Redding School District

Robbie Gay loves an underdog. The eight-year-old looks for the oldest, least-adoptable mutt in the shelter and that’s the dog he wants. “There’s something about old dogs that I just like,” he says.

And that’s probably because he sees himself in them. Robbie was in the foster care system and before that, he was so badly abused, he was hospitalized twice with brain injuries. Before he was in the foster care system, his mother says, he was a holy terror.

He has come a long way except in this one respect: Maria said he could not cry. Despite the horrors of his past, or maybe because of them, the kid was a stone until earlier this month. One of Robbie’s old dogs, Buffy, had to be put down. He wanted to hold her until the very end and insisted his mom take pictures of the process, perhaps because he knew what was about to happen.

“He knows what it feels like not to be loved and cared for. He’s the most hopeful, optimistic, and genuinely caring kid who has absolutely no reason to be that way,” said Robbie’s adoptive mom, Maria.  “He’s aware things could’ve gone differently for him, so he’s compassionate about rescuing elderly dogs.”

Robbie says people only want babies and puppies and someday, he wants to adopt older foster children himself. But for now, he’s happy adopting as many older dogs as his parents allow, which is six, so far.

Some of our most difficult students have many qualities that we admire.  They are very adaptable to their environment in most cases and persevere through some of the most difficult situations.  Often they don’t use acceptable ways to show those two qualities but they are using them in ways they learned in order to survive their circumstances. 

Robbie Gay reminds us of the need for change in our environments and the continued search for ways to help students, like Robbie, to use appropriate expressions of those qualities that we admire.    Empathy is one of those qualities that I hear a great deal about these days.  Robbie definitely had it in him even when he was a “holy terror”, but it didn’t come out until his parents gave him a supportive caring environment.  They gave him the freedom to show compassion and empathy within his love for elderly animals.    

Thanks to our partnership and the caring and loving pursuit to have better and better outcomes for the students and families we serve.  Learn about our students so we can figure out how to create opportunities that might bring the "Robbie’s" of the world out to a new beginning.

Have a great weekend,

Rob