Cole and Ilia Massie

Hi! My name is Cole Massie. I’m 11 years old and I live in California with my mom, dad and Super Assistance Dog, Ilia!

I LOVE karate; I’m working on my black stripe yellow belt (our dojo has three levels for each belt: the color, then a white stripe, then a black one.) I also love pirates and fireman and policemen because they are very cool.

I also love classical music and I often go to concerts with my grandparents. My favorites are: Gilbert & Sullivan, The Barber of Seville and Itzhak Perlman. 

My favorite video game is: TNA Impact, an awesome wrestling game.

I also have cerebral palsy. Living with a disability can be kind of hard sometimes; I have to do lots of therapies and see lots of doctors. My cerebral palsy mostly affects my legs and makes it hard to walk. But I’ll tell you this: disabled kids CAN DO! If you have something you want to try, figure out how to do it… there’s ALWAYS a way! My favorite activities are karate and horseback riding.  And the guy who helps me the most besides my parents is:  EDDIE!  I can do lots of cool stuff with his help and he is always there for me.

Summer 2008

This summer I had a big surgery on my legs with Roy Nuzzo, MD in New Jersey. Instead of cutting my muscles (which is what they usually do for CP kids like me), he made tiny pokes into my inner thighs, the backs of my knees and my heel cords.

Then he made micro cuts to the myofascia (that’s doctorspeak for the white nerve stuff that surrounds the muscles) to interrupt the spasticity signal and voila! Now my heels are on the ground and I’m walking much better. And someday, with lots of hard work, I will walk UNASSISTED! (I promised Ilia, so I have to.) Right now I’m jamming around in my walker.

Eddie - Super Deluxe Caregiver Dude

Eddie’s the Excellent Dude who helps my parents to take care of me.  He’s been with us almost three years and is ultra cool.  We smash on video games together, go on YouTube and eat junk food when my mom’s not looking!  Check out this album of some of the fun stuff we do together:  http://picasaweb.google.com/MassieFamily97/Eddie

Ilia: My Super Assistance Dog!

Ilia is a super special assistance dog (his official title is “skilled companion”.)  He can help me pick up dropped items, pull a strap to open a door, push it closed, push those big silver handicapped buttons… all kinds of neat stuff to help me.

He can go anywhere in public, so he’s with me for everything: surgeries, doctor appointments and therapies. He knows more than 43 commands! He totally rules and is my best friend in the whole world.

And we have the best adventures together! That’s why we decided to put up this website. I hope you enjoy it and visit often! Please feel free to comment on the blog, or if you have questions or want to say HI, use our contact page to send us an e-mail.

Your friends,
Cole and Ilia

Cole on YouTube

Check out this awesome video we put together for the Canine Companions for Independence Gala to show how Ilia helps me…

And my newest video, me WALKING the Shane’s Inspiration 5k Walk/Roll on September 28th, 2008!

If I can do it, you can too… Never give up!