“We had three senior dogs, and we lost all of them because they were just at that age. One of them, Pablo, was a medical response dog. I trained him because I have two brain aneurysms. I was having neurological events where I would lose vision and drop to the floor, have no balance, just projectile vomiting until my electrolytes would be depleted. So the last event was real serious. I fell at Lee College, and Pablo went through the whole building to find the one person who could help me. I ended up going to the ER. While the ambulance was coming, and they kept trying to talk to me on the phone and keep me alert, Pablo kept pulling at my hair if I wasn’t responsive. He knew it was a grave situation.

“I haven’t had problems in years. But I knew how useful a medical response dog could be, especially with David dealing with Parkinson’s. His gait is so deteriorated and falls are such an issue. We got Percy about six months ago. Within a week, we could tell that he had the temperament and the intelligence to be a medical response dog. He knows that David is frail, and he is constantly checking in. Where is he? Is he upright? He notices that David’s going to fall before David falls. So we immediately started training him. The goal is for him to pass the public access test. So not only can he help us at home, but also when we’re out and about. I’ve been training him with a lot of help from the regional trainer for PetSmart. I’m building on everything that she teaches me.

“I have a master of fine arts in creative writing, so I’m working on my own narrative about this whole thing. I think it’s very ironic that we’ve been training a dog to protect us in public when we’ve not been able to be in public because of the coronavirus pandemic. But he’s the one who gives us hope that we’re going to get out of here. We keep training every day with that goal in mind. And it’s funny. We always sing with our son, Alex, ‘Who Let the Dogs Out.’ And now we joke that we’re waiting for the World Health Organization — the WHO — to let us out.”

— Kathleen Sydnor (with David Whitcomb and Percy)

Kathleen and David are retired. She was an English and humanities instructor at Lee College for 25 years, and continues part-time teaching Humanities on the Go, a program she developed. He practiced law 25 years for the Department of the Treasury (Internal Revenue Service) and Department of Justice.

Related:

• Good days, bad days with Parkinson’s

• Seeing world through autistic son’s eyes

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“I always had a dream of becoming a police officer. Not sure why really. Maybe it had to do with (‘CHiPS’ TV show characters) Ponch and Jon or something.

“I think February will be 15 years for me with Baytown Police Department. Right now I’m assigned to a traffic unit on patrol, but I was involved with the K-9 division for years. I had a sergeant who asked if I wanted to decoy. You know, get in the suit and have a dog bite you. Nobody really wants to do that, or at least not for very long. But it got me into it and I stuck with it. It was very interesting to me, especially the psychological aspect of why dogs act the way they do.

“After I got out of the K-9 unit, I kind of missed the dogs. So I did a little market research on family pets, and I ended up starting my boarding and training business. These days I get up super early to work the dogs, then I get cleaned up and head in to work (with the police department).

“I’ve always kind of had an entrepreneurial mindset. I liked the idea of owning my own business one day. I guess this is kind of the start of my retirement gig when that day comes.”

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“After I started my training business I thought that if dogs can help soldiers deal with all the traumatic things they see and experience, maybe they also can help the child of a fallen police officer. So I decided to start The Thin Blue Line Dog Project.

“My goal was to find a rescue dog, like a Labrador Retriever or similar breed, train it and then donate it to the surviving family. I found Preston at an animal shelter north of Houston. They said he was surrendered by his family because he was chewing up socks. He’s a great dog. After about eight months of training with me, he’s ready to go.

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