Randy and John Story
The following is a true account of the lives of two boys and their biological mother. It may disturb you, but is written exactly as dictated and can be verified by several organizations and institutions who were involved with the boys as they grew up. It is written to educate you to the reality of the predicament many disabled people suffer as they survive in an uncaring world.
There are an innumerable amount of people in America that need assistance K9s, many of whom have written, called, and solicited help from the known organizations training dogs, without success. They have either been placed on a long, 3 or 4 year list for potential candidates, or simply told they don't qualify for acceptance. Many have disabilities that these organizations have no way to train dogs to help.
I received one such email, one of several I get monthly, from a young man named Randy who, along with his twin brother John suffered from grand maul seizures. He had suffered with seizures that afflicted him usually weekly, and wanted to know if we had a K9 that he might be eligible for. He needed a dog to indicate before hand that he was going to have a seizure so that he could protect himself from the experience. His need was quite serious as his seizures often were life threatening and severe. Having called several organizations he had found no one that could offer him any hope, and he was becoming desperate.
I called and spoke with Randy immediately, told him I wanted a lot more specifics, and would like to meet with him as soon as was convenient. Fortunately he lived close enough to drive to or facility. Randy emailed me with more details, would call and set up an appointment, and wouldn't show up. He would then call with his mother a couple of days later, apologize, and set another appointment, and not come. Finally, one Sunday afternoon, Randy called and told me that his family was on the way here. We waited all afternoon, and three and a half hours later they called to say they had arrived at our meeting spot.
I went down to the main road to meet them, and they weren't there. I came home and waited again, and after an hour his mother called and stated they were at our meeting place, so drove down again, and had them follow me up. Randy got out of his car and went right to the dogs. At first the "boys", now 21 years old, were overwhelmed with excitement. They wanted to see all the dogs, walked up and down the kennels checking out one dog after another, and wanted me to bring them all out. Though they seemed excited and very interested it was hard to focus them, and they had a hard time listening to me.
Evaluating new potential DOGWISH recipients is a very sensitive and important procedure which can take some visits to accomplish. I had a lot of questions to ask both Randy and his brother John about their background, their ability to handle and work with dogs, and all the essentials they had for caring, feeding, and training, and providing a life long home for their dog, IF we were to give them one.
It also often takes time the potential recipient to make sure they are ready for the responsibility, and life style changes it might take, to take on a DOGWISH K9. If a family is involved it can complicate the entire procedure.
Honestly, they flunked the evaluation and did not qualify for a DOGWISH K9; not because they weren't good with the dogs, but because their mother and her home background seemed unstable, and they needed adult supervision, which I questioned she could provide. (I was more right than I realized). They told me they had moved a couple times over the past five years which was not completely true, their mother didn't have a steady job, but her boyfriend seemed to be a responsible man who loved the boys and her, and did. They were renting their present home, and were not financially stable.
It posed a conflict to me, and yet I could see a tremendous need for immediate help. On one hand they realistically needed to come back and work with me several times before I could put a $20,000.00 DOGWISH Service Assistance K9 in their care; it was difficult to justify just giving them a completely trained K9 that I had in training for a qualified home. Their lifestyle and background showed them to be unstable and questionable. Yet, the boys, very sincere, and very positive, seemed loving, concerned, and seriously in need of a good K9.
Randy possessed qualities and attributes that were unusual and special. His obvious love for animals was impressive. His natural connection with the dogs was also unusual. I was torn between what was correct, and what was right. I knew that at best I was taking a chance that possibly could be a mistake, so I chose not to place a dog we had in training as a DOGWISH K9 with them.
Instead, I went to the kennels where I kept my own stock for breeding etc., brought out one of my best young trained females, and handed the leash to Randy. This way, if there was a problem, if this was a mistake, it was all mine. I was willing to personally take on the responsibility to help Randy above and beyond what anyone would expect, because I felt it was a life threatening situation that somebody needed to extend to him. So, I decided to co-own this dog with Randy. This way I would have a hold on the dog, and if needed to assume ownership as needed.
His response was beyond expectation. The boys showed appreciation that was unusual. It was obvious that this was the most cherished gift I could have given them. Jasmone is a particularly beautiful, balanced, impressive black & tan, Ivy League looking 1 1/2 year old female, then only 1 year old. Her litter came out excellent, showing remarkable genetics. Two of her brothers do Police K9 work. One of her sisters as well is being trained for another special K9 program, and has now produced a litter of outstanding pups herself. Jasmone was the third female in the litter, and designated as an assistance K9 while young. We trained her in complete obedience, and taught her to be sensitive to the electro-magnetic energy the body projected, and to discriminate smells as she grew up (so that she could smell body chemical changes. The way I train seizure K9s is to teach them to become sensitive to the smell and electricity produced by the handler through the process of brainwave electromagnetic nerve stimulation. The dogs literally learn to feel, smell, and respond to what the handler wants without physical or verbal commands, and perform automatically. It is a higher level of communication that works very well with dogs that have been command K9 advance trained.
