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July 7, 2008
Pup's Devotion Is Good Medicine For Girl's Genetic Disorder
Topics: General
LITHIA - It was the online photo of a fluffy, white American Eskimo pup that enticed the Steele family south to the Humane Society of Manatee County in Bradenton.
Two growing kids and a new house. Time for a family pet.
Jay Steele, the dad, had always wanted an Eskie. But like many online come-ons, the dog disappointed - too snooty, and it shied away from his girls. Sorry, Eskie. Not your day.
Jay felt a pair of big brown eyes staring him down at the far end of the row of cages, a silent canine siren call impossible to ignore.
With the ears and tail of a chow, but with the everything-else of a gosh-darn-happy yellow Labrador retriever, Remy charmed them all: Mom Mimi and daughters Natalee, 7, and Alexandra, 2.
If a dog could giggle, Remy would be a professional.
She wanted to dance with the grown-ups, front paws on shoulders. The little girls she licked gently on the cheeks. Obviously, she had been well-loved. The shelter folks said her first family thought the 2-year-old dog was too frisky for them.
Jay heard Remy's silent mantra: When do I come home? When do I come home?
She came home.
The Steeles wanted a family pet, and they got a good one. But Remy had some surprises for them.
Smarter than her goofball persona might suggest, Remy seemed to figure out that one of her new people needed more from her than a wag and a game of chase.
Seven years before, doctors told Mimi Steele that she might want to consider terminating her pregnancy. The little girl she was carrying had a serious disorder: mosaic chromosomal trisomy 22, a genetic condition that leads to a host of problems.
If she survives, you can expect her to be severely mentally retarded, the doctors told the couple. Her body will be malformed. She'll be high-strung and temperamental. She'll need heart surgeries, a feeding tube. It will be a difficult life for you all.
Jay and Mimi said no, they would take Natalee as is.
The doctors ultimately would call them lucky. Natalee is not retarded, but bright. As Natalee puts it, everything on her right half is all good, and everything on the left side is getting better.
She has no hearing in one ear. Her right ear is just dandy, and both look so pretty with her silver earrings.
After Natalee was picked on by classmates in New York, she and her family eventually moved to the FishHawk Ranch subdivision, where she enrolled at FishHawk Creek Elementary. Jay calls it a godsend, a place where Natalee found acceptance. There, she attends regular classes and chatters at lunch with her friends.
To keep up with doctors' appointments, Jay quit his job and became a stay-at-home dad, running a home-based business as an investment adviser agent. Mimi became manager of the Babies 'R' Us in Brandon, drawn by the health benefits.
Both parents exude a comforting warmth with their daughters. Nighttime thunderstorms find both girls - and Remy - crawling into bed with them.
Although Alexandra had a 50 percent chance of being born with the disorder, she doesn't have it.
Natalee has endured two heart surgeries, one throat surgery and, through age 1, a nasal feeding tube. Now, she has a feeding tube in her belly.
Her disorder causes difficulties metabolizing food, meaning she constantly must eat and receive cans of liquid nourishment via the tube. No fun for Natalee or her parents. Mealtimes had become a powder keg of frustration, anger, torture.
Some people scoff at the idea that dogs have a sixth sense when it comes to their people. The Steeles are not among them.
Remy became Natalee's protector. When the girl sits down, Remy wants to cuddle and groom her like a pup. At night, Remy curls around Natalee and snoozes while Jay reads bedtime stories. She wakes up the second-grader in the morning with a soft lick in the face.
But the biggest boon to the family has been Remy's self-appointed mealtime duty. Every night as the family gathers for dinner, Remy shimmies under Natalee's chair and stays put. If she were looking for dropped tidbits, she would have better luck hanging out by Alexandra, who's at the finger-food-dropping stage. But no. Remy has a job to do.
Natalee loves the attention, and, her parents say, she wants to please her watchdog. So she eats. Pasta, kielbasa, soup, even carrots, asparagus and broccoli. Remy remains all business until dinner is done.
In the four months the family has had the dog, Natalee has been able to cut down on the amount of liquid nourishment going into the dreaded feeding tube and is gaining weight rapidly.
Natalee's right side will always be a little smaller than her left, but doctors now say she has an excellent chance of an otherwise complete recovery.
Mom and Dad will continue doing all they can to make that happen. Eating is key. Remy, it seems, has that part under control.
Reporter Donna Koehn can be reached at (813) 259-8264 or dkoehn@tampatrib.com.
Posted by admin at July 7, 2008 8:57 PM
