A life-changing pet by MJ Pitt (CHA, 2009)
Meet Levi, my life-changing assistance dog. Until 3 years ago, I didn’t really know what an assistance dog was. I always assumed there were two types: guide dogs and hearing dogs. How wrong I was!
I graduated from La Châtaigneraie in 2009, spending most of my spare time doing sports. I played football 5 times a week, including for the school team, and ran in many cross-country races for Ecolint. I went on to study Geography and Sports Science at Loughborough University and loved everything to do with sports.
Levi became a part of my life nearly 5 years ago now. He was an 8-week-old chubby puppy with bundles of energy. He was only ever supposed to be my pet dog, until my life changed in quite a big way. I was diagnosed with several disabilities (both mental health and physical), which led to me having to give up football and running. I now spend half of my time in a wheelchair and struggle with pain and fatigue. Levi was a massive factor in helping me cope with all the changes I was facing.
After a few months of online counselling during Covid, my counsellor asked me if I realised what Levi was doing for me. She explained how he alerted me to my anxiety, flashbacks and dissociation, laying on me to calm me down. She told me to look into him becoming my assistance dog, which is when I realised what an assistance dog actually is. We trained under a charity and Levi became a fully qualified assistance dog in January 2024. He does many things for me such as alerting me to anxiety, deep pressure therapy, leading me to exits, opening doors, retrieving items I have dropped, collecting my post and even loading and unloading my washing machine!
Levi now comes everywhere with me. He comes to work every day, in a secondary school where I teach and I am a Head of Year. He has even been on several flights between the UK and Geneva when I visit my family.
He has changed my life in so many ways and I would be lost without him. I never knew how much assistance dogs changed people’s lives and I now want to educate others about how amazing these animals can be.
MJ Pitt
La Châtaigneraie 2009