Mi Miss Testarosa vom Gravin
WH, CGC, WAC, Delta PP, BH
Click to see a slideshow of Testa
Eventually, all the pups had gone to their various homes across the country. Testa settled into our small pack and started her training and wiggling her way into my heart. I tried my hand in the conformation ring and realized I had a treasure. She won every match to which I took her. We learned so much together. She was smart and an eager pupil and loved to work. I introduced her to obedience as well as Schutzhund.
When Testa was a year old I had preliminary x-rays done on her hips. The news was not good. She was mildly dysplastic. I had her spayed and our breed ring career was over. However, we could do the obedience as long as I was careful about the jumping. She was never to enter an AKC event but she did get a BH in Schutzhund and a WH, the watchdog title. She loved to track and, when she was old enough, easily got the WAC. I tested her with Delta for her therapy dog rating. She passed and we started working in quiet settings with adults. Testa had many clients and several stick out in my mind.
One day we were working in the gym at HealthSouth. Our client was a woman who had recently been diagnosed with a disease that impaired her balance. Things were proceeding nicely when Testa suddenly stepped in front of the woman and stood there blocking her progress. She began a low growling. I was perplexed. This was definitely not good therapy dog behavior. I looked around the gym and noted that a man had entered the room about 50 feet away. Testa was staring at him and continuing to growl. I stepped in front of her, assured her that everything was fine and told the client that Testa was 'guarding' her. As it turned out, this woman was deathly afraid of strange men since the onset of her condition. Once again, Testa had done the perfect thing for her client.
She also worked with a young girl who had fallen from a horse and incurred a spinal injury that resulted in paralysis. The girl now had to use a wheelchair and could no longer speak. She resisted learning to use American Sign until she discovered that Testa would respond to her signals. Once she realized this was a viable means of communication her resistance faded away and she was on her way to a better life.
Another client was a young man who had lost both legs, his right arm and all but the thumb on his left hand. He was so severely depressed his therapist was afraid that without some kind of intervention he wouldn't ever learn to use his prosthesis. She called me and asked if Testa and I would be willing to meet this young man. She warned me that the visit might only last a few minutes and our goal was to try to get him to respond to Testa for one minute. An hour later we left the facility. Our visit was a resounding success. Eventually, he would learn to brush Testa, throw a tennis ball on a rope, pick out cookies from a plastic bag and give them to Testa and to hold onto a long lead while Testa pulled him around the hospital. She loved to pull his wheelchair and you could hear him telling her in a very loud voice to go faster, go faster!
At home she was a joy for me. She howled whenever the telephone rang, she woke me every night by putting her cold nose on my cheek so I would lift the covers and allow her to get into bed with me, usually under the covers and down by my feet. When she got too warm she would stand straight up and drag the blankets off me and my husband. She rested on the couch and wanted to be covered up with a blanket, even if it was 80 degrees outside. She would stretch out on the corner table in the sunlight and bask in the warmth coming through the window. When she died, a part of me died as well.
Just before Testa went to the Rainbow Bridge Breu was born. I swear I saw her telling him he would now be responsible for my well being. He has taken on that responsibility and has made her leaving more bearable.
Testa was Miss October in the Delta Pet Partners Calendar for 1996. Some of her healing stories were featured in the booklet 'The Healing Power of Pets'. She eventually had to have both of her hips replaced and accepted the surgeries with good humor. It helped individuals who were learning to walk again when I could tell them that she, too, had had hip replacement surgery. Testa, her mother, Onyx, and Tiana have made a difference in many lives, not just mine. I have been blessed to be a part of the pioneering that opened up the world that animals provide in speech, physical, and psychological therapies.
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