Lost and Found Dog Saves Life of Boy with Down Syndrome
by Helena Sung (RSS feed) Aug 11th 2009 5:00PM
Categories: Dogs, Pets in the News, Hero Pets, Adoption
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Photo: St. Petersburg Times / ZUMA Press Do you believe in canine guardian angels and the kindness of strangers? You just might after reading this story. Early one morning, Yolanda Segovia's neighbor, Stacey Savige, knocked on her door and asked her to temporarily take in a stray dog she had found. The scruffy terrier mix had no collar or microchip.

Segovia eyed the pooch -- burrs sticking to his belly and mud caking his fur -- and reluctantly agreed to foster him for the day. An erstwhile hairdresser, Segovia hasn't worked since 2006. At 47, she is a survivor of breast cancer and cervical cancer. A divorced single mother of two, Segovia shares her Port Tampa, Florida home with her 10 year-old son Azaiah and 21 year-old son Christian. Her elder son has Down Syndrome; he cannot speak or bathe himself, and he has had heart surgery and a kidney transplant, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

Azaiah immediately took to the dog, whom he named RaeLee (pronounced "Riley"). Segovia and her sons bought the dog a collar, leash, ball and brown bed from the dollar store, and all that day, Azaiah played with the dog, laughing gleefully whenever RaeLee licked his face. "Don't fall in love with him," Segovia warned.Segovia and Savige made 4,000 FOUND flyers with the dog's picture, stuffed mailboxes and put an ad on Craigslist. When no one called, RaeLee stayed the night at the Segovias' house. His dog bed was placed in the living room, but when the boys climbed into their twin beds, RaeLee dragged his bed down the long hallway and bunked with the boys in their room.By Saturday -- four days later -- no one had called to claim RaeLee, and he was still living with the Segovias.


The honey-colored terrier had started responding to his new name. He almost never barked, loved playing rambunctiously with Azaiah, and was tender with Christian. One afternoon, the dog settled himself on the floor near Christian as he watched a "Barney" video in his room. Segovia was outside watering the plants when the placid moment was shattered by the sound of RaeLee crashing into the screen door and barking crazily.

Alarmed, Segovia opened the door, only to have the dog race back through the house towards the boys' room. Segovia followed, screaming when she caught sight of her son. Christian was "slumped over, his body writhing in a seizure, blood streaming from his nose and mouth." RaeLee stood next to him yelping, but suddenly went quiet when Yolanda reached down to hold her son. "If he hadn't come to get me," Segovia said, "the neurologist said Christian would have choked on his own blood and died." The dog, she decided, was a keeper.But the next day, Segovia and her sons were heartbroken when someone called to claim the dog they had come to love.

Randy Cliff, 34, who lived six blocks away said he had been searching for his dog -- real name Odie -- for over a week. Odie had lived with Cliff, his wife, their four children and infant granddaughter. Savige cried, telling Cliff, "That dog saved my friend's son."When Cliff came to collect his dog, RaeLee a.k.a. Odie, leapt off the Segovias' porch and into his arms. Christian watched from a window. Azaiah stood on the porch watching the man hug the dog he knew as RaeLee. "We're going to miss you," he said, tearfully. Looking up, Cliff took in the scene -- Christian looking scared, Azaiah looking downtrodden -- and asked, "Is that your brother?"

Azaiah nodded yes.With a sudden change of heart, Cliff put the dog back down. "Maybe Odie was supposed to find you," Cliff told a stunned and delighted Azaiah. "Maybe you should keep him."And that is how the kindness of strangers -- Savige for rescuing a lost dog, Segovia for taking him in, and Cliff for giving up his pet to a pair of brothers who needed the dog more -- brought RaeLee to live with Azaiah, Christian and their mother.

DOM'S FMS/CFIDS NEWSLETTER

DOM'S FMS/CFIDS NEWSLETTER
www.fms-help.com/050709.htm

May 7, 2009 - today is the National Day of Prayer

May 12, 2009 - National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day

Please respond to Reader 2 in Topic 17 about flu shots.

A Christian-based newsletter for people with Fibromyalgia (FMS), Chronic Fatigue & Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) and their families.

