(relaxed music) - Welcome to Forum 360, to our global outlook with a local view.

I'm Leslie Ungar, your host today.

We all think we have faced adversity.

We would like to think we've overcome adversity in our lives.

Then we meet someone or read about someone who really has overcome adversity.

If you're like me, we look in awe at them and wonder if we would have had the fortitude and perseverance to rise to the occasion as they have.

Our guest today is just that kind of person.

As soon as I read about Cindy Jobe and her dogs Willow and Zoey, I had to meet her.

Actually, them.

In fact, I had to meet all three of them.

A wise person once told me, look for ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

At first glance, Cindy may look ordinary.

Look again.

She and especially Zoey are extraordinary.

Stay with us and hear and see why.

Welcome to Cindy, Zoey, and Willow to Forum 360.

I welcome all of you, and I'm thrilled that all of you are here.

- Thank you.

We're glad to be here.

- So just that you know, the one licking from the Kong is Zoey and the one by my feet is Willow.

And the one in the chair is Cindy.

(both laughing) In wanting you to do this show, I thought that we all could use something inspirational.

And then it was further cemented for me, the other day I read in the "New York Times" a quote.

"We don't have many ways left in our culture to be collectively inspired."

And I think you inspire all of us.

- [Cindy] Oh, thank you.

- So I thank you so much for being here today.

- [Cindy] Thank you.

- Let's start chronologically.

You were 14, an age that is hard enough without physical challenges.

Can you take us back to that time and when you were first diagnosed with cancer?

- At the very beginning of my freshman year of high school, I had my heart set on becoming a high school cheerleader.

- [Leslie] Don't we all.

- And that summer prior to my freshman year, I had been practicing jumps, cheers, cartwheels, splits, all the above.

And it was during a practice for tryouts.

Tryouts hadn't started yet.

But during a practice, I noticed a bump on my thigh right around this area, of course, on my left leg, that just looked like a tight mass of muscle or something.

It didn't particularly hurt.

But I remember showing it to some of my friends in one of my early classes during the day.

And then later in the day, some of those same friends said, Cindy, show so-and-so your leg.

So I kind of crossed my legs like this and it just really bulged out.

And my teacher saw that and he came over and said, "You really should get that checked out.

It could be a tumor."

And some other people had said, oh, it's probably a charley horse or you know.

But it wasn't a charley horse.

So I went home and told my mom, and she immediately scheduled an appointment with my doctor.

And I remember going to the doctor after school on a Friday.

And as soon as he took a look at my leg, "How long have you had that?"

he asked.

And I didn't really know.

I wasn't really concerned.

He sent us across the street to the hospital for X-rays, and the same thing with the X-ray technicians.

"How long have you had that?"

And the interesting thing was, for some reason, and I don't recall the reason, but I was grounded from going to the football game that night.

And after we had gone back to the doctor and he left me in the waiting room and took my mom back into the examining room, on the way home everything had shifted, and I was now allowed to go to the game and allowed to have friends over.

I should have wondered about that, but I didn't.

I was just excited and I'm going to the game.

As soon as we got home, she said to my dad, "I need to show you something in the basement."

So the next day I was admitted to what was called Timken Mercy, now it's Mercy Hospital, and she brought me my suitcase.

And I said, "Why do I have a suitcase if it's just for tests?"

And she said, "You'll probably have to stay overnight."

And it was a whirlwind of tests.

And I was admitted on Saturday.

By Wednesday, I had exploratory surgery and they found, it was a very aggressive cancer.

It was osteosarcoma.

And they gave my parents the option.

I didn't know it at the time, but they didn't know if even with the amputation, if I would live longer than about six months.

So they gave my parents the option of letting me keep my leg and trying to fight it with chemotherapy and radiation, or take my leg and try to get it all.

So they opted to take my leg.

So I didn't know any of that for years.

And it was always a puzzle to me why they were drawing blood so often, and how does that relate to a tumor on my leg?

But they were afraid it would go to my bloodstream.

And I was lucky it never did.

So I had the amputation.

One week following that doctor's appointment, Friday to Friday, they did the amputation.

And that was it.

- Now, you say that that was it, but can you remember what was the conversation like to tell a 14-year-old?

