Dog Names that Start with Sl

Slugger may not have saved hundreds of lives in war or pulled Timmy from the well, but he sure was a lifesaver for Leigh Brill. Leigh was born with congenital cerebral palsy and it not only made her physically impaired, but it affected her mental health as well since she was so embarrassed due to the way people treated her. As she was growing up, she tried to hide her illness because she did not want to be made fun of as she could hear the jokes and mean comments that people said about her. 

Cerebral Palsy is a form of brain damage that causes lack of muscle tone, coordination, and control, body movement, posture, balance, reflexes, motor skills, and even affects your speech. Sometimes you may have uncontrollable movements or stiff muscles, lack of feeling in the arms and legs, inability to walk, and it can even affect the ability to swallow. It is important to have help at all times when you are in the advanced stages of cerebral palsy like Leigh has. 

When she got older, Leigh decided she did not want to hide anymore and wanted to go to college and get a job. She figured that since she was dealing with adults rather than children, that they would be more understanding and less belittling. However, even the adults were crude and made mean comments about letting “crippled” people in medical school, and Leigh started to feel depressed and defeated. 

One day she met someone on campus who has a service dog for her disability, and it changed her life forever. She applied for her own service pup, and soon she had Slugger, an 85-pound yellow Labrador Retriever who just got out of service dog school. For Leigh, Slugger was amazing. He helped her with opening doors, turning on and off the lights, picking up items that she dropped, barking for help if needed, and staying close to her side at all times. 

As she went through college, Slugger continued to stay with Leigh and help her with not just her everyday activities but her studies as well. Since Leigh had decided she wanted to get a master’s degree in psychology, she had to do a lot of hands-on training that Slugger had to help her with. However, she was successful in earning that degree with Slugger’s help and even got a job in a community mental health center, met her true love, and got married. All with Slugger by her side.