Born over sixty years ago with Cerebral Palsy that keeps me from even standing, I have always been taken care of by others.  I have certainly been fortunate in receiving adequate care—but I have always been only on the receiving side of any care-giving relationship, never on the giving side, never able to meaningfully care for any other creature.  Nor have I ever been able to be a parent, to find significant personal fulfillment through the growth and accomplishments of any other being for whom I was responsible.

That was before Gage.  Now I am partnered  with a tail-wagging, joyful, but also needful young being who looks to me for guidance, for food, for toilet stops to “Better Go Now.” for purpose in his own life—and for the fun times we share.  Gage knows I often need others’ help in providing these things for him; I cannot harness or bathe him alone, and I need help getting his red service dog vest laundered with my own clothing.   But he also realizes that I’m the one who gets these things done for him.  He knows that it’s because of me that he gets to take a Paratransit bus daily to our employer’s office, where I write and he retrieves the pen that falls from my hand.   And as Gage grows—physically and in canine emotional maturity, in the added tasks he helps me complete, in the range of new daily life situations we have successfully conquered—I am coming to know the feeling of guiding another creature’s growth.   Gage knows I’m “Dad.”

And I know my life is much more complete because of Gage.  God bless him!