- Well, I do remember my parents were devastated.

And the doctor, he had an accent and I had a really difficult time understanding him.

I was a little shy.

And he told me that there was a chance they would have to take, they would have to amputate my leg.

And I remember saying, "That's when you cut it off, isn't it?"

And he said, "Yes."

And I heard the word chance, and so sometimes there's a chance of rain and it doesn't rain.

So I just hung onto that word chance.

And my eyes filled with tears when he told me, and he said, "This is very hard on your parents.

You need to be strong for your parents."

So I sucked it back up and I was.

And I don't really remember why I was so strong about it.

I just remember going through the motions.

I was so overwhelmed with support people coming to visit me.

My name was on the radio, and the mail delivery had to come on a separate trip just with things for me.

And I would wake up and open, and my dad was a high school principal and my mom was a teacher.

Both of their staffs did things for me.

It was just so, I had so much support.

- Would you identify that as a reason?

You have said that you kicked cancer to the curb, but you're still 14 years old.

I don't care if you're 24 or 34 or 44, I kind of see it that with adversity, especially something like that, that there's kind of like three buckets.

There's the bitter bucket where people become bitter.

Like, why me?

There's the kind of grudging bucket, where people grudgingly accept it and try to go on with their life in some way.

And then there's the inspirational bucket, that people not only go on, but they lead inspiring lives and inspire others.

How would you say that, how did you end up in that third inspirational bucket?

- Well, I can't really remember it being a decision I made.

I just remember thinking as I laid in that hospital bed, how am I gonna do this?

How am I gonna walk with one leg?

And I remember thinking, I'll figure it out.

And I wasn't really religious or spiritual at the time, but I remember thinking God will help me.

And it was never a decision to not feel sorry for myself or to try to be in a good mood.

I just was.

And I remember, I could not wait to get back to school.

I never had that feeling of being embarrassed about it.

I felt, I just really didn't even think of that.

I couldn't wait to get back to school and it wasn't like I was afraid of how I looked.

I think when I got my first prosthetic leg, I felt more abnormal wearing the leg than I did on crutches.

Because on crutches, even to this day, I'm more agile and I'm faster, and I can do things that I can't do with my leg on.

But I will say, I will never give up my leg because there are so many things I can do wearing my leg because it gives me my hands back.

So I never really made that decision that I'm gonna look at the bright side, but I always just have.

- You know what you said about the leg and the crutches, few people may know that Ms.

Wheelchair America Contest actually takes place in Akron over the summer.

- Oh, no, I didn't.

- I know, nobody knows this.

And for a couple of years, I was one of the judges.

And one of the contestants had one of those wheelchairs that the seat raised up.

And I remember her saying, "You have no idea how important that is, because when you're in a wheelchair, you're always looking up at people."

So you were talking about the difference between crutches and your leg.

What are some things that we don't think about?

- Well, with my crutches, I can just pick them up and go, and I can walk on ground that is uneven because I can make the difference with my hands.

If I'm walking on bumpy grass or gravel or even sidewalk that's, if it's going down this way, I can walk if my prosthetic is on that side.

But because I'm missing not only my foot and my knee but also my hip, all three work together.

And I have to throw my leg forward with my waist.

So when I'm walking on ground where my prosthetic is lower, I can still clear the ground.

But when I'm walking even on the side of the street that just kind of curves down a little bit.

if I'm walking on the side where my prosthetic is higher, I can't raise up high enough to clear the ground because I'm having to do that with my, I don't have any femur or anything to make my leg, I'm throwing it forward with my waist.

So it's very difficult for me to walk on the beach, for instance.

Way more doable on crutches.

Even though they sink in a little bit, I can still do it with my prosthetic.

I can't raise up high enough to, and sometimes, anybody in my situation, they call it vaulting.

You kind of vault on this foot to clear the ground, to make this one not hit the ground as you're moving forward.

- Before we get to Zoey and Willow, I wanna ask you, we have a painting at our house that a Mexican painter painted that we happened to meet.

And in the middle of it, it's a circus, and in the middle of it is a one-armed juggler.

And he said that a one-armed juggler is supposed to represent that everybody has a handicap.

Some people's are just more noticeable than others.

