VIDEO: Gift from Heaven – girl who lost disability dog overjoyed with new puppy

Tears and joy as wheelchair-bound Nicole receives new puppy, just days after losing her beloved assistance dog.

VIDEO: Gift from Heaven – girl who lost disability dog overjoyed with new puppy

(Nicole and Heaven meet for the first time. Picture: Lauren Norton/Facebook)

Heartbreak turned to joy for one young Co Clare woman last week after the heartbreak of losing her beloved assistance dog was followed by the joy of an unexpected gift – a new puppy in training.

Nicole Norton from Barefield, near Ennis, was grieving the death of her assistance dog Bianca when fate intervened to present her with a gift with the appropriate name of Heaven

WATCH: Scroll down to see the moment when Nicole and Heaven met for the first time

Seventeen-year-old Nicole, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy and is wheelchair-bound, had been inseparable from her six-year-old Golden Retriever Bianca, an assistance dog from Irish Dogs for the Disabled.

(Bianca: Picture courtesy of the Norton family)

Bianca was trained to perform essential tasks on command for Nicole – picking up items she had dropped, turning lights on and off, opening and closing doors – and also to sound the alarm if anything was wrong.

“Assistance dogs like Bianca are trained not to bark,” Nicole’s mother Ann Norton told breakingnews.ie. “Except in one instance – if Bianca ever barked, it meant Nicole was in trouble.”

However for Nicole, Bianca was far more than just a helping hand. She was her best friend in the world.

“That was one of the reasons we got Bianca for Nicole in the first place,” Ann said. “We were afraid… that because of her disability she would never have the friendships that other kids have. Bianca became her closest friend, and the two of them were everything to each other.”

So close was the bond between girl and dog that Bianca sensed when something was amiss.

“I don’t think people realise how important these dogs are in peoples’ lives,” Ann said. “Nicole had a tough time in the past year and a half, with two major surgeries. She had one procedure to put an implant in her right side that would combat muscle spasms, another spinal fusion operation… with procedures like this the recovery time is 10 weeks and it’s up to a year before the healing process is fully complete.

“In each case, when Nicole came home from the hospital Bianca knew she was in pain and knew not to touch her where she was tender. She was so gentle with her.”

The two were inseparable, with Bianca accompanying Nicole to school and to respite camp, and sleeping in the same bed.

(Nicole and Bianca were inseparable)

“From the day Bianca arrived in our home she slept with Nicole. Before this Nicole would habitually wake many times during the night and we would have to go in to her – she always needed to know that there was somebody near, that there was somebody there for her at all times.

“From the day that she got Bianca all of that stopped. She had that somebody there for her at all times.”

However the week before last the family had sensed that something was amiss with Bianca.

“She wasn’t herself and was off her food,” Ann explained. “We went for the weekend to my parents’ house in Kilkee and while Bianca would usually be the first one into the sea, she wasn’t as enthusiastic. Bianca was a working dog and normally very active and busy, but this time all she did was lie at the back door.

“We knew something was up with her.”

The following Monday, Bianca was taken to the vet in Ennis, where tests and X-rays revealed fluid in her lungs. A trip to the veterinary hospital in UCD followed on Wednesday, where Ann’s worst fears were realised.

“We were told that Bianca had an extremely aggressive and advanced form of cancer and that nothing could be done for her,” Ann said.

“My heart was broken. I thought I was a tough person, with all that we have been through with Nicole in the 17 years of her life, but I was wrong. I was in bits. I had to call Irish Dogs for the Disabled for advice on what to do. I had to call my parents to tell them to break the news to Nicole that Bianca wouldn’t be coming home, because I wasn’t able to do it myself.

“Hindsight is a funny thing. I remember now that weekend in Kilkee when we first noticed that Bianca was sick – she stopped sleeping in Nicole’s bed. Every night she slept with Nicole but for those three nights she wouldn’t go into the bed with her.

“Thinking back, I believe she knew that she was sick and that this was her way of trying to prepare Nicole for the fact that she wouldn’t be around any more.

“She was pulling away from her.”

In UCD, Bianca was stabilised enough to allow her to make the journey back to Ennis, with doctors draining to the fluid from her lungs. “I wanted her to come home for one more night,” said Ann. “I wanted Nicole to say a proper goodbye to her. Nicole told me that if she was in pain I wasn’t to bring her home, but the vets in UCD said she would be ok for the journey. We waited four and a half hours while they drained the fluid from her lungs.The whole way back she sat in the back seat with my sister, her head in her lap.”

