ANIMALS that CHANGE LIVES
What do Chuck Norris the pig, Rojo the llama, Elroy the golden Lab, Confetti the mini horse and Cezar the cockatoo have in common? They’re all service animals who just want to help their humans live their best lives. Here are their stories.
The lunch crowd at the Country Cabin in Jacksonville, Fla., was tucking in for a meal when an unusual patron walked into the restaurant.
It was a miniature horse, just under three feet tall. Walking on a leash.
The horse’s human, Cheryl Spencer, introduced Confetti, who is Spencer’s guide horse, to her fellow diners. Confetti, an 18-year-old mare, goes everywhere with Spencer, who is blind: to her job, on planes, on the city bus, to the doctor. They even went to a Tom Jones concert last year. Confetti’s job is to be Spencer’s eyes. “When I need her, she’s with me,” Spencer says. “I couldn’t be as independent without her.”
Animals and humans have worked together since we lived in caves, but the latest wave of furry and feathered helpers takes the animal-human relationship to a new level, says Jessi Gold, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis. “The idea that animals can help emotional health is definitely more widespread,” she says.
Can they really help? At least one study confirms that therapy animals can improve our social and communication skills, ease our anxiety, brighten our mood and make us more empathetic. Other studies show that just hanging out with a friendly dog lowers our stress: our breathing gets more regular, our heartbeat slows down and our muscles relax.
You may feel more relaxed just reading about some of these animals who are making lives better.
THE PIG THAT TEACHES EMPATHY
The kids at the Sapling Center, a drop-in facility for at-risk youth in Hazard, Ky., burst into smiles when Chuck Norris walks into the room. No, not the Chuck Norris of 1990s TV fame. This Chuck Norris is a therapy pig. A Juliana miniature pig, to be precise (happyhonkerfarm.com), and he works with kids at the center suffering from anxiety and emotional trauma. “He has an incredible calming effect on them,” says Angie Bush, a licensed counselor who’s the director of youth services at the facility.
Many of the 50 or so kids Bush sees have trouble connecting to others. They’re withdrawn and fearful, and hesitant to trust. “Chuck bridges the gap,” Bush says. “He comes up wagging his tail and nudging the kids with his nose, and their barriers melt.” The kids take care of Chuck, feeding him and walking him. It teaches them empathy and independent living skills, Bush says. “He’s a catalyst for them to pick up life skills.”
Chuck works 15 to 20 hours a week. He has an employee badge, with his photo and name, that he wears on his harness. He’s the ultimate ice breaker, entertaining the kids by ringing a bell on cue, and he can sit, stay and come, just like a dog.
Why a pig? “Pigs have an ability to empathize, they’re highly intelligent and they’re good with children and old people,” Bush says. The novelty of a therapy pig trumps a more predictable animal like a dog, she says. Because how can you resist a wiggly spotted pig who likes hugs? Chuck’s therapy certification training included an obedience class, which he took along with a gaggle of dogs. Chuck finished the class two weeks before his canine classmates. “He mastered the skills much faster than the dogs,” Bush says.
Take that, border collies.
DOGS THAT EMPOWER
D ogs have been guiding the blind, comforting the sick and calming the distressed for more than a century. There are nearly 16,000 dogs working as assistance animals in the U.S. Throw in therapy and emotional support dogs, and that number goes into the hundreds of thousands.
Cori, a Lab/golden retriever mix who teaches kids with disabilities how to swim, worked with a 4-year-old boy with autism who was terrified of the water. “A nonverbal child is hard to reach,” says Judy Fridono, Cori’s owner and the founder of Escondido, Calif.–based Puppy Prodigies
(puppyprodigies.org). “A dog is better than a human teacher because the communication between dog and child is different. It’s more powerful.”
Since drowning is one of the leading causes of death for kids with autism, teaching them how to swim is not a luxury but a life-saver. Fridono asked the boy to throw a ball into the pool for Cori. The dog jumped into the pool to get the ball, and within minutes the boy was in the pool too, holding onto Cori’s jacket. The boy was swimming a few weeks later. There’s no denying it, says Fridono: “Dogs are magical beings.”
