I was already secluding myself from friends but because of my injuries I was forced to stay literally in the dark with no loud noises, bright lights, media, nothing. This meant I spent a lot of weekends alone in my room or at home. One weekend my parents were visiting me in Iowa City and although they had heard them over the phone they witnessed my first “episode.” I cried and screamed and hurt. Nothing they could do or say was helping. Then something happened, my moms dog Millie who was trained to be an emotional support dog after her accident cuddled up around my neck and calmed me down. Immediately after my parents said that I needed to buy a dog.

Shelter after Shelter we couldn’t find a dog that fit. With looking for a dog for emotional support we couldn’t get one too old and I refused to put a big dog in a small college apartment, wouldn’t be fair to the dog. We thought we were at a loss when someone reached out to my mom on Facebook about a friend who was bringing her puppies to town. I came home that weekend to give it one more chance.

As I walked in and saw all the little yippie dogs jumping I was not pleased. This was not the dog that would be able to calm me down or help me when I was having an episode, these dogs had way too much energy to be able calm me down My parents told me to sit down and give them a chance. As I sat I started to get anxious. How could finding the right dog be this hard. But just in that moment this little black ball of fluff quietly plopped its clumsy body into my lap and my heart just exploded.

If I am being honest… I didn’t think she was that cute… She was messy and just so small. Don’t get me wrong now I think tiny little puppers are the cutest thing but I didn’t plan to have a dog THAT small. But that was that and Maya stole my heart.