In For Training Time...

For Billy, Pasco, Wallie, Tell, Mac, Pal, Duke, Trapper and Princess...and the raisers who love them...


I Send You Like a Prayer
by Emily Overcarsh

I send you like a prayer
To shine in a land without sun
Where scents and sounds bloom
Like thunder over the expanse
Of the impossible black horizon
Could you have known where you were headed?
That all along you were a hero?
You were never mine to keep
So I held you just long enough
For you to grow into a savior
For the lost
And now I let go

I send you like a prayer
Like a fulfilled promise
I hang on to your scent in your blanket
That you're too big for now
And as the tears every mother has wept fill my eyes
Know that you carry my heart with you
To the land without sun
So don't look back now
Instead, look ahead
To the impossible black horizon
And shine with the knowledge
That you were born for this moment
Where you set a blind man free


(taken from "Two Plus Four Equals One - Celebrating the Partnership of People with Disabilities and Their Assistance Dogs" by Kathy Nimmer ISBN: 978-160844-716-9)