Singh Encourages West Salem Students

By MEG HIBBERT
Times-Register Staff
April 15, 2004.

Photos:
About to Pay

Leigh Singh gets service dog Kenda to carry a small sack of her purchases at the Food Lion grocery store in Oak Grove, where the two are familiar sights.

Leigh Singh’s life was changed by a dog.
Not any dog, mind you, but her first service dog, Slugger, on whom she learned to lean on literally and who gave her confidence.
Although he died in her arms a year ago at age 12, Cave Spring resident Singh made it possible for Slugger to live forever in her story, “Pop Pop’s Promise,” featured in the book, “Chicken Soup for the Body & Soul.”
Slugger’s successor, Kenda, and Singh, who has cerebral palsy, are familiar sights around the area.
“When we shop at Food Lion, Kenda pays at the check out counter by holding out the change purse with the money in it, and gets the change for me. They call her ‘Baby’ and I’m ‘Precious,’ ” she added.
“It’s nice when people recognize you and say nice things to you,” she added. “That kind of input makes me feel welcome, both as a service dog couple and a person.”
At stores, restaurants and everywhere else when they’re away from home, Kenda wears her harness and red St. Francis of Assisi vest to show that she’s working.
She read her story to students and answered their questions about Slugger, her new service dog Kenda and how her companions gave her a different outlook on every day.
“When it’s time to go to work, Kenda goes and gets her collar. It’s always right next to her bed,” Singh explained to fifth-graders at West Salem Elementary School recently. “She stands still for me to get her into her harness and St. Francis of Assisi vest. She has to get her own little work uniform,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Kenda demonstrated her service dog skills.
Students had already read a book about service dogs so they knew not to pat Kenda while she was working, Guidance Counselor Mary Gubala explained.
They also have raised money this year for St. Francis and in February, collected things for the puppy pantry.
The children wanted to know just about everything about Kenda.
“Does she take breaks when she’s working?” one asked.
“Yes, she will come and look at me and I will ask her, ‘Do you want to go outside?’ ”Singh explained.
The author told the students she knew when Slugger was about 10 that it was time to retire him, because he was slowing down.
“And then Kenda came along and Slugger actually taught Kenda several things,” she said. “I like that because it reminds me of him.”
“What kinds of things?” they wanted to know.
“He would sneak into my bedroom and steal a sock and carry it under the table,” she recalled. “We did that every morning. He would get one sock and I’d look for it. He taught Kenda the socknapping trick. The only thing worse than dog breath is dog sock breath,” she said, causing the children to laugh.
In response to a question about how Kenda learned to focus on work when she was a puppy, Singh told students potential service dogs “go to special puppy raisers who know how to focus all that puppy energy.”
When Singh first got Slugger, she was nervous about how he would perform and whether he would stay by the table, for instance, while she went to the buffet in a pizza restaurant. Not only did he stay but like good service dogs – who are never fed from the table so they won’t be tempted in restaurants – Slugger ignored a meatball that had fallen on the floor.
Singh wrote about that in another story, “Something Good: The story of a Dog’s Love and Service.”
She wrote her first story about Slugger after graduate school at James Madison University, where she earned a degree in community agency counseling and later worked for the Harrisonburg Community Services Board.
Her first version of the story in “Chicken Soup for the Body & Soul” she wrote about three years ago, Singh explained.
Various versions of the story have been published in different magazines, she said.
Singh continues to write to fulfill her promise:
“I promised Slugger when he got sick (with cancer) that I would keep writing, and I do.”
Singh moved to the Cave Spring area two years ago with her husband, Pranav, who works in data base administration for Advance Auto in Roanoke. They met when they were at JMU.
“The first thing he ever said to me was, ‘Would your dog like a pretzel?’ I told him Slugger was working and couldn’t have one but ‘I wouldn’t mind one,’ because I really wanted to meet this guy.”
Before JMU, Singh was a student at Roanoke College. Her grandmother, Dickie Henchee, lives in Salem.
Writing is part of Singh. She’s been a published author since she was 15.
Her story, Pop Pop’s promise, is about her grandfather Kenneth Brill, who told her, “Every part of life holds the promise of something good.”
Because of the physical limitations of cerebral palsy, she had trouble believing that, Singh admitted in her story. But with Slugger’s help, she grew to understand what her grandfather had meant.
“I learned to define myself not by what I had to overcome,” she said, “but by what I had the courage to become.”