26 TOPICS IN BLUE. READERS' COMMENTS IN BLACK. MY COMMENTS IN TEAL. DON'T MISS RED TOPICS!

Dom's Quick Links: Fibro Story CFIDS Story Insomnia Story Newsletter Archives Med List Homepage Previous Newsletter


Click on www.fms-help.com/050709.htm to read the newsletter--

1. READERS WRITE

2. FIBROMYALGIA AWARENESS DAY - MAY 12, 2009

3. OBJECTIVE PROOF THAT WE ARE SICK

4. MARRIAGE TROUBLE

5. AVIAN BIRD FLU SCAM

6. NEUTRALIZING VIRUSES

7. ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS & PREGNANCY

8. LEVAQUIN

9. POOR NUTRITION IN THE WOMB TRIGGERS PERMANENT GENETIC CHANGES

10. SUFFERING

11. IRRADIATED FOOD CAUSES BRAIN DAMAGE

12. ANTI-VIRAL TEAS

13. "THORNS IN THE FLESH"

14. PFIZER'S FIBRO PUT DOWN (TV AD FOR LYRICA)

15. COLDS & CANCER

16. FIND A FIBRO-FRIENDLY DOCTOR

17. FLU SHOTS & VACCINES

18. NATIONAL PAIN CARE POLICY ACT

19. MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

20. ADDERALL FOR FMS

21. OPIOIDS & CONSTIPATION

22. WRETCHED INSOMNIA

23. DR. TEITELBAUM'S WELLNESS SEMINAR

24. DRUGS ARE POISON

25. OIL OF OREGANO

26. DOM'S UPDATE

Click on www.fms-help.com/050709.htm to read the newsletter!

Go to Prom, Get Suspended, School Says

Go to Prom, Get Suspended, School Says
AP
posted: 13 HOURS 14 MINUTES AGO
comments: 591
filed under: National News, Weird News

FINDLAY, Ohio (May 8) - A student at a fundamentalist Baptist school that forbids dancing, rock music, hand-holding and kissing will be suspended if he takes his girlfriend to her public high school prom, his principal said.

Despite the warning, 17-year-old Tyler Frost, who has never been to a dance before, said he plans to attend Findlay High School's prom Saturday.

Frost, a senior at Heritage Christian School in northwest Ohio, agreed to the school's rules when he signed a statement of cooperation at the beginning of the year, principal Tim England said.

The teen, who is scheduled to receive his diploma May 24, would be suspended from classes and receive an "incomplete" on remaining assignments, England said. Frost also would not be permitted to attend graduation but would get a diploma once he completes final exams. If Frost is involved with alcohol or sex at the prom, he will be expelled, England said.

Frost's stepfather Stephan Johnson said the school's rules should not apply outside the classroom.

"He deserves to wear that cap and gown," Johnson said.

Face Transplant Patient Forgives Shooter

Face Transplant Patient Forgives Shooter
AOL
posted: 11 HOURS 25 MINUTES AGO
comments: 126
filed under: Health News, National News

May 8) - He shot her in the face, leaving her so horrifically disfigured that Connie Culp later received the nation's first face transplant. But she forgives her husband for what he did.
"I forgave him the day he did it. I had to," Connie Culp said Friday in an interview on ABC's 'Good Morning America.'

Thomas Culp was sentenced to seven years in prison for the 2004 shooting. Connie was sentenced to something much worse.

The blast shattered her nose, cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye. She underwent nearly 30 operations but was still to smell or eat solid food. She needed a tracheotomy in order to breathe.

Culp came forward this week at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic, where doctors in December replaced 80 percent of her face with bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from a woman who had died.

Culp knows nothing about the donor except that they were about the same age and height. She feels a huge debt of gratitude to the donor's family.

"I just want to thank them and tell them I love them for being so thoughtful," she said.
Culp said she realized the transplant had worked when she first smelled soap.

"I actually smelled my face soap and I realized then I could smell my mouthwash," she told ABC's Diane Sawyer.

The 46-year-old Unionport, Ohio, woman said that after the marathon surgery, the first thing she saw was "my eye outline. I saw my hair. I saw my nose. But the nose looked good from what I could see and my daughter said I looked great."

Now she is adjusting to that nose -- and remembering what to do when it tickles.
"A real funny experience was the first time I sneezed," she said. "I didn't know what to cover up!"

She bears no animosity to the husband whose botched murder-suicide attempt brought her so much pain.
"He's told me that he's sorry," Culp said. "I still love my husband."

