This article is reprinted from “THE GLEANER ONLINE” Sunday, October 11, 1998.
Judy Jenkins, Author Karla Clinch is amazed that the Community Methodist Hospital staff didn't turn a hair when she asked if her personal assistant could share her private room.
Instead of being startled by that question, the nurses and patient representative merely asked, “What can we do to help…”
Ms. Clinch says the response is the opposite of what she usually experiences upon taking her assistant with her into public places.
After all, her helper has four legs, floppy ears and very sharp teeth.
His name is Cooper, and he’s a yr old, 95lb Rottweiler.
Most of the time when the harnessed and leash-led dog has accompanied her into a restaurant, theater or other facility, she said, “People have gone, ‘Oh my god, It’s a Rottweiler!’”Because of the negative image that follows the animals like a dark cloud, “They’re considered horrible, vicious killer dogs,” Ms. Clinch said. Far from fitting that stereotype, the gentle Cooper is her friend and hero.
The midnight black canine with the warm brown eyes and tan “eyebrows” makes it possible for his owner to maintain her independence as she deals with MS.
That disease of the central nervous system has weakened her body to the point that she now relies on a wheelchair for mobility about 50% of the time.
And she counts on Cooper to everything from opening doors for her, and carrying a backpack of the texts she studies as a college junior to picking up dropped coins for the floor.
“He can pick up everything from a dime to the Evansville phone directory in his mouth,” said Ms. Clinch, a long time dog trainer who has taught Cooper some 150 commands.
The Rottweiler is so bright, she says, that he knows the names of a number of common items like the phone and TV remote control, and will, upon being told to do so, bring them to her.
When she’s feeling a bit down, says the 34yr old, “Cooper brings me his toys and pillow and makes me feel better.”Ms Clinch apparently doesn't get depressed very often.
Blessed with a rich sense of humor and can-do attitude, she chuckles and identifies herself as “the fat lady with the Rottweiler.
”Raised in Indianapolis, the daughter of a General Motors employee and a home maker, she moved to this area after 1992 divorce.
While training dogs and working for a home delivery service, she enrolled at USE as a sociology major.
On a February day in 1993, she was driving to classes when she realized she’d left an important notebook at home.
Returning to her residence to fetch it, she topped a hill on a narrow road and collided with a van.
Her care was totaled, but she appeared to be uninjured.
As the weeks passed, however, the vague symptoms she’d previously experienced, worsened.
“I had a lot of trouble getting up in the mornings, “ She recalls, “and my parts just weren't working right” She had attributed the difficulties to old mishaps, including, “being bucked off horses.”She had numerous tests and eventually was diagnosed with MS.
Fortunately she already owned Cooper, who had been given to her by a fellow whose wife didn't like the dog.She and Cooper have never been separated, she said, and that’s why she was so relieved when CMH officials told her she could keep the animal with her in her hospital room earlier this month while she was being treated for pneumonia.Nurses even offered to walk the dog during her stay, she said, but that turned out to unnecessary.
A number of volunteers, including Mary Dee Miller, Danny Thomason and George Meuth, took cooper out several times each day.
Ms. Clinch said such understanding is relatively rare. She and Cooper were once asked to leave an amphitheater, she says, and she was threatened with arrest for refusing to leave Memphis restaurant.>In that latter situation, she managed to convince the officer that Cooper is as essential to her as a prosthetic is to a person who has lost a leg.
The dilemma, she says, stems for the fact that her disability isn't always readily apparent---and that people often tend to fear Rottweiler.
Though Cooper is a constant blessing, she said, if anything happens to him, his replacement likely will be another breed “just because of the public perception of Rottweiler.”
That’s a shame, she said, pointing to the current edition of a Rottweiler publication edited by the national “Dog Fancy” magazine.
That edition carries a story entitled “heroic Rottweiler” and features Cooper and several other Rottweilers who have distinguished themselves.Cooper a social creature who welcomes pats on the head, is credited with helping a child previously mauled by a dog to overcome her fear of canines.
And he’s a favorite; Ms. Clinch said, with a handicapped youngster in the Owensville, Ind., church she and Cooper attend when they’re in this area.
Yes, Cooper is welcome in church, and his proud owner reports that he hasn't disrupted a single sermon.