Jasmone was sensitive, very smart, and performed well. She also was very mature, focused, and serious about life. Remarkably, the moment Jasmone saw Randy, she was very attracted to him, instantly went to him, and in a few minutes of working with him started to transform into the kind of dog he wanted, and needed. One reason is that Randy let Jasmone be herself without overcorrecting her performance.
It was like she could smell and feel that Randy needed her, needed her to be with him, alert him, and protect him. Our training is designed to teach our dogs to be sensitive to electro-magnetic energies produced by the handlers brain and neural system, and yet Jasmone, like so many of our dogs, seemed to go a step further. She seemed to understand Randy was special, and attached herself to him almost immediately.
They took her for a walk, ran around our facility, and I had to stop them, and let her rest. I agreed to co-own Jasmone with them, and this way would have some control over the dog. We went through the standard information about how to take a dog home and care for it properly, filled out a contract for ownership, gave them a leash, collar, papers, and dog food, and sent them home. We set up a training schedule and they promised to bring their dog back weekly for the next several months.
Three weeks passed and Randy had not come back as promised. Each week his family had another excuse for why they couldn't bring him. I spoke with them on the telephone, and Randy was always ready, but each week there was another problem. So, the fourth week, out of concern for both Randy and Jasmone, I drove out to their home, and picked him up. It was quite a drive, clear on the other side of our 50 mile valley, nestled up in the hills, over looking the High Desert from an opposite view point.
I drove Randy to our Facility to spend the day working with us and the dogs. Randy did well. He was attentive, watched and learned and we taught him about the dogs, and got a good start on how to work with his new K9. However, after a couple of hours Jasmone suddenly started to bark at Randy. She went up to him and hit him with her head. "What's she doing," said Randy, who suddenly lost his balance and got woozy. It was obvious he was showing signs of an approaching seizure. We had him sit down on the ground and relax. "Why did Jasmone do that," he asked? We explained to him that Jasmone had just indicated to him that his body was changing smell and electro magnetic energy, caused by a mal-function in his brain, and that she was trying to alert him to stop and protect himself. Randy was surprised how attentive Jasmone was. She kept licking him and wouldn't leave him alone. He mentioned she had done this before, but that he didn't realize she was indicating a potential seizure. Each time he had stopped and tried to find out why she was acting so concerned.
We were also surprised because Jasmone showed such tremendous concern for Randy. She never took her eyes off of him, and no matter what he was doing, she wanted to be right there. She wasn't trying to control his attention, or doing things to get his attention; he was the center of her attention. It was obvious that she knew Randy needed her, and that she was there for him. I've never seen Jasmone when she wasn't like this since I gave her to Randy. It's quite extraordinary. If Randy moves so does she, right with him. He can't do anything if she's around, without her wanting to be right there.
For three weeks I brought Randy out for training, and took him home. Then, the fourth week, I got a call. Randy had suffered a seizure, and was sick, so we had to put the training off for a week. The next week I was busy away from home, so we missed training. Suddenly, I got a call on the third week. Jasmone had been hurt. Randy's mother called me and told me that Randy had been working in the horse corral with his brother John, using a pitch fork to clean up the hay, had left Jasmone in the house, and suddenly had started to have a seizure. He lost his balance and fell into a water trough unconscious. Jasmone was in the house, and couldn't get out, so she jumped through a double pain glass window to get to Randy, and had cut open her stomach and her front paw in the process. She ran to Randy, and gently pulled him out of the trough, laid on him, and hearing the noise they found her licking his face on top of him when they arrived. It was quite spectacular. Randy was again sick that week, but it alarmed me that they did not have the money to care for Jasmine's wounds, so I sent them to my Veterinarian to take care of her. The Vet reported that she was too thin, and needed to be fed better. It took time for Jasmone to recuperate, so Randy kept her home for three more weeks. During that time he had another seizure and Jasmone indicated this as well and again stopped him from another potentially dangerous accident.
I was again really alarmed one day when Randy's mom, "Buffalo", called and informed me they were preparing to move to Florida, to be with her family on Indian Reservation land their family owned. Even though I knew Randy had a good relationship with his dog, it worried me to have them move where I couldn't continue to help and train her. Even though Jasmine's level of performance was outstanding, the training to teach Randy to handle her on that level had been sporadic. They wanted me to process her papers as a Service Assistance K9, which I did, so that they could take the paper work to Florida to register her there. They called a couple of times, postponing their trip so that the Army could pick up their mother's brothers belongings to move them to Florida before they left. Finally my wife asked me to call them, since they were still here, and see if they would like to come for Thanksgiving, which they gladly accepted.
