There’s no question that therapy animals have a powerful propensity for healing in the humans they’re partnered with, but to watch a mother recall the transformation of her son with his pit bull rescue is enough to bring tears to your eyes.
Joey’s mother Amanda had a pretty good idea that Joey was developing differently than other children by the age of 3. He wasn’t affectionate with her in the way a mother might expect her child to be, and by age 7, Joey was diagnosed with high-functioning Asperger syndrome. “He’s always wanted to be alone, he’s never wanted to have people around him. He’s always done everything better by himself,” she says.
Joey — now a teen — says that he asked his mother for a dog after he had difficulty making friends. Amanda stumbled across a Facebook post for a rescue center with a dog in need of a home. She recalls that when Joey met Roxy, a 60-pound pit bull, it was love at first sight. “It was beautiful just to watch him with her — watching him being able to connect with somebody,” she says.
Tearfully, Amanda reminds us that pit bull stigmas prevented her from thinking that Roxy would have made a good companion for her son. Now, she hopes to spread the story of their mutual rescue in hopes of changing minds about the misinformation surrounding the breed.
Please SHARE this story to help spread her message!
[video_player]
