ArcaMax

"Rarely do we humans realize the feeling of purpose and destiny," says veterinary technician Julie Shaw, of Lafayette, IN. "I think dogs feel this all the time; it's one of the characteristics we humans envy of them without knowing it."

Shaw is known throughout her profession as a leader, helping to create a specialty in animal behavior among veterinary technicians and teaching her colleagues at veterinary conferences. Still, the co-author of "Canine and Feline Behavior for Veterinary Technicians and Nurses" (Wiley Blackwell, Ames, Iowa, 2015; $66) says her most important role she can describe in one word: mom.

Shaw's son, Dylan, was supposed to be born in October 22 years ago. Instead, he arrived on the Fourth of July, weighing only 2 pounds, 4 ounces.

"He was given zero chance to survive," she recalls.

Dylan pulled through, though not unscathed. He was soon diagnosed with cerebral palsy caused by brain trauma in-utero.

"I was grieving very hard because I wanted to fix it," says Shaw. "I was working very hard to make the boo-boo better, as moms are determined to do, but I couldn't. I started researching other ways I could help, and because I'd been a veterinary technician for so long, I thought I could find a service dog to assist him. But that didn't go so easily."

Even today, most organizations providing service dogs wouldn't be keen on pairing one with a toddler, and certainly the idea wasn't welcome more than two decades back. Shaw persevered, however, ultimately finding two dogs for Dylan, appropriately named Faith and Hero.

Dylan is now a student at Ivy tech Community College in Lafayette.

"Today he can barely speak about the two dogs he grew up with, (they were) so incredibly important -- as important as any of us. Those dogs could help him in ways I couldn't. At times, when I couldn't comfort Dylan, they did."

Being a dog trainer, Shaw taught the dogs practical skills, such as picking up items for Dylan.

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