At the push of a doorbell, Orion fidgets at the entryway until he can greet visitors with a friendly sniff.
When he spots his favorite toy, an oversized green duck with yellow feet and a busted seam on the stomach, he shifts in anticipation of a game of fetch in the backyard.
And after lapping up the once-dry food swimming in a kitchen-floor water bowl, Orion props his front paws up on the counter to investigate dessert — a box of cookies — with his nose before his owner, Coyotes rookie Max Domi, summons him down.
"He's a happy boy," Domi said. "Doesn't like to sit still, that's for sure."
Domi is in the midst of his first season in the National Hockey League, a highly regarded draft pick of the Coyotes who possesses the skill, speed and spirit the team is seeking to boost it back to the competitive ranks after finishing 29th among 30 teams last season.
Domi isn't making the transition from junior-hockey standout in Canada to a potential star-in-the-making alone; Orion isn't the average four-legged pet.
The 2-year-old, 70-pound yellow lab is a diabetic-alert dog offering Domi comfort, confidence and companionship.
"He's my best buddy," Domi, 20, said.
It was not a decline in health that motivated Domi to embark on this phase of his life alongside Orion. Instead, he is trying to take advantage of as many resources as possible to make his childhood dream a permanent reality.
"This is going to be huge for me, and it's helped me a lot since he's been here," Domi said. "He's awesome."
On skates at the age of 2, Domi seemed destined to become a hockey player.
He grew up in Toronto where his dad, Tie, toiled for the Maple Leafs as an enforcer for the majority of his 16-year NHL career. The rink became Max's playground and the pro players his best buddies. In those days, Max wore No.13 — a nod to his friendship with an iconic Maple Leaf, Mats Sundin.
After wrapping up a minor-hockey tournament in Detroit when Domi was 12, he and his mom, Leanne, began the drive back to Toronto. But their progress on the highway stalled whenever Domi noticed a convenience store.
"Hey, Mom," he said, "pull over. I have to go to the bathroom, and I'm really thirsty."
Leanne watched her son chug a bottle of water in one gulp and knew something was off. By the eighth stop, Domi was puzzled, too.
They visited their family doctor and described what happened during the car ride. The doctor reached for a glucometer and told Domi he would need to go to the hospital.
"When your kid gets diagnosed with something, it's life-changing," Leanne said.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little to no insulin, a hormone required to transport energy from food into the body's cells. Only 5 percent of diabetics have this form of the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association, and it appears mostly in children and young adults.
Though there isn't a cure, type 1 diabetes is manageable.
Domi was at the hospital from 7 in the morning to 6 at night every day for a week after his diagnosis to figure out how to cope — learning to count carbohydrates in food to be able to assess how much insulin his body would require.
A year later, he acquired an insulin pump that stores three days' worth of insulin, and filters it into his back hip.
As Domi continued to play hockey, Leanne worried about his blood sugar dipping when he went to bed after a game. She read about kids suffering such severe lows in the middle of the night that they didn't wake up.
Leanne kept a close eye on her son. On the nights Domi went to sleep following games, Leanne would slip into his room at 3 a.m. and prick his finger to check his level.
"I kept thinking, 'How is this kid ever going to move away from home?' " Leanne recalled.
About six years ago, she was doing research on the Internet and stumbled upon the concept of an alert dog for diabetics. After talking to a few different organizations, she settled on Canine Hope for Diabetics, a non-profit based in Riverside County in California that has placed 30 service dogs with diabetics since its inception in 2010.
Leanne contacted Crystal Cockroft, the founder and a trainer, to explain her son's situation. Unfortunately, the organization's extreme hands-on nature with their dogs — even after they've found permanent homes — prevented an accommodation for a family living in Canada.
"As a type 1 diabetic trying to be an athlete, it's not the easiest thing in the world," Domi said. "I mean it's definitely not not doable, but to have something like that makes a huge difference and makes everyone around me a lot more comfortable."
He never forgot about the option and when he was drafted by the Coyotes two years ago, Domi wondered whether Arizona was close enough to be able to work with a dog. The family reached out again to Canine Hope for Diabetics and received a thumbs-up.
Even so, Domi still had to go through an application process that included writing two essays explaining why he needed a service dog and what he and the dog would get out of a potential partnership.
"We don't want anybody to think it's a piece of cake," Cockroft said. "It's just this fabulous thing, which it is, but we're very realistic and want to prepare people for that. So this kind of gives us a better idea of where their minds are and what they're looking for and make sure it's exactly the right fit — that getting a service dog is the right decision for them."
The door of Orion's gray crate, the one tucked behind the dinner table in the kitchen, is open, which means he is on the clock.
He approaches Domi in the living room and grabs at the bringsel, which looks like a foam roller, attached to Domi's hip and waits for Domi to notice.
The bringsel is how Orion communicates to Domi that his blood sugar is off and, sure enough, he's low – 4.3. A normal range would be between 4.7 and 8.
Domi uses a Canadian glucometer so in U.S. metrics, his range is 85 to 145.
Domi rewards Orion with a peanut-butter treat and a chorus of "good boy" before he swigs a bottle of grape juice to boost his level.
"He's right 99 percent of the time," Domi said.
When he's out in public, Domi wears the bringsel, but at home, it could be sitting on the coffee table or another location that Orion can easily spot. Orion will hunt it down every 15 minutes until Domi's blood sugar has been corrected.
During the night, Orion sleeps on the floor in Domi's bedroom — when he doesn't hop up onto the bed — and will wake Domi when, using his keen sense of smell, he notices a shift out of range.
Since Orion is technically still working when Domi is sleeping, Domi carves out time during the day for Orion to spend in his crate to let him rest.
"He knows for sure I'm nowhere to be found," Domi said, "and he can finally get his sleep and recover."
Orion was among three dogs Cockroft began training for Domi without knowing which one would actually end up with him.
She took all three to hockey games in California to familiarize each with large crowds, noise and an overall hectic lifestyle before Orion emerged as the best candidate.
"He's Max in dog form," Leanne said.
Entertainment Plaza - TV, Movies, Sports, Music, Soaps
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99
Babe Of The Month - Vote Now!
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonth.html
Hunk Of The Month - Vote Now!
http://members.shaw.ca/almosthuman99/babeofthemonthman.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment