Changes of Heart: When a troubled t

Changes of Heart:
When a troubled teen cares for an unwanted dog, the healing begins for both!
Spiker is only a year old, but he’s already done time on death row. Abandoned by his owners, he landed in an animal shelter with a policy of destroying dogs that were passed over for adoption.
Now, though, he’s gotten a reprieve. “Come on, Spiker. You can do it,” his trainer urges. “Shake, boy, shake!”Spiker, a mix of German shorthaired pointer and Labrador retriever, gazes at the young woman, perplexed. Then he remembers: Last time he obeyed Marcy, a biscuit magically appeared. Slowly he raises his right paw. “Good boy,” Marcy says, ruffling the dog’s spotted coat and offering a treat.
Spiker is changing Marcy’s life as surely as Marcy is changing his. The 18-year-old has lived at Echo Glen Children’s Center, a state-operated juvenile correctional facility in Snoqualmie, Washington, for nine months. While she’s there, she’s participating in Canine Connections, a program that brings unwanted dogs and incarcerated kids together.
“I’ve never been attached to a dog before, because things always move away from me,” Marcy says. “It’s like with my family. They die or they leave me.” Marcy never knew her father; her mother died of a drug overdose when Marcy was eight. After that, she began shuttling from one foster home to another – more than 50 in all. Unable to get along with any of her host families, she ended up on the streets selling crack. She was a regular in juvenile court until a judge ordered her to spend a year at Echo Glen.