SKUNK THAT DOESN’T MAKE A STINK

THE patient had been to every animalassisted therapy session at the psychiatric hospital for a year. Each time he would just walk silently round the room, paying no attention, then leave.

‘But then I took along Stoosh the skunk,’ says Dale Preece-Kelly, who runs Critterish Allsorts, ‘and this guy, who had paranoid schizophrenia, pointed at his lap.

‘I put Stoosh on it and she curled up and went to sleep like she always does. He sat there for 50 minutes, then left with a big smile on his face.

‘An hour later, I was getting ready to leave and he came running over to me with a picture he’d drawn of Stoosh. It was great. Over the following weeks he came regularly and started to talk more, and eventually he was well enough to be released.’

Dale, 50, started his therapy business after suffering two heart attacks in 2010 and losing his job. His four-yearold son had been waxing lyrical about the family pets, so a teacher said he should bring them in to school.

A year later, teachers from a psychiatric hospital asked Dale to bring his animals to their garden party. ‘We noticed that the patients were calmer than normal, and spoke more.’

Now Dale takes his menagerie, which includes snakes and a ferret, to prisons and psychiatric units. But Stoosh (right) is the star. ‘People often say “bring any animal except the skunk — it’ll stink”. But she doesn’t. She smells beautiful.’