Sparkle, poodle

Service dog back at home with sick Hingham girl
By Neal Simpson, The Patriot Ledger
Apr 24, 2012

HINGHAM — She has a few new scrapes and a cut across one eye, but Sparkle the service poodle is finally back with 3-year-old Greer Ramsay.

The 1-year-old black poodle was returned to the family’s Hockley Drive home Sunday, a full week after she bolted through an open door and disappeared. She was captured in Webb State Park in Weymouth on Friday after an off-duty police officer spotted her swimming across the Back River from Stodder’s Neck.

“She’s gong to have to do a little rehabilitation, but she’s just the same and they are thrilled to be back together,” said Greer’s mother, Kate Ramsay. “It looks like we’re going to have our happy ending.”

Greer was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a hereditary disease that causes muscle degeneration and makes it difficult for her to crawl or sit up on her own. Sparkle was donated to the family by the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in October and was being trained to help move Greer’s body for her.

Kate Ramsay said Sparkle seems more skittish and easily frightened than before her escape and may require additional training. But she said she is encouraged by reports from people who said they saw the lost dog crossing Beal Street at the crosswalk – just as she’d been trained to do.

“I don’t think it’s anything we can’t work with,” she said. “I think she’ll be a perfectly wonderful service dog.”

Sparkle was seen several times in the area around the Ramsay house in the first few days after her escape, but on Thursday night she bolted down Beal Street and across Route 3A to Stodder’s Neck, where she disappeared.

Leslie Badger, Hingham’s animal control officer, saw Sparkle coming ashore on the other side of the Back River and followed her to Webb State Park, where a crew of police officers and volunteers took turns watching her through the night.

The team captured Sparkle the next morning and took her to VCA South Shore Animal Hospital, where she was treated for scrapes, cuts and an eye infection. The family was initially worried that she might be contagious and kept her away from Greer, who has a compromised immune system.

“We had no idea whether she’d ever be able to come back to Greer,” Kate Ramsay said. “She’d been running with the coyotes for four days.”

Badger said Sparkle was fortunate to have survived so long around coyotes, highway traffic and well-meaning neighbors who inadvertently chased her out of the safety of the Ramsay neighborhood. But she said it wasn’t just luck that got Sparkle through it.

“She’s a very smart dog, and that’s why she’s the perfect candidate to be a service dog,” she said.

Source: http://www.patriotledger.com/answerbook/hingham/x643676588/VIDEO-Service-dog-back-at-home-with-sick-Hingham-girl