Paw-security
By Kirsten Ballard
Published in News on February 1, 2015 1:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Kassandra Sweet and her service dog, Lucas, met by chance one day when a friend asked her to look at the dog at the animal shelter. Little did she know he would learn how to save her life.
kballard@newsargus.com
Kassandra Sweet wakes up from her nap to frantic, loud barking.
The muzzle of a pit bull is inches from her face, his paws pinning her to the bed.
It saved her life.
Kassy was born with a backwards heart and kinked arteries. Her blood pressure does not regulate itself, frequently dropping so low she passes out. She has had two open heart surgeries and has a pacemaker and a defibrillator.
But even with all those medical assists, her greatest caretaker, is Lucas, her 5-year-old pit bull.
They are both special -- rare birds.
She suffers from a rare condition.
He is a breed that doesn't always get a fair shake.
And together they are a team whose goal is not just to make it through life together, but to change a few minds along the way.
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The day Lucas pinned Kassy during her nap, she was having a critical cardiac episode. Her defibrillator was red, her pacemaker wasn't able to pace her out.
It was the pit bull's barking that triggered her heart back.
"He saved my life. We kind of save each other," she said.
Kassy did, literally, save Lucas's life.
And until she met him, it had not been an easy one.
On Jan. 17, 2012, Lucas was given a death sentence. His owners had surrendered him to the animal shelter. As a puppy, he was horribly abused -- kicked multiple times in the face, breaking his jaw in eight places. He was skittish, skinny and scared.
He had a day to get adopted before he was to be euthanized.
A friend told Kassy to come look at a dog that had been dropped off at the shelter.
It took some convincing, but she took him home that very day.
"He was skittish about certain things, but no viciousness," Kassy said.
Their life together was ordinary until one day, Lucas pinned her against the wall.
He was trying to tell her something.
"I woke up with a face full of slobber and his tongue in my mouth," Kassy said.
Lucas had sensed her drop in blood pressure before she even knew something was wrong.
And their partnership began.
Kassy enrolled Lucas in service dog training. Six months later, Lucas knew how to signal Kassy when she was having an episode. He was cross-rained to alert to her post traumatic stress disorder as well.
"I was never in the military. PTSD is for any life-altering event. My whole life is a life-altering event," she said. "My PTSD comes from being the only one still alive. It's the what-ifs, what causes me to still be here and not them? Why me?"
Out of the 15 people who were born with her heart condition, Kassy is the only survivor. She jokes that she is too stubborn not to be here, but quickly becomes serious when she remembers the others.
"I don't live my day-to-day life for myself," she said. "I live my day-to-day life for the ones who didn't make it, the ones that never had the chance to live."
When Kassy was born, her backwards heart meant that blood was circulating without receiving oxygen. The surgeries have rerouted the heart, but as a result, she is more susceptible to illnesses and often has "ouchies" when the heart misfires.
Lucas can pick up on this misfires before they happen. He stands up and puts his paws on her, letting her know something is happening.
When he picks up on her PTSD, he actively works to find an exit and get her away from the situation.
The two train every day, practicing his alerts and commands.
Kassy says he is always on the job.
Even though Lucas takes his service dog vest off at home, he is always watching.
One day, she was throwing a ball for him. Mid-way through fetch, Lucas ran back to her side and started alerting.
"I'm not too worried about him missing anything," Kassy said.
And he does not just watch over her, either.
Lucas alerts to other people when the two are out. He has stopped in grocery stores and restaurants and focused on other people's drops and rises in blood pressure. He stubbornly waits until Kassy investigates the situation, asking complete strangers if they have a history of high blood pressure and suggesting they have it checked.
The pair does not know if they have saved any lives, but they hope so.
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Kassy receives a lot of criticism for having a pit bull for a service dog.
And there are people, too, who simply don't understand that Kassy's condition is not always readily visible to the casual observer.
They fight the battle of other people's misconceptions every day.
"We get the lovely, 'The only thing that dog is good for is taking some kid's face off,'" Kassy said. "Or the lovely, 'You're not blind, you don't need a service dog.'"
Service dogs can be trained for autism, diabetes, seizures and many other conditions.
Kassy and Lucas have been turned away from businesses and even a hospital. She carries a wallet full of the text of the American Disabilities Act, the legislation that requires places of service to treat her as a regular customer. This means even places, like hotels, which typically ban dogs, which must allow Lucas to enter under the law.
"People don't understand," she said. "We are to be treated as a normal guest."
Lucas clears an aisle at the grocery stores. People often react out of fear to the sweet-tempered dog.
"We've had people scream and run," Kassy said. "He just looks at me, like 'again?' He is not going to bite you. He has on his books over 4,000 hours of training. People just come off with this misconception of an animal because of what he looks like."
Kassy and Lucas have started the Lucas Challenge, where they aim to educate and to inform people about the pit bull breed every day, changing their minds and opinions. They have a Facebook page, "Lucas the Pit Bull Service Dog," where they share photos and articles about the breed.
Kassy hopes to dispel rumors about the dogs. Some of the biggest misconceptions she says are that the dog's jaw locks or that they are naturally aggressive.
The pit bull jaw is structurally the same as other dog breeds.
And the pit bull is not the only dog that once came under public scrutiny. The chow-chow, Rottweiler, German shepherd and Doberman also have faced criticism as "vicious and dangerous."
"It's a few bad apples that are damning millions of dogs for no reason," she said.
Kassy and Lucas attended The One Million Pibble March in Washington D.C. for her birthday in May. The march was comprised of advocates looking to receive government resources to eradicate dog fighting and to erase laws restricting pit bull ownership.
Many apartments and homeowner's insurance companies ban owning a pit bull. Kassy's father had to build her an apartment after she struggled to find a place that would let her keep Lucas.
"I would live in my car if I had to to keep him," she said.
To her, Lucas is more than a pet or piece of equipment.
Lucas has given her her life back.
Before adopting him, she had no way to regulate her condition. She was scared to leave her apartment without telling her parents where she would be and for how long, and even then, dangerous situations arose.
"I'm not worried anymore. I can leave in the morning," she said. "Honestly, before he came into my life, I didn't have a reason to get up every morning. Since Lulu has come into my life, he is my life."
She has dogs, cats, horses, ducks and chickens, but Lucas is more. He is her best friend. He sleeps between her legs every night. The two will be buried together.
"He protected me on Earth so well, he's going to be with me," Kassy said. "He's my angel in disguise."