"Animals are wonderful, because they put you in a great emotional state. When you feel love for your pet, that great state of love will bring goodness into your life. And what a gift that is."

James Ray: The Secret

We as humans have to give back some of this love, and Jeff Collins facilitated that for me.

goldenNicky my beloved Golden-Retriever Golden-Chow mix ruptured her cranial Cruciate in late December 2006. Normally we walked 5-7 km.daily.

In early January, my veterinarian suggested Jeff Collins services, because Nicky was eliminated as a surgery candidate because of her age (10) and her history of a myocardial infarction in 2004.

By very early in February Nicky was using her orthotic, and the change in Nicky was phenomenal. Prior to this incident, Nicky was very athletic and since December she was down and out, and, along with her, I was also depressed.

Nicky's rehabilitation consisted of physio at least twice daily, which I did as I have a nursing background and was head trainer for a junior football for ten (10) years. It was very difficult to keep her down.

We are part of a play group that meets every morning, I would drive her there and she would have 1-2 turns around the outside of a baseball diamond with her dog friends. I must tell you here that upon arriving at the group site the happiness seen in Nicky's face was astounding. We even made the local newspaper.

In March we graduated to walking to the play group (1km) and I eventually let her run free. My vet would have been very angry, but Nicky was happy and appeared not to be in pain. If she indicated pain, I curtailed her freedom.

By the beginning of April she was ready to explore more of her freedom, which included chasing squirrels. This was totally wrong and I kept questioning myself about this lack of discipline on my part.

Then it all fell apart, Nicky's appetite was not good, she started vomiting and in a period of a little more than 48 hours Nicky was dead.

She had a gastric tumour or a gastric ulcer, the latter possibly due to the NSAID medication, which is an inflammatory agent, which she was on. It perforated, peritonitis developed and Nicky died in hospital Monday, April 16 2007.

I am devastated, but I recognize that the orthotic made by Jeff gave Nicky a little more than two months of her life back. She was so happy to walk with me, to run, and in that last week even chased her squirrels. These memories are helping me to get through a very difficult period; I can barely see the keyboard for the tears.

Jeff Collins approach is outstanding and very personal and very necessary. I do not hesitate, for a minute, to talk about him to the many people I meet and I consider him a friend. The cliché is "dog is man's best friend", well I consider Jeff to be dog's best friend.

In closing, the first choice for vets is surgery, but that is not always feasible financially or otherwise. The orthotic will become more popular and in short is a great thing.

M.Evelyn Watson

Dollard des Ormeaux, Québec