Tell me again....

**2dumb2kwit** · 12-01-2013, 10:58 AM

..why you can't do something.

**hunter63** · 12-01-2013, 04:41 PM

Amazing.....thanks for that.

**BENESSE** · 12-01-2013, 05:13 PM

Dogs are better people than we are. I can't hope to compare.

**WolfVanZandt** · 12-01-2013, 07:13 PM

I'm wondering if he was born like that or if he lost his legs.

Dogs are like other people; they vary. Some are bigger babies than others. The ones that don't accept the role of "toy" for their owners do what we all should learn to do - take the cards we're dealt and play them with integrity.

I used to work for a special camp for disabled children and adults that gave them the opportunity to do the same kinds of recreational things that others get to do. Four of the counselors while I was there were disabled. They were also metaled Olympians. One paraplegic was a gold mentalist in aquatic sports. He had had a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed. He said that it was the best thing that ever happened to him because it forced him to reassess his dead-end life and take some risks to get his life started again.

**Rick** · 12-02-2013, 07:29 AM

Those that can...will. Good post!

**Wildthang** · 12-02-2013, 08:50 AM

I have a nephew named Greg that was born with cerebral palsey, and had great difficulty walking. All through our childhood we were best friends and pretty much inseperable. I treated him like a normal person and never once treated him like a handicapped person. Whatever we were doing I expected him to keep up with me, and if he fell down, I would go back, pick him up and we kept going. Looking back I was kind of tough on him, but he always accepted the challenges, and since I was his hero, he gave it his best shot whatever we were doing.
To this day Greg holds down a job, is an avid hunter, and never once has he thought of getting disability benefits. He told me a while back that he gives me credit for making him tough, and never giving up on him. He said that when we were together as kids, he never once felt disabled which gave him the attitude he has today.
I always told him that he wasn't disabled, just a little slower than me! Most dogs have the same attitude as kids, they don't look for excuses they just charge on and do the best they can like Greg!

**Old GI** · 12-02-2013, 09:25 AM

Thanks, 2D, I needed that!

**WolfVanZandt** · 12-02-2013, 10:08 PM

Wildthang. When I was interning at Warm Springs, I found a hiking companion in one of the clients with CP. He didn't look like he could walk on a city street much less a mountain trail but he was all over the mountain and was a great person to hike with.

**Wildthang** · 12-03-2013, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by WolfVanZandt

Wildthang. When I was interning at Warm Springs, I found a hiking companion in one of the clients with CP. He didn't look like he could walk on a city street much less a mountain trail but he was all over the mountain and was a great person to hike with.

Yeah that was pretty much how Greg was. He could barely pick his feet up and kind of slid his toes from one step to the other, so that made him fall a lot. Since he was always falling, his arms were like steel, and could catch himself with his arms before he face planted or landed on his stomach, so he rarely ever got hurt from falling. He could also pull himself up from almost anything he could grab because of his arm strenth so he rarely needed help getting up. I would help him up when I could see him getting really tired, but other than that, I treated him like he was entirely on his own which was the way he liked it. We went out in the wilderness all the time hunting and he would always get out there and back home but it took him a lot longer than most people. A lot of times I would get ahead of him and just lean back against a tree and wait for him to catch up! I don't think Greg would have done very well in the mountains but on the Oklahoma flat lands, he did OK!