When Elizabeth Woodard and her family brought their bearded collie Olivia into their home, they never knew she would wind up saving Elizabeth's life. Olive wasn't trained as a therapy dog. She learned to help her human, Elizabeth, with her mass cell activation syndrome, a serious disease that causes rapid fluctuations in blood pressure and heartbeat.
“Sometimes, Elizabeth is eating something that we think is fine, but Olivia knows better,” says Elizabeth's mother. “She barks at her and then jumps up and pushes the food away. Sometimes, she’ll bark and bark at Lizzie until (she) lies down because Olivia knows that her blood pressure is about to spike.”
While the Woodard family has certainly found Olivia to be their saving grace, the co-op building that they live in doesn't seem to agree. There are reports that Olivia's barking is drastically upsetting other residents, causing them to complain to the building's board, which in turn has made the board threaten to kick the family out if they don't do something about the volume.
While the family insists that "Olivia only barks occasionally — and never loud enough to become a pain," the rest of their apartment complex doesn't seem to agree, with the board even hinting that they believe the Woodard's are "trumping up" Elizabeth's illness.
At this point, the Woodards claim they would rather get kicked out than lose their dog.
“If we lose Olivia, we lose Elizabeth. They have to be together.”
What do you think of this story? What would you do in this situation?
Please SHARE!
Olivia was originally a gift to the family, but it soon became obvious that she had a special bond with Elizabeth.
Olivia has saved Elizabeth's life on numerous occasions.
Olivia just seems to know when Elizabeth's blood pressure is about to drop, or if something she is eating might affect her negatively.
