Page 2 - June 2021 BSTTW Community News

2 BSTTW COMMUNITY NEWS
Dog Badly Scorched in Fire Becomes
Therapy Dog For Burn Victims
By Miranda Carney
American Kennel Club
On Oct. 23, 2018, a fire broke out in Georgia.
The family had time to get their kids out, but
there was no time to go back in for Taka, their
nine-year-old Shiba Inu. The fire burned the
entire porch, causing the floor to collapse and
Taka to fall through. Taka was able to run to a
neighbor’s house. Upon seeing a dog on fire,
the neighbors panicked and reached out to
Crystal Lesley, a veterinarian at Care More
Animal Hospital on Facebook.
“When I saw the picture I immediately called
her and told her she needed to bring him to
me!” Lesley says. “She was able to get some
help and they brought him in. He was still
smoking when they found him. We had never
encountered a burn victim as severe as Taka
before and we were terrified that he wouldn’t
make it.”
Because they couldn’t touch Taka without him
screaming in pain, they sedated him to assess
his injuries. They realized this would be a lot of
work, but Lesley was determined to help the
dog.
A Community Effort
After posting a photo of Taka to the clinic’s
Facebook page, it took off and the entire
community came together to help raise money
to send Taka to a specialist. But things still
weren’t looking good. After two days, Taka took
a turn for the worse and his pain seemed
unbearable.
That’s when Lesley left work and drove him to
the South Carolina Veterinary Specialists and
Emergency Care in Columbia, South
Carolina. “He and I lied on the floor in the
waiting area crying together,” Lesley says. He
ended up staying for a month and a half, so on
weekends, Lesley would visit him.
Once he was done at the specialist, it was
Lesley’s turn to care for him. “Weeks of daily
bandage changes and wound care,” Lesley
says. “We quickly realized Taka couldn’t blink.”
One of the nurses at the Joseph M. Still Burn
Center fell in love with Taka’s story and soon,
the center called offering to do skin grafts and
reconstructive surgery on him to allow him to
blink — all at no charge!
“We were incredibly humbled and awestruck at
the magnitude of service they provided for this
amazing dog,” Lesley says. Today, Taka can
blink again.
A Future for Taka
Because of the medical care Taka needed, his
previous owners signed him over to the vets.
They chose not to get him back due to his
injuries and not being able to care for him
properly.
“I had been taking him home with me every
day, so eventually I realized I couldn’t part with
him,” Lesley says. That’s when Taka officially
became Lesley’s. “After months of recovery and
the impact he had on the community. I was
approached by a nurse at the burn center about
Taka coming in to visit burned children, in
hopes of giving them something to relate to.”
Lesley knew right away that Taka’s personality
was perfect for this job. “He LOVES kids and
people,” she says. She describes him as the
perfect mixture of silly and sweet. “I thought
about it and decided that he was too special not
to share him with the world.”
CGC & Therapy Dog Training
In order to work in the burn unit, Taka would
need his Therapy Dog certification. This is what
started Lesley on a journey of training Taka.
She started working with trainer Mandy Foster,
and Taka immediately loved it and was proud of
himself.
The first step to therapy dog training is the
Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test. The most difficult
part of CGC training was teaching Taka to stay.
Continued On Page 3 “Burned Dog”