Back in Ennis, Nicole and Bianca slept together for one last time on Wednesday night last.

“On Thursday morning she wasn’t strong enough to get off the bed,” Ann said. “My husband had to carry her out to the car, to take her to the vet.”

Bianca was buried that Thursday, in a grave dug in the garden, beside Nicole’s room.

“It was lovely that we all got to say goodbye to her,” Ann said. “While we were Dublin we went to the Bear Factory and had a Golden Retriever made, with three hearts on its chest. One heart for Nicole, one heart for her sister Lauren and one for their little brother Conán.

“We buried that teddy with Bianca.”

The next morning was Nicole’s 17th birthday.

“She asked for 18 candles on her cake,” Ann said. “Seventeen for her. And one for Bianca.”

******

As the family were beginning to come to terms with the loss of Bianca, Ann received an unexpected phone call.

“We were eating Nicole’s birthday cake in the kitchen and I had a call from Jennie (Dowler, Irish Dogs for the Disabled CEO),” Ann said.

“She told me that they had had a litter of pups a couple of months ago. All of them had been given out to homes. All of them, except for one. ‘For some reason we held this one back’, Jennie told me. ‘Now I know what the reason was’.”

It’s tradition with Irish Dogs for the Disabled that all pups born in a given year are given names beginning with the same letter of the alphabet. For 2014, the chosen letter was H.

The pup’s name was Heaven. She was 10 weeks old.

“Nicole was beside herself with excitement when I told her,” Ann said. “She’s very religious, so that fact that the pup’s name was Heaven… she just couldn’t believe it.”

On Saturday morning, Heaven and Nicole met for the first time. Nicole’s sister Lauren recorded a video of the moment, and posted it to her Facebook page.

WATCH: Nicole and Heaven meet for the first time

Post by Lauren Theboss Norton.

If you can't see the video click here

Now Heaven will stay with Bianca for a number of weeks while the two bond. Over the next two years she will divide her time between the Norton home in Ennis and the Irish Dogs for the Disabled training facility in Cork, where she will complete her training as an assistance dog, before coming to live with Nicole full time.

“Nothing will ever replace Bianca,” Ann said. “She was a member of our family and will always be remembered as such.

“But having Heaven has helped to remove some of the hollow, empty feeling around her loss.

“There is laughter around the house again.”

(Nicole and Heaven at home)

On her first night in the Norton house, Heaven took up position in Bianca’s old spot – curled up in bed beside Nicole.

“The next morning I asked Nicole how it had gone, spending the night with the puppy,” Ann said.

“’Mammy’, Nicole told me.

“’She slept with her hand on my heart.’”

******

Established in 2007, Irish Dogs for the Disabled provides fully trained Assistance Dogs for children and adults who have varying degrees of physical disabilities. The dogs are provided free of charge and the charity receives no government funding. Some 85% of its clients are children between the ages of six and 12, living with severe physical disabilities. Each Assistance Dog costs the charity €15,000 to produce, with approximately 20 placed per year.

You can donate to Irish Dogs for the Disabled here.

more courts articles

Man appears in court charged with false imprisonment of woman in van Man appears in court charged with false imprisonment of woman in van
Man in court over alleged false imprisonment of woman Man in court over alleged false imprisonment of woman
Coronation Street actor William Roache (91) given three months to settle tax debt Coronation Street actor William Roache (91) given three months to settle tax debt

More in this section

Smartwatch with health app. Glowing neon icon on brick wall background Health watch: How much health data is healthy? 
Cork's wild salmon warrior Sally Ferns Barnes looks to the future Cork's wild salmon warrior Sally Ferns Barnes looks to the future
(C)2024 Disney. Disneyland Paris – Disneyland Hotel Re-Opening Watch: Iconic Disneyland Paris hotel re-opens after two year renovation
ieParenting Logo
Writers ieParenting

Our team of experts are on hand to offer advice and answer your questions here

Your digital cookbook

ieStyle Live 2021 Logo
ieStyle Live 2021 Logo

IE Logo
Outdoor Trails

Discover the great outdoors on Ireland's best walking trails

IE Logo
Outdoor Trails

Lifestyle
Newsletter

The best food, health, entertainment and lifestyle content from the Irish Examiner, direct to your inbox.

Sign up
Cookie Policy Privacy Policy Brand Safety FAQ Help Contact Us Terms and Conditions

© Examiner Echo Group Limited