SANTIAGO LOPEZ: I messed up on a lot of things at school because I started hanging out with the wrong people. And then my family used to always tell me, “Santiago, just do the right thing.” Everybody used to tell me, “You’re a smart kid.” The thing is, you have a little bit of problems. I needed so much help. I needed somebody to help me because how was I gonna do anything to accomplish things without any help. Green Chimneys is a program that helps you a lot. There’s a farm here. There’s jobs. The thing is, there’s people that watch you twenty-four hours, seven days a week. They asked me if I wanted to join a program. I said yes.

SANTIAGO: I started off with the dogs because I always love dogs, no matter what. The person that they told me I had to train the dog for was Linda and I wanted him to just, you know, make her happy.

LINDA GOLDBERG: February 4th of 2000, I was involved in a motor vehicle accident. About a month or so after the accident, I had surgery done to my left shoulder. They thought that I had a rotator cuff tear. They discovered what I had was RSD - Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. It’s known as the dystrophy with the burn. That’s really what it feels like, is a burn - is a hot, acid burn.

LINDA: I can no longer have my grandchildren hug me. I can no longer have my husband or other members of my family hug me, my children.

LINDA: The touch of the dog doesn’t make us burn the way it does with a human touch.

SANTIAGO: The way it helped me was because I bonded with the dogs and I learned a lot of things about animals. That kept me quiet, that kept me from problems.

LINDA: When I go to the grocery store to go shopping, I can no longer bend down and pick up the things on the lower shelves, but Morris helps me to do those things. He gets the things off the shelf for me. Morris helps me to do the laundry.

SANTIAGO: I taught him to turn on the lights, turn off the lights. I taught him to pull the doors, pull harnesses - like when you’re in a wheelchair and you need help.

LINDA: Morris has given me the freedom to be able to be independent in my life. Morris is there to help me get through the tough times of the pain.

SANTIAGO: He’ll take that all away by just jumping on your lap, doing anything for you. He’ll just do anything for you and he’ll just make you happy, no matter what. That’s how he is.

LINDA: They get a lot of good from being able to train the dogs. They get a lot of love and a lot of affection and that’s something that a lot of these children have not had in their life, is a lot of love or affection. They’ve not known what it is to have responsibility, so having the dog to train teaches them about responsibility, teaches them about love.

SANTIAGO: Animals give you love in any way, no matter what. If the dog’s mad at you, barking at you, he’s still giving you love, no matter what.

LINDA: Someone up there in the sky that knows a lot about what we all need and God sent Santiago to me. I truly do believe that. That God sent Morris and Santiago together and got me worked into the game plan.

SANTIAGO: You have to have your head up. You have to think positive, don’t be nervous about anything and just, just be yourself. Be yourself.

TITLE CARD: Morris is a well loved pet.

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