March 19, 2019

Keeping Ties Alive

by Dennis

I sit here on my bunk in the morning, drinking my coffee, and think how lucky I am. I have a 4 month old puppy curled up next to me, with his head on my arm, seeking warmth and comfort, and a 90 pound Golden Retriever laying up against my legs. Many people would probably take these moments for granted, but when you are in prison, serving a life sentence, they are precious and to be cherished. I have New Life K9s to thank for this. With their vision of saving the lives of our veterans and first responders, they are also helping to preserve our lives and our dreams of getting our one day and leading a productive life. They give us so many tools to do this. Instead of just thinking about ourselves, we are given another life to nurture. We learn how to work with others, and many of us come from different backgrounds, cultures, beliefs, and some even come from rival gangs. We learn communication skills, how to talk to each other about differences without heated arguments. We learn the parenting skills that come with raising these dogs using the bond-based teaching philosophy. This program gives us the means to give back to our communities that we have taken so much from. It gives us the tools to enrich our relationships with our families, to keep these important ties alive. So I’ll end this by saying, thank you New Life K9s.