- I've always thought that.

I've thought everybody has something that they're dealing with, some kind of a hardship or a handicap.

Mine is just so obvious.

And that's the first thing.

I've told this story so many times about what happened, simply because it's the first thing you wanna know about me when you see me, what happened to your leg?

That it almost feels like I'm telling a story out of a book.

- [Leslie] It happened to someone else.

- Yeah, it happened to somebody else, not me.

But that person that I'm recalling about was me.

And sometimes it's hard for me to believe it.

I remember in college one time when I was walking up to this new music building, and it was all glass front, and I'm walking up on my crutches missing leg, and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, that's how people see me.

Because I never saw myself as disabled or different.

I just never acted like I was different.

And I feel like because I'm comfortable with it, it makes the people around me comfortable.

- Well, in my realtime, I'm a communication coach.

And I always tell people, especially when you're giving a speech, if you're comfortable, your audience is comfortable.

- [Cindy] Right.

- Were you always comfortable?

- I think I was except in high school when I did have, I got a prosthetic leg probably about six months after I lost my leg.

I didn't like it at all because it was not anything like what I have today.

If it bent a little bit, it was sort of like a tree branch.

You can't bend it a little.

It either bent all the way and I'm falling down if I only wanted it to bend a little, or it was not bending at all.

It's just straight.

So this leg will allow me to go down a ramp and bend a little bit.

It reads my movements.

It doesn't move for me.

But I remember being very self-conscious about getting up out of my chair.

I remember in speech class, for instance, having to go up to give my speech.

Giving the speech was not the hard part for me, it was getting out of my chair and having everybody watch every step I took.

And I always had my hand right here on my thigh as I was walking as a sense of security.

It didn't really help if I fell, I fell.

But I just felt like if my knee bent and I wasn't ready, I would have my hand there.

And I used a cane.

My goal, my New Year's resolution in 1975 was to quit using that cane.

And it really didn't do anything for me except gave me that security, something to grab onto.

But I kept that resolution and I never used a cane again.

So that was when I felt really self-conscious, when I had to get up in front of everybody with the leg.

- [Leslie] Which you do all the time now.

- Right.

And with the crutches, I never felt that way.

I knew I looked more normal.

- I was gonna say, do you think that you were expected to be appreciative of getting the prosthetic leg?

Was it expected to be a good thing for you?

- My doctor told my parents shortly after I got it to make me, it goes around my waist to attach 'cause I don't have any limb to really attach to.

So it's not comfortable and it takes a while to put on, take off.

I mean, not very long, but still grabbing my crutches is quicker and easier, and I felt more mobile.

Well, my doctor said, "Make her wear it.

She needs to realize this is a part of her now."

So I wore it to school, and I had a job in a grocery store after school and I wore it to that job.

But when I was at home or with my friends or with my boyfriend, I used crutches.

- So let me ask you, if you were counseling young people somewhere around your age, what would you tell them about that?

- I would say you have to do what's comfortable for you.

Because some people, I never wanted any part of a wheelchair.

And I just didn't want that.

Some people are comfortable with that.

Some people hate crutches.

People have said to me through the years, and crutches will always be a part of my life.

Once I take my leg off before bed, if I'm moving around the house, I'm using crutches.

And they're just second nature to me.

They're just a part of me.

They became a part of me so long ago, I don't remember not having them.

But I'm comfortable with that.

Some people aren't.

I've hopped around my house some, but now with my prosthetic, when I tried it again, I wasn't sure I was gonna like it.

And I made my kids not tell anybody because I didn't want people kind of pestering me, like, well, what about your leg?

But I ended up, there are some things that you really can't do on crutches, like shoveling snow, for instance.

Because if you're raising- - But you can do it (muffled speaking).

- I can do it, but if you have your crutches under your arm, you can't really lift the snow to throw it without your crutches falling.

And if you're balancing, it's slippery.

And then when you throw it, it throws you off balance.

So I love my leg for shoveling snow.

For standing at the (indistinct).

- I would not have expected to think of you shoveling snow.

- Well, some things I do, people think I'm crazy to do it.

But I don't know.

It's what makes me, me.

I just wanna, I mow my own grass.

I don't have a push mower.

