girl has a dog

New Beginnings

As my dad turned the car into the driveway, I finally saw the place I would call home until I graduated. My parents decided to pack up our house in our small Virginia town my junior year of high school and drive all the way down the coast until we got to Florida. Spending almost every summer in Florida, I was excited to be able to call our previous vacation destination home, kind of. "Ella aren't you so excited!" my mom exclaimed. "Yeah, I guess so." I was excited, don't get me wrong. New places are difficult, because I am always afraid people will treat me different because Clove, my 3-year-old Labrador Retriever, is always by my side.

When I was 13, I got diagnosed with a medical condition called POTS, it stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. My doctor isn't sure what caused it, but it makes my heartbeat fast, my blood pressure rise and fall, which then leads to me passing out. I spent half of my freshman year of high school in and out of the hospital because we couldn't seem to control what was happening. I think I probably took 15 different medications to try and help my symptoms, but nothing really helped. It wasn't until one day at the cardiologist my mom and I noticed a service dog sitting under the feet of another teenager probably the same age as me. The dog had a bright orange vest on that read "CARDIAC ALERT DOG" and "POTS ALERT DOG" on 2 big patches. At this time, I didn't know much about service dogs, other than that they guided people who were blind and helped veterans with PTSD, I had no idea they had dogs that can help with cardiac conditions. She got called back before me and I watched as her perfectly trained golden retriever walk right by her side.

Naturally, I was going to ask my doctor what a cardiac service dog was, he didn't seem to know too much about what they were, only what the girl in the waiting room had told him. What my mom and I found out that day was that cardiac alert dogs are trained to smell the changes in your saliva during an episode of high blood pressure, and high heart rate before you notice the symptoms yourself. So pretty much, I could have a dog that could alert me before I passed out which meant I could get in a safe position or take medicine to try and prevent it, what a game changer.

I talked with both of my parents later that night about getting a service dog, my mom was on board but my dad, being a dad, told us we couldn't afford one. After dinner I pulled out my laptop and googled "How to get a service dog" I came across many YouTube videos and articles about how to get one. What I learned that night was that you can either train one yourself or get one already trained.

My parents were cat people, we didn't have a family dog, so I didn't really know anything about dog training and figured the "Do it Yourself!" option was out of the question. There was a link halfway down the google search for a place called Wags for Abilities. Curiosity got to me, and I clicked on the link. The home page greeted me to a big black Labrador Retriever wearing a red vest with his tongue out. After further investigation of the website, I learned that these dogs were given to recipients for free after an extensive process. Slamming my laptop shut, I hopped out of bed and ran down to the living room to show my parents. Convincing my dad shouldn't be so hard now, I mean who can say no to a free dog?

Fast forward 3 years, here I am. Clove and I graduated from the Wags for Abilities service dog program 6 months ago and have been inseparable since. She has alerted to me probably 50 times since I've had her, she can bring me medicine and bottles of water, she can pick up items I've dropped so I don't have to risk getting dizzy picking them up myself, and most importantly, she has given me the independence to go out and live the life I deserve.

The house my parents bought was beautiful, it was a typical beach house with bright blue walls and a huge staircase. Palm trees flooded the front yard, and I could see the blue water peaking from the back. Our home was in the city of Venice, which is a decent size city on the gulf, about an hour south of Tampa. We grew up going to a beach called Nokomis, that was pretty much its own island in Venice. I climbed out of the back seat; Clove followed, as did my mom and dad.