By Daniella DeLuca

DANIELLA De LUCA/Sun-Gazette Mary Anne Cautz has taken ownership of her sister’s dog, Samson, which has been trained and will assist Cautz as a service dog.

It’s a life-altering change. “Instead of having two legs you now have six,” Mary Anne Cautz said.

No, she hasn’t transformed into some kind of six-legged insect, but she has gained a new friend after three short weeks. And, he wasn’t that hard to find.

Samson, a mix — part Yellow Labrador and part Samoyed (a type of Husky) — acts as her service dog to help brace and support her, retrieve items around the house, open doors and other miscellaneous tasks. Cautz, now 43, first noticed signs of Multiple Sclerosis in 1993, and told her family in summer 2005 that she had been diagnosed.

“It was difficult news to share, so I waited to tell them,” she said.

It was through the persistence of her sister, Valerie Komarnicki of Loyalsock Township, that she decided to take a look at getting a service dog. Little did she know that it would be, in fact, her sister’s dog that would soon help make her life easier and allow her to walk without a cane.

Yet, Samson has come a long way from his “unruly and headstrong” puppy years. After all, he was named Samson for the size of his paws and his strength early-on, Komarnicki said.

Months before her sister’s diagnosis, “Sammy” had become a “neighborhood nuisance” by jumping the electric fence and getting into neighbors’ yards in search of human interaction. He also began shedding hair, creating a problem for Komarnicki’s 2-year old son, who developed pet dander allergies. Komarnicki said that after trying to give her dog away to other family members — Mary Anne included — she posted flyers in an effort to find a new home for him.

“We tried everything, but things always fell through at the last minute,” she said.

In a last attempt, Komarnicki thought about having Samson become a service dog in an assisted living home. While it did seem like a perfect fit, another opportunity came along when she contacted the SPCA, Eagles’ Wings Service Dogs Inc.

The group usually doesn’t accept dogs from the public and instead chooses its dogs to train directly from the Lycoming County SPCA. Eagles Wings president Cindy Sortman said that when she met Samson, he was a bit out of hand.

It took some begging, but Komarnicki was able to convince Sortman that Samson was worth taking a look at. Tests were done and Sortman concluded that Samson, at the very least, could be a therapy dog or a home companion dog, but she was skeptical at first about the training. The Komarnicki family paid for the medical costs and the preliminary costs of training.

It wasn’t until fate took its course when Komarnicki found out that Sortman also had been diagnosed with MS.

“Everything fell into place just then when she told me. My sister Mary Anne was also diagnosed and I knew that this was just supposed to happen,” Komarnicki said.

Immediately after, Komarnicki called her sister to ask her to consider a service dog.

“I told her, ‘You have no choice. This is it! This is how it is supposed to be’ in my sisterly way,” she said.

After a few months of deliberation, Cautz submitted an application to find a match.

Meanwhile, Sortman was training Samson in her own home, a process that took five months.

The dog was matched with Cautz through Eagles’ Wings and although Cautz originally didn’t want Samson because he was too much of an outdoor dog, after three weeks of training with him at her father’s home in South Williamsport, she said, “I’d go crazy without him.”

“The training doesn’t end here,” Sortman said, adding that it takes at least six months for the bond to form between dog and owner.

“What I taught him was rudimentary,” she said. He has been taught to brace, help his owner up off the floor, retrieve almost any item, as well as help his owner up and down stairs or curbs. In some instances, he can even help carry a handbag or groceries with his harness.

Cautz is training Samson using a laser pointer “in case there is more than one object to choose from for him to retrieve. I’ve been working on shining the light on the item I need and he’s been good about locating it,” she said. Samson is rewarded with a treat and positive words for his good behavior or when he completes a task.

Cautz and Samson passed the certification test on Saturday, and now ownership will be transferred and Samson will be allowed, by law, to go anywhere with her in public where an assistive device, such as a cane or wheelchair, is permitted.

Samson will join his family in his new home by week’s end.

Section:     Posted: 1/22/2007