I have a little tractor, a John Deere tractor, and I don't mind doing it out.

I'm out there.

It's when I do my best thinking, and it's kind of fun.

- Let me, I do wanna ask you about your kids, but I've gotta get to Willow and Zoey first.

Because we are thrilled to have two-legged guests, but we're really thrilled to have four-legged guests.

This is Willow and this is Zoey.

Let's start with Willow.

How has she helped you?

- Well actually, she helped mend my broken heart, because I had a three-legged Golden Retriever before her named Wrigley.

And when Wrigley was not doing so well because- - Let me just interrupt you for a moment.

Our time has come by so quickly.

Today we are talking to Cindy Jobe and her dogs Willow and Zoey, and her amazing story of overcoming adversity, and in a delightful way.

So you had Wrigley.

- I had Wrigley.

He was starting to have a hard time moving around.

His back leg, he was missing his right front.

His right hind leg was starting to shake when he would get up and down.

And he was more using it as a kickstand.

And he was a bigger Golden Retriever than these two.

And he just really started having trouble.

So I took him to the vet.

They did X-rays and told me the devastating news that he had osteosarcoma, which is the same kind of cancer I had.

And I cried for about a week thinking life isn't fair because it was just a cruel twist of fate in my mind.

Well, my vet told me, you can take him to a specialist and get another opinion.

And I did know one Golden Retriever that survived on two legs, but I think it was two front or two hind where they had a cart.

But having two on the same side and being as big as he was, and my daughter and I researched them, but it wasn't good news.

So I took him to a specialist and he said, "I don't think it's osteosarcoma.

I think it's osteoarthritis."

And I was so thrilled to hear that news.

But in the end it turned out, his life just went downhill.

He couldn't get around.

He was on so many pain meds that I just had to make the decision that it was time for him.

I was only keeping him here for me.

So I was so brokenhearted about that.

I didn't want another dog, But a couple of weeks into no Wrigley, I decided the only way to get through it is have another puppy to love, and honor Wrigley in that way.

So I got Willow.

She was 10-weeks-old, and I wanted to name her with a name that started with W to honor Wrigley because Wrigley started with a W. so I came to Willow, and it means healing and grace, and I thought perfect.

- Now for many people that are totally able-bodied people, two dogs may seem like too many.

I have two dogs, but I know that for a lot of people, two dogs may seem like a lot for any single person living by themselves.

So how did Zoey then come into your life?

- I was working on training Willow, and she actually is trained.

She was able to be a service dog for me.

And she'll do things like pick up things when I drop them and bring them to me, or she'll go get the newspaper.

And she does have a little harness that has a handle.

So as life goes on, if I become a little more unstable as I'm walking, she could give me some balance.

Or like when I'm going down steps without a handrail, I can hang on to her.

Now, I will say, since COVID began, I haven't been taking her anywhere as, training with that.

But then I was showing a friend about a year ago where I had found Willow online, and up popped a little ad for this three-legged Golden Retriever who just stole my heart immediately.

But I'm thinking, I actually, I messaged the lady and somebody else was already interested in her.

But I thought, please let me know if that falls through.

And I just kept thinking about her.

A few days later, the lady messaged me and said that nobody else had come to get her.

Was I still interested?

So I asked if I could come see her.

And I promised myself I would not take her home.

I had to really think about it and not make a knee-jerk reaction because it wouldn't be fair to Willow, it wouldn't be fair to Zoey, and it wouldn't be fair to me to take on more than I could do.

So I went and visited her and I said, "Will you please let me just think about it for a day or two?

I promise I'll get back to you."

And I wrote a list of pros and cons.

The cons was a very long list compared to the pros, but the pros were stronger.

- They were better quality.

- They just booted the cons out.

I kept thinking of all the things.

And I couldn't quit thinking about her.

And I went to the pet store and I was buying things for her, and I had not committed yet to getting her.

And I messaged the woman right as I was standing in line at the pet store and said, "I think I'd like to move forward," with coming to get Zoey.

So I went the next day, brought her home.

- Now, when people meet you or you speak to people, what do they say about the two of you?

- They just think it's amazing, that I was meant to have her and she was meant to have me.

And that we just, 'cause I really feel like I understand what she goes through.

