SuperDog

Earlier this year I posted about a friend who had lost her dog, Bruno. More than just a dog, Bruno was the first wheelchair/blind trained dog in the country. She and Bruno muddled through law school, the job market, disappointments, the craziness leading up to the Iraq war, Natalie’s growing leadership in Code Pink.

But he got sick, and two years later, it was time to let him go.

Nugget’s the new pup fresh from training in Michigan. They had intensive training together as a pair for a week, and are doing ongoing training now. Nugget was attacked by a tethered dog outside a cafe on Thursday. He kept going. Natalie didn’t know what was going on but the trainer said, when they turned the corner: “We need to wipe the slobber off Nugget’s face.” That was when Natalie discovered he’d been attacked.

Oh, he’s a good dog. It’s good, she says, to be pulled in her wheelchair rather than be pushed even by a human, because it allows her to anticipate things. SuperDog, she says.

I’ll meet Nugget on Thursday when I’ll be reading poetry at the Cafe Roma in Davis: Women’s Voices, Women’s Votes. But no petting him then: he’s working. He’s being SuperDog.