Surprise in a baby stroller

Cristina E. Garcia

The other day while sitting in class, taking notes, I heard a faint tinkling in the background. This wasn’t some lifelike cellphone alert or the clatter of a chonga bracelet, but the all too familiar ting ting ting of a dog’s collar.

Curious, I looked around the room, but I didn’t see hint or hair of the source, so I went back to concentrating on the lecture.

The next class, I came prepared. I looked around the room, searching for a pooch in a purse or a puppy on a lap, but again I didn’t see anything.

It wasn’t until I approached a classmate with a stroller that I heard the noise again, ting ting ting.

Hesitantly, Jennifer Schafer, a junior English major, moved aside and introduced me to Sebastian.

Sebastian is a black and white Papillon, approximately 5 years old, with a very special ability: he is a certified seizure alert dog.

A seizure alert dog warns people with epilepsy of oncoming attacks before they occur. According to Schafer, her companion typically warns her ten minutes in advance. Not only that, he will call over people he recognizes are close to Shafer to come to her side when she is incapacitated.

When she was first diagnosed in 2008, the first thing Schafer did was give her car away.

“I didn’t feel safe having five minutes or less’ notice to pull to the side of the road” she said.

As defined by the Epilepsy Foundation, “epilepsy is a medical condition that produces seizures affecting a variety of mental and physical functions. Seizures happen when clusters of nerve cells in the brain signal abnormally, which may briefly alter a person’s consciousness, movements or actions.”

Schafer said it mostly takes place in her temporal lobe, the part in charge of short term memory, which “makes learning new material take twice as long.” When she is about to experience an attack, five minutes before, Schafer will start experiencing some of the following: a metallic taste in her mouth, blurred or double vision and/or a nauseated feeling.

With Sebastian, Schafer gets a warning 10 minutes ahead in the form of a panicked whimper, whining, pawing or an adamant bark if she is still not paying attention.

According to Schafer, some people pay as much as $700 for a class to teach their dog this skill and $1 thousand for a purebred Papillon. Sebastian entered her life free of charge.

In fact, Schafer said, he entered her life by accident.

When the dog was only 6-8 months old, a friend of Schafer found him in the streets — malnourished, flea-infested and with matted fur. Miraculously, when they took him to the vet, he had no serious ailments.

“Three dips, a few drops and a lot of food later and he was normal,” said Schafer.

Initially, her friend was going to keep the little dog. One day, he stayed with Schafer for a few hours and she “didn’t want to give him back.”

She admitted that before Sebastian, she never considered herself a dog person, that she even experienced an “ick factor” when other dogs would get too close. The first time Sebastian hopped on her lap and licked her cheek, she was in love.

“I cried. I didn’t want to let him go, I don’t know why,” said Schafer.

That was before she knew about his special abilities.

“The first time it happened, I didn’t know it was this,” she said.

He jumped on her lap, put his front paws on her sternum and wouldn’t let her get up. When she tried, he would growl at her head, very uncharacteristically. Ten minutes later, Schafer started having her signals.

This happened two more times until Schafer realized it wasn’t a coincidence. She reached out to a veterinarian, a vet technician and two pet trainers at Petsmart — they all confirmed that he was displaying the skills of an alert dog and actually informing Schafer of her episodes.

After documenting proof, Schafer was able to obtain a prescription that allows the little dog to accompany her at all times.

While the University has strict animal policies, Sebastian is allowed on-campus because he is a certified service dog.

When he’s off-duty, Sebastian walks around campus on his owner’s leash. When he is on-duty, he is in the baby stroller.

According to Schafer, he has turned into a celebrity at the University apartments, the “mascot of the building” to those that know them.

When asked if anyone had given her a hard time for having a pet on-campus, Schafer said no. The University accommodated her in a studio, as she requested, so as to help Sebastian stay focused.

Schafer said that since Sebastian has entered her life, she has not had attacks as often; he has only alerted her since he entered her life a total of 15 times. According to her, you are more likely to suffer an attack if you are stressed.

With Sebastian, she said she feels safe. Even if she were to have a seizure at night, she said Sebastian stays by her head, nudging her face until she regains consciousness. If she is in a room alone and suffering a seizure, he has been known to bark for help. He even knows how to open the zipper on the baby stroller with his nose to release himself if anything were ever to happen.

Next time you hear ting ting ting, know that’s not just the sound of a dog collar, that’s the sound of Schafer’s “perfect little angel.”