A Service Dog for Sarah

Hello, my name is Sarah, I am in my twenties and I am suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I had been a very healthy girl most of my life. Unfortunately, in college, I was sexually assaulted and held against my will for many hours. Those hours were filled with the worst things a human being can go

through. I have had to let go of the girl I used to be and come to terms with the fact that I can not have her back. The only thing I seek to do is move forward to finding peace and open my heart to the beauty of living.

It is very hard for me to ask for help, I have always felt timid about doing so. I was raised to make my own way and be independent. It took even longer for me to understand that a service dog is what I need. Medication just has not done well in my body due to my low blood pressure. Therpay has helped but I need to feel safe while in grocery stores and new environments. I brave it out most of the time but I come home exhausted after over-analyzinging my surroundings and new people all day.

My support comes from my close friends and family. I have an incredible group to rely on and my cat to hold when the days get rough. I have loved writing poetry for many years. It has been my shelter and safe place during this time. A place I created, the only place I truly feel I have control. I hike and run, movement has been my source of restorment.

I will also tell you that I looked at a mountain in the midst of my own sorrow. I looked at a mountain and I felt so small and insignificant and it was the most alive I had felt in my entire life. I looked at the swelling of the earth in awe. I began running, running until my legs were numb and my body cramped. I wrote until my pens were clean out of ink. I called my brother when everything felt like it was all too much. Mountains saved me before any over-spoken quote did. The words of dead poets brought my heartbeat back into rthym after the living brought it to a halt. My own blood picked up the phone every single time.

There are things that these support systems can not do. Not because they arent enough or plenty, but because my friends and family can’t always sense my panic before me, I can’t even sense it sometimes. My cat isnt trained to bring me back to reality when my reality is fading. My poetry can not rewrite my past…I can not out run it either, no matter how many races I sign up for. Perhaps the gift of an angel in the form of a trained dog can bring me back when I am fading, slow my heart when it is racing, and run with me so I don’t have to constantly check to see that there is no one following me.

There are days where I sit feeling trapped and overwhelmed by the fact that life did not go the way I expected it to. Now, I must learn to coexist with the things that I can not control instead of allowing them to live within me. I am no one particularly special, just a girl with a pen, a forever changed brain,  and a bone to pick with the broken parts of the world. I am not the same girl I was a year ago. I mourn her and I applaud her. She was braver than I give her credit for.

A service dog will make sure that I can reach the top of my highest peak, and not have to do it alone.

Please Note: Diggity Dogs Service Dogs Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization.  All donations are tax-deductible and non-refundable.  A receipt is automatically sent to every donor upon submitting a donation. All donations are subject to a 2.9% fee from Paypal which is deducted from your donation total.