Thanksgiving came and Randy called me early to let me know they were coming. I expected them about 10 am, but they didn't show. I called them about 2 pm when they still hadn't come, and Randy's mom said they were having truck trouble. They got here about 3:30, and it was a mess. Their truck had broken down twice on the road, and again just as they got here. We spent the next hour fixing it so that they could get back home that night, while they ate all the orderves in the house. Then we came in and ate dinner. Randy and John ate twice. Then we had desert.
Buffalo told us that they were being illegally evicted by a cruel land lord, who had no heart. The land lord had stolen their money and refused to give them receipts. Buffalo was really hoping they could leave for Florida as soon as possible, but their only transportation was their truck, and it wasn't going very far.
As we sat and listened my wife came up with the idea to give them a Chevy Blazer that we had purchased for our son, and could give to them. The car needed transmission work, so I called a friend that owned a transmission business, and he agreed to do the work at cost for us, since it was going for charity. Randy and his family left for home about 9m, but we were uneasy. I kept in contact with them bi-daily to see how they were doing. The reports got worse, and worse, and finally Buffalo called and told me they had to leave. All the utilities had been turned off, they were living in freezing cold, no water, electricity, and very little food.
I had made several calls to the "Christian" community of Pastors in our area, but nobody seemed interested in helping these people out at all. So we invited them to our house. They came in and literally sacked out. Buffalo went to our refrigerator made them lunch, and sacked out on our couch while we were all out working. When we got home she had already made them dinner, and had some for us. She was doing clothes in our laundry room, and had moved several boxes of necessities into our living room. She had called her family, and they were returning her phone calls. This arrangement was only to last for three or four days as they had friends that they wanted to visit with before they went to Florida.
We then began to ask questions of Buffalo about their past. It was a saga of pain and trouble, filled with desperation. She had tried to be a good mother, but had been abused in every way as she tried to take care of the boys. However, each hour held a new treasure, something that would trigger something. Buffalos friends either couldn't be reached, or wouldn't return her calls. She started to use the phone more and more. Then she began to have emotional fits of depression, anxiety, and drug withdrawal. At the same time I found out she was constantly complaining to everyone around about us! I confronted her and she started telling me stories about how she was being mistreated by everyone. At the same time, behind my back, she was going to my workers for alcohol, telling those lies about us, and propositioning them for paid sex. The third day here we took the family to a Christmas party at Disneyland. Two days later we went out for a special dinner. Then we went the next day to the movies. Each day I would have to spend more and more time counseling with Buffalo, who got worse by the hour.
Finally, after 10 days of counseling, help, and concern, Buffalo went nuts. She became uncontrollable. Buffalo considered herself a special spiritual Indian Priestess, and was also in her Bible all the time. The last day she was here she was acting out of her mind, horribly angry, extremely rude, and just rotten. (I later found out she had helped herself to several bottles of beer, and was drunk). I tried to talk with her, and it was no use. I asked Randy and John what her problem was, and they began to tell me the truth about their mother. It was hard to believe the horrible things she had done to them, and the things she had put them through; the way she had misused them was unreal.
Buffalo had received a bus ticket for her alone to go to her family in Florida, and she was irrationally flaunting it to the boys. She finally decided to leave, and we took her to a hospital where she could stay. The boys however, refused to leave, and begged us to keep them. They all agreed, and Buffalo was driven to her temporary boarding facility. They never cried for her, and have hardly spoken of her. We took her to a nearby mental hospital where they kept and cared for her until she left for Florida.
Buffalo and her family still call and threaten to disown the boys, trying to use guilt to get them to send them money, and move to Florida where she can continue her "charade". However, the boys, now more educated, are nice, to the point, and leave their comments where they belong. I now realize that if I had not intervened, Randy or John might not be alive today. It has made me realize the serious need to develop a home for the abused, to help more people like Randy and John.
RANDY AND JOHN
Randy and John were born on 4-19-84 in Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane Washington. Randy's mother had taken drugs while she was pregnant, and Randy's father had repeatedly beaten her while intoxicated on drugs and alcohol.
Randy was born with several serious birth defects. The doctors found Randy's umbilical chord was wrapped around his neck three times, and he was born legally dead. However they were able to resuscitate Randy, put him on an I.V., and in a resuscitator. Twelve hours later the I.V. needle which the nurse forgot to check, moved, and damaged the nerves in his hand and arm from which he stills bears scars. On a survival scale from one to ten, Randy was a one (1) and given little chance of survival. He now has neurological damage related to his birth.