I understand when she's tired and she has trouble doing things like getting in or out of the car.

It's just little things that I know she's gonna be able to do without any trouble.

And she has a little trouble.

- Now, you've said that when you speak to people individually or in a group, that maybe they're a recent amputee, that a dog can connect with them in ways that a human can't.

Can you tell us about that?

- Well, I really feel like you can tell someone you can do this, and you can give them the inspiration of things that you have achieved.

Like people are amazed that I became a mother and I became a teacher and I taught for a long career.

They're inspired by that a little bit.

But hearing you say you can do this and it will get easier, that's just words.

And sometimes people are in a place where they don't even really wanna hear that.

But a dog can give the message by just being there, not filling you up with all these words.

Just showing you, giving you a little attention and just being this calm influence, and showing you that they're happy.

- Now, let me ask you, because we just have a couple of minutes remaining.

So you end up on a television show called "The Wizard of Paws."

Now, here you are the school teacher from Stark County, and now you end up on a television show.

So can you briefly tell us a couple highlights about that?

- Well, it was a wonderful experience that I'll never forget.

I was in inquiring about a prosthetic for Zoey, and the woman was explaining to me how the process works.

And she said, you'll need to take this to your vet to help make the mold.

And when I told her, I said, "I'll probably take it to my prosthetist because I'm also an amputee."

And she said, "Oh, you're an amputee."

And so she told me about the show, and she asked if I minded if she shared my story with the producers.

And it just went from there.

And they came to my home.

At first I thought, I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Can I think about it?

Then I thought, oh, I'd be crazy not to do it because they come to my home and it would be the best fit of all for Zoey because the wizard himself would be making her cast.

And it was just such a wonderful experience.

He made the leg, and then we did have a little trouble with it.

It was kind of hitting this little elbow bone on her and causing a sore.

So two weeks ago, I took her to Virginia and he made some changes to it.

And voila, no sore.

- [Leslie] And you can tell the difference.

- Oh, absolutely, Before, I'd put it on her and her whole personality would change.

She would lay down and she wouldn't wanna get treats.

She wouldn't wanna play.

Now I put it on and she's still zooming around the house and around the yard and happy as can be.

- Yeah, recently, and my last question for you would be the American Humane Society conducted one of the first studies on therapy dogs.

And they found that regular visits from therapy dogs, that patients remained stable instead of going downhill.

And that parents reported that children had significant improvements in school.

But from what you've seen, can you briefly comment on what a therapy dog can do for someone?

- Well, I know firsthand that, Willow has never been a therapy dog and Zoey not yet.

Hopefully she will.

But I know from the time she was a puppy, I was taking her to visit my mom in the nursing home.

And it was the highlight of not only my mom's day, but everybody.

Sometimes my mom's room was down at the end of the hall, and sometimes I felt guilty because it took me so long to get to her because everyone just wanted to love on her.

And it just, I don't know, people just love animals.

And to see an animal when, if you're in the hospital or if you're in a nursing home and you don't have access to the love of a pet, when you see one, especially one that loves to be loved on, it just changes your whole mood.

- In about 10 or 15 seconds, can we give a shout-out to your two children who sound outstanding?

- Yes, My son Zack and my daughter Riley.

My son is 32, my daughter is 27, and they have been my best cheerleaders their whole lives.

When I got my leg, and they're just wonderful adults.

- I wanted them to have a shout-out.

Our goal at Forum 360 is to bring you a global outlook with a local view.

Overcoming adversity, especially during this pandemic, is pretty global.

Cindy Jobe shared her story as a young girl with a prosthetic leg.

Cindy also shared Zoey's story as a puppy with a prosthetic leg, and the heroes along the way like "The Wizard of Paws."

Remember to look for ordinary people and seemingly ordinary dogs doing extraordinary things.

Cindy, Willow, and Zoey do the extraordinary every day.

What can you learn from them?

I'm Leslie Ungar.

Thank you for joining us today on Forum 360, our global outlook with a local view.

- [Narrator] Forum 360 is brought to you by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, Hudson Community Television, the Rubber City Radio Group, Shaw Jewish Community Center of Akron, Blue Green, Electric Impulse Communications, and Forum 360 supporters.