Katherine Freeman has made a career of helping people at the lowest point in their lives, often in places where the worst of humanity is on display. While many would say her work is heroic, she herself has a hero… He is a poodle named Rory.
“This is my best friend, he is my lifeline he is my hero,” Freeman tells The Mail.
Freeman has literally been to all areas of the earth over the last four decades to help those who have been through the worst that nature and humanity can throw at them. As a counselor, an interfaith chaplain and disaster management supervisor, she has been on the front line of international disaster response. This had brought her to Nicaragua, El Salvador and other Central American countries facing earthquakes, landslides, floods wildfires and other natural disasters. She has also been present in the theatres of political uprisings, and military coupes.
These efforts have left her scarred physically and emotionally. In El Salvador in the 1980s, she was a victim of torture and still has injuries today that affect her life.
“I never thought I would get PTSD, I have been out all over the world with disasters and everything. As they say in the fire department, it adds up, it may not be this one single fire that you have been to, it is the build-up of all of them,” she said. “It is those that can be seen, you will never unsee. Once it gets behind your eyes you will never unsee it.”
The constant companionship and help of Rory, make day-to-day life for Freeman much easier.
“Rory was born on September 11, which is really neat, because I was a first responder on September 11,” she explains. “On 9/11 I was called into work, so I would do a day at ground zero working, and whenever we would find a body part, basically I would go to that specific fire department. I would work with the guys because we found one of their buddies, and help them prepare for the funeral, go through everything they were going through.
“The sad thing about 9/11 is I got there about a week and a half after, and they said to me, ‘do you know you are the first counsellor to come around here and you are from Canada?’”
Freeman has been in Drumheller since October and her son lives in the valley. Her roots go right back to the early coal mining days.
“My family has been here since 1911. My grandfather was killed in one of the mines of the valley,” she said.
She has owned Rory since he was about 8 weeks old and she is helped by Courageous Companions, an organization that provides service dogs to military veterans and first responders, allowing them to live a meaningful life. Rory is a standard poodle, is hypoallergenic and is trained with special skills. Rory is able to take cues from Freeman and takes action. He is able to alert Freeman of noises and is trained in sign language.
Freeman’s lungs were damaged by toxins she was exposed to at 9/11 and Rory is able to react when Freeman has a respiratory event.
“Rory carries first aid with basic medicines, he carries a pulse oximeter which shows how much oxygen is getting into your system, he carries rescue medicine for my breathing. I have what is called silent asthma and COPD because of 9/11.
When Rory senses medical or emotional distress, he will put his paw on Freeman’s shoulders, allowing her easy access to medications. In cases of where she is shaking or if Freeman is experiencing panic he will lay right on top of her to perform deep compression to alleviate the symptoms of PTSD. He will even wake her up if she is experiencing nightmares.
Rory is her second service animal, and first through Courageous Companions. His primary training is from Freeman herself and through a centre in Winnipeg. There are also practice sessions in Red Deer and Edmonton. Through Courageous Companions, she has come to know many veterans, intelligence personnel and first responders who have been through trauma, physically and emotionally.
Rory is fully recognized by law as a service animal. There is a concern about people attempting to pass off fake service dogs.
“Now why anyone would do that I don’t know, would you go get a fake wheelchair?” she asks. “In Canada though, it is so few and far away. But then there are people who feel they can harass us when we go out. I tell them he is like my wheelchair or my hearing aid.”
When confronted by people who do not recognize Rory as a service dog, she begins with education. She explains Rory’s role and his legal right to be with her. According to law, “no person, directly or indirectly… shall deny to any person the accommodation, services or facilities available in any place to which the public is customarily admitted.”
Nor can a person be discriminated against with respect to these permissions. For example if a business that does not allow her entrance can be fined up to $3,000. Furthermore, under human rights legislation, further penalties can be levied.
Rory’s service has allowed Freeman to continue her profession. Recently she has worked with people at the Drumheller Institution who have faced crisis. She responded to the wildfires in Saskatchewan, helped displaced people from the Fort McMurray fires and has worked closely with Syrian refugees.
“I was the Red Cross person looking after the children of the Syrian refugees when they came in. Many of those kids still had shrapnel scars in their necks with their homes exploding. Until you see pictures of what Aleppo looked like… there is no home to go home to.”
Rory helps to make this possible.
