“Not every disability is visible”

Renee is a yoga teacher and blogger with Parkinson’s disease.

She writes movingly and beautifully about life with her Great Dane service dog, Tommy, trained by the Service Dog Project:

“Sometimes when we are out in public I manage so well that strangers ask if I am training Tommy. At times it is easier to smile and nod and other times I say, “No, he’s training me.” 

Both seem to be true. The other day I had just finished teaching a yoga class and everyone had already left when I realized I had forgotten to take my meds. I literally become frozen in place. When this happens at home Tommy helps me from room to room. Today however, we were all alone in the building and would have to navigate both stairs and the two blocks to my car. Without Tommy I would have had to wait 45 minutes for the meds to kick in. With him, I talked and he walked….the entire way, me talking, Tommy walking.

It’s as though we have taught each other a kind of slow-motion dance.”

Read more from Renee on her blog.