who rescued whom?


Difference a Dog Makes.


What a Dogs transforming the lives of humans


by serving those who cannot see, and those who have seen too much. words by Anna Cooke ~ photography by Laura Allen Studios


Anna Wintour, Vogue magazine’s editor-in-chief, believes that fashion goes in only one direction, and that is forward. PJ, a yellow Labrador Retriever, is as fashion-for- ward thinking as any dog we’ve ever met. “She constantly let’s me know that she is the most beautiful Labrador ever. Of course, I believe her,” said Shauna English, her handler. Before Shauna met PJ - before she needed PJ, she was a busy professional,


successfully juggling two careers; one in real estate, the other in the registrar’s office at Florida Southern University in Lakeland. Then, the unthinkable happened. During Memorial Day weekend, two years


ago, Shauna suffered a stroke in her optic nerves. Diagnosed with Central Retinal Vein Occlusion, Shauna lost vision in one eye. It normally takes two years to lose vision in both eyes. In Shauna’s case, she lost vision in her other eye only two weeks later. As if being legally blind wasn’t enough, the following year, again on Memorial Day weekend, Shauna awoke with a massive headache on one side of her face. Glaucoma had progressed so severely, it necessitated the removal of her right eye. She now wears a prosthetic eye. Understandably, as the reality of this new darkness set in, Shauna’s world


became very small. She had to leave her job, her fiancé walked out on her, she had to give up her car, and moved out of her home. On the rare occasion when she ventured out into the world, Shauna used a white cane, but couldn’t shake the feeling that she was always one step away from falling. “I just stopped participating in life,” she said.


Continued on the following page.g


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Summer/Fall 2017 THE NEW BARKER 29


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