Randy and his twin brother John grew up for five years at the Grand Coulee Dam
near the Indian Reservation in Spokane where their mother had grown up. Randy's father was French and Russian, and his mother is a member of the Ness Pierce Indian Tribe. She grew up on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington. Randy's Grandmother was a Satanic Priestess, into black Wicca practices, and according to Brenda used to make her participate in satanic rituals as a young girl. She said she was given ritual narcotics, alcohol, and blood to drink, locked in dark places, and was ritually raped by cult members since she could remember.
"Buffalo" is Randy's mothers chosen name, given to her in an Indian Celebration done by the Pimos Indians, because she looked like a picture of a prophetic Indian woman known as the "Buffalo Princess" who according to legend would come in the last days and lead the American Indians to Prosperity over other peoples in their lands. Her real name was Brenda Mc Clung.
The first memories Randy has of his parents is seeing his father beat his mother's head through a porcelain sink, pushing her down the stairs, watching him beat her, him, and his brother over and over. His father was a member of the Russian Mafia, a gun runner, and a hit man. When Randy was five his parents separated, and they moved to Vancouver Washington for three years where Brenda lived with one "junkie" after another. She then moved to Arizona and told the boys she was going to school to learn how to be a better mother. During this time she left the boys to live again with Randy's father.
Randy's father had one bigger problem that affected the now three Boys in the family. He was a driven Homosexual Pedophile, who engaged in raping the boys' by-daily for the next two years. Every time he became high on drugs he became horny, especially if he was on heroine.
After two years the boys were given back to their mother, and taken back to Arizona. She was living with a man that got them into psychiatric therapy through an organization called "Impact" for several psychiatric repercussions that resulted from the continued abuse the boys suffered at the hands of their father. They lived in an apartment for the first year, and then four years in a home. Their mother left their step-father because of a drug problem. They moved from place to place, and ended up in another home with another pedophile named Toby in Mesa Arizona, who started having sex with their younger brother. They lived with Toby for a full year. As a result, their younger brother was convicted of forcing sex with their mother, at the age of twelve, and has been in a correctional facility for the past six years, at the Youth Development Institute in Arizona.
Their mother then married a Michael Mendoza in Mesa Arizona, a neighbor turned friend, and companion drug user, who got the boys to do marijuana. They moved to California to be close to his family who lived in West Covina. He began to become abusive then turned homosexual, and Brenda, after catching him in the act, in front of the boys, left him. They then moved and lived with a Michael Sanchez, a man pronounced Schizophrenic by Professional Licensed Psychologists who performed sex acts with animals in front of the boys until they turned him in. She then took the boys to Baldwin Park where they lived on the street. Randy and John lived in track bins, while their mother took their SSI money and lived in a nearly apartment. The boys would use their money to by a motel room, and their mother would develop a relationship with the owner, and get them kicked out, while she stayed in their room. They lived on the street for two years until they moved into the home they occupied with their uncle Paul in Apple Valley, in March of 2005. Paul was in the Army, and was discharged in September, and went to Florida, abandoning the family. The landlord immediately started eviction proceedings, cut off the utilities, and started to force the unwanted family to move, by fear of threat from vicious strangers, until we allowed them to live with us.
Until we took them in the boys were dressed with rags, fed poorly, and given minimal care. Their mentality was extremely depraved, and their psychological condition was horrific. They had no work ethic, no sense of responsibility, had never cleaned a bathroom, done dishes, washed their own clothes, or been responsible to budget their money, which was usually stolen and used for drugs and alcohol. Randy's mother had done an excellent job of teaching them how to "use" the disability system, to be disabled, and do nothing.
What has happened to John and Randy during the last several months has been an ongoing experience that is affecting us all. Our counseling, our help, our daily work with them is slowly turning them around. They are responding, have gained a sense of right and wrong, are dressing, acting, and working responsibly, and are showing a good hearted improvement in several areas.
Randy was taught to be totally self-centered, and has had to face a lot of growing, which is still going on, even though he had many good attributes, and shows progress weekly. John has become a committed, determined, powerful attribute at our facility, and shows excellent progress. They are now using their minds to improve their lives in many ways, and are becoming focused, intelligent, and more predictably responsible. They are developing goals, a sense of accomplishment, a self image, and a belief that they are capable of becoming somebody they can be proud of. Since Randy has been here, working with his dog daily, he has not had a single seizure!
This experience has helped enrich our understanding of what is possible with our DOGWISH Facility. Though it has taken intense work to help these young men, the results are inconclusively appropriate, and we are very proud of how they are developing. It's not easy, but compared to the amount of work I've seen some of my clients put into their children with disabilities, we are fortunate.
I have trained Seizure K9s for several DOGWISH recipients and in every single case we have found that both the seriousness and frequency of their attacks have lessened and some even resolved as a result of the therapy and constant assistance provided by the K9s.
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