“For many years I have raised and trained therapy dogs and service dogs. Now I have a service dog of my own that helps me. I taught these dogs many skills but what they have taught me is far greater.

I now take Willy, a Golden Retriever, registered therapy dog, to Castle Hospital in Kailua to visit the behavioral ward there. On the ward the people have many problems. Some have tired to commit suicide or to hurt themselves, some have taken drugs, others have mental illnesses. Many act in very strange ways, but to Willy they are all the same. He puts his head on their laps and snuggles close to them for as long as they wish to pet him. He has no judgment or labels for any of them. I realize as I watch him that he sees “that of God in everyone.’”

Kathy Summers

Kailua, Hawaii