But she said women should know that if they are in a physically or even verbal ly abusive relationship, they are in real danger. "If your husband threatens you in any way, it’s going to get worse," she said.

Culp said it now seems strange to remember how, before the shooting, she used to worry about her appearance.

"I was worried about my weight and everything. I'm like, that is so foolish. It don't matter what you look like."
Before the transplant, she would become upset when small children ran from her. One little girl called her "a monster." Now, she said she is happy to walk down the street.

"I want to be positive. I want to move on," she said. "Everything's going to be great from here on out."

Our cousin Connie, we are very proud of her courage.

Our cousin Connie, we are very proud of her courage.

Local Woman Disclosed As First-Ever Face Transplant Patient

Posted: 4:03 pm EDT May 5, 2009Updated: 5:52 pm EDT May 5, 2009

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The injuries Connie Culp suffered on a late night in September 2004 were once believed to be permanent.

Her face was disfigured and she was blind after being shot in the face. The life-changing gunshot shattered her jaw, cheek and nose. She could not smile.
Until recently.

On Tuesday, after months of being shielded in secrecy, the Harrison County woman was disclosed as being the first person to ever have a near-total face transplant in the United States.
In a 22-hour procedure performed at the Cleveland Clinic in December, surgeons transplanted 80 percent of Culp's face, essentially replacing her entire face, except for her upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin.

Culp's life took its first drastic turn during an attempted murder-suicide outside the OK Corral in Hopedale, Ohio. Culp's husband Thomas, shot her in the face from just 8 feet way, then turned the gun on himself. Both survived.

Now, five years later, her life has changed once again. At a news conference Tuesday, Culp was ready to face the world.

"Well, I guess I'm the one you came to see today," Culp, of Hopedale, said. "While I know you all want to focus on me, I think it's more important to focus on the donor family that made it so I could get this Christmas present, I guess I should say."


Today, new nerves are growing beneath her new skin. She can eat, drink and breathe normally.
"This reinforces the concept that this is not cosmetic surgery in any sense of the word," said Dr. Eric Kodish, a bio-ethicist at the Cleveland Clinic.

While Culp could have survived with her injuries, doctors insist that repairing her disfigurement was crucial to her quality of life.

"Most devastating of all was the fact that society had rejected her. She was called names and children were afraid of her," said Dr. Maria Siemionow, director of plastic surgery.

Doctors predicted further progress as swelling subsides and they're able to tighten up the excess skin from the transplant.
To date, all of Culp's post-surgical treatment has happened within the few blocks of the Cleveland Clinic. But her surgeons said they have no problem with her returning home and said they're confident she can stay healthy and live a normal life.

Siemionow said she thinks there is enough home care available in Ohio to help Culp with basic daily activities, "but if there's something major happening, we are here and she knows that."
Surgeons at the clinic said the donor's family was notified that Culp would go public on Tuesday. The family has seen pictures of her new face and was touched by them, clinic officials said.

The donor's family has not yet met face-to-face with Culp, but clinic representatives said when the family is ready to do that, they will help make that happen.

Thomas Culp remains in jail and is expected to be released in 2012, when his seven-year sentence will be complete.

Stay with NEWS9 and WTOV9.com for continuing coverage.

Copyright 2009 by wtov9.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten

THIS SAYS IT ALL:

THIS SAYS IT ALL:

Time passes.

Life happens.

Distance separates.

Children grow up.



Jobs come and go.

Love waxes and wanes.

Men don't do what they're supposed to do.



Hearts break.

Parents die.

Colleagues forget favors.

Careers end.



BUT.........

Sisters are there,

no matter how much time and how

many miles are between you.

A girl friend is never farther away

than needing her can reach.



When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you

have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life

will be on the valley's rim, cheering you on,

praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on

your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the

valley's end.



Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk

beside you...Or come in and carry you out.

Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters,



daughters-in-law, sisters, sisters-in-law, Mothers,

Grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins, and extended

family, all bless our life!



The world wouldn't be the same without women, and

neither would I. When we began this adventure called

womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or

sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we

would need each other.

Every day, we need each other still.



Pass this on

to all the women who help make your life meaningful.

I just did.

Short and very sweet:

There are more than twenty angels in this world.

Ten are peacefully sleeping on clouds.

Nine are playing..

And one is reading her email at this moment.



Send this message to all of your friends

,



God or Goddess bless you and have a happy day