Assistance dogs have been proven to help people with physical disabilities time and time again. Guide dogs help the blind get around, hearing dogs help the deaf function within an aural world, and a whole range of other service dogs help out all sorts of disabled people.
While there haven’t been that many conclusive studies about dogs helping mentally disabled people, it’s clear that the companionship of animals can drastically improve the life of someone with Asperger’s syndrome (often characterized as a milder form of autism).
In Joey Granados’ case, a Pit Bull helped him hug his mother for the very first time…
On the left is Joey, 14, with his two younger brothers.
He was first diagnosed with Asperger’s when he was seven years old. He’s a math wiz and can recite a book from memory — learning isn’t the issue here. It’s the social aspects of life that have always given Joey a hard time.
This is Roxy.
Joey spotted her online on the Best Friends Animal Society’s website. They were having an adoption event where adopting a dog only cost $10. He immediately fell in love. For his mother, Amanda Granados, this was the perfect opportunity for her to indulge her son’s pleas to adopt a puppy companion.
When they met, it was as though there was no one else in the room besides Joey and Roxy.
The pup ran up to him immediately. She doesn’t notice his disability — all she sees is a boy that will love her unconditionally.
Not only has Roxy become Joey’s very best friend…
She’s helped him overcome social issues he’s been struggling with his entire life. He’d never been able to make friends before, and he’d never hugged or kissed his mother. The first time he gave his mom a kiss on the cheek was the day Roxy came home with them.
Roxy’s unconditional, nonjudgmental love and companionship have opened up Joey’s horizons entirely.
Mom says, “For all those years, he wouldn’t hold my hand, he wouldn’t hug me — it was all part of the autism — but this dog has taught him how to give and show affection.”
Without Roxy, Joey would probably still have been able to grow into a functioning adult, since his Asperger’s doesn’t affect your capacity to learn…
But the quality of life when you’re able to overcome social anxieties — to gain social functionality — improves tenfold. Roxy is truly a lifesaver.
(via Today, Distractify)
Joey says, “If I’ve been having a bad day, Roxy can hear a tone in my voice…[s]he runs up to me to give me a giant hug and lick me to death and do almost anything she can to make me happy.” There’s something inexplicably magical about the love between a dog and their human. In this case, a family saved a dog from a shelter, and in turn, Roxy saved Joey from a life void of social and physical interaction. If that’s not a success story for the books, I don’t know what is.
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