Lauren Armstrong certainly thinks so. The 22-year-old Ph.D. student in audiology was just paired in May with a golden Lab named Elroy to be her ears. Trained by nonprofit Canine Companions for Independence (cci.org ) to assist the hearing impaired, Elroy has changed Armstrong’s life in many ways.
“He’s helped me become more independent and given me a new confidence,” she says. “He wakes me up in the mornings to an alarm that I can’t hear, helps me with cooking and even when I am driving. Recently he alerted me to a police siren long before the car passed us!” Elroy goes with Armstrong to her audiology appointments and will attend her graduate school classes this fall in Knoxville, Tenn. Best of all, she says: Elroy has learned to alert her when her name is called at her local coffee shop. No more cold coffee!
THE CALMING COCKATOO
Chris Driggins, a veteran who was battling posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) long after his Army career ended, found comfort with a cockatoo named Cezar. They were both lonely, withdrawn and wary of people. He and Cezar became inseparable, and the two of them began to heal one another. “My nightmares stopped. I wasn’t anxious anymore,” Driggins says.
Inspired, Driggins founded Parrots for Patriots in 2015
(parrotsforpatriots.org), and since then he’s placed more than 220 parrots with veterans. “Parrots are more sensitive than a cat or dog, and they’re smarter,” Driggins says. “They bond with a person totally.” Since parrots can live around 60 years, they also help break through a traumatized vet’s fear of loss. A veteran’s “cup is full of sadness. A bird lives for decades, so a vet can bond with him with less fear of losing another companion,” Driggins says.
THE KISSING LLAMA
W hen therapy llamas Rojo and Smokey walk into an assisted living facility, a memory care center or a room full of kids with autism, everyone wants to pet them. “Kids hesitant to even be in the room with the llamas get comfortable enough to ask to hug and walk them,” says Shannon Joy of the Mtn Peaks Therapy Llamas and Alpacas in Woodland, Wash.
Joy tells of an elderly woman in a nursing home who hadn’t spoken in months. When Rojo nuzzled her, she laughed, touched him and said he was adorable. “The staff was teary-eyed,” she says. “It was the first time the woman had responded to anyone.” The llamas break down barriers in ways a human can’t for those who are withdrawn or mistrusting, she says.
Joy and her mother started Mtn Peaks 12 years ago (rojothellama.com). The llamas do two to three visits a week; four years ago, they did their 1000th visit. “I’ve lost count of how many places we’ve been to.” One of the highlights of a visit from the llamas: carrot kisses. A person puts a carrot in their mouth. A 400-pound llama takes it from them and touches their lips.
“It brings down the house,” Joy says. “It’s pure, genuine joy.”
THE HAPPY HORSE
Five-year-old Fatima Butler had been living with her family at the Ronald McDonald House in Gainesville, Fla., for two months while her big brother, Christopher, had a heart transplant and brain surgery. She needed a little pick-me-up—and she got it when in walked Mercury, a therapy horse who looks like a My Little Pony toy come to life. Fatima kissed the horse, and the horse nuzzled her back. Then her family FaceTimed her brother so he could see Mercury too. “He was smiling,” says Michael Butler, the children’s father. “It was nice to see him smile, after all he’s been through.”
Mercury is one of 21 trained therapy horses from Gentle Carousel, a nonprofit that sends the tiny equines to console around 25,000 people a year in hospitals, hospice programs and anywhere there’s been a trauma (gentlecarouseltherapyhorses.com).
Debbie Garcia-Bengochea, the group’s education director, tells of a girl dying from a heart ailment whose last wish was to have a tea party with horses. “We brought them in tuxedos and put sparkles in their manes and tails and told her it was fairy dust,” she says. “The little girl was over the moon. Sometimes you can’t fix things, but you can make someone smile and give them a happy day.”
Visit Parade.com/animals to meet Farah the monkey and other helpful service animals.