A lot of writing about service dogs asserts the dogs heal wounded people. That’s a misrepresentation. A man or woman heals herself and additionally, real disabilities don’t go away. What a dog can do is entice you into the world again. You begin to feel better about who you are while walking in sunlight or in rain.
Maybe that story isn’t romantic enough. You know, a person returning to daily weather. But that’s what the dogs are thinking.
W. H. Auden wrote: “Evil is unspectacular and always human.” But all dog walks are spectacular and always doggy. When people understand this, they’re animals again.
Today I’m an animal again.
I am happy walking beside a fence where sunlight and shade make a kaleidoscope.
Planet of the Blind 