Florida man and his dogs go cross-country to promote pet therapy

Jay Hamm already has plans to get back out onto the open road with his dogs.

Last month, the 52-year-old Jupiter man biked and drove across the country, raising awareness of pet therapy and stopping at assisted living homes with dogs K Poppy and Chibby Choo. This time, he’s looking much closer to home and will administer pet therapy in communities near Lake Okeechobee around Christmas.

On his recent cross-country jaunt — which began at the Jupiter Inlet on Nov. 1 and generally followed the Interstate 10 corridor before ending Nov. 22 in Huntington Beach, Calif. — Hamm and his dogs visited 25 assisted living facilities in 22 days.

It was a point of pride for Hamm, who runs small nonprofit Paws for Compassion. He visits Jupiter-area medical facilities with his dogs under that banner.

One moment at an assisted living facility in Arizona was especially powerful, he said.

“There was a blind lady and they said, ‘Oh, there are some dogs here to visit’ and she was pepped up,” Hamm said. “And I put little K Poppy on the table and she started petting him.”

Of the 3,200 miles spanned to Huntington Beach, Hamm said he did about 950 on his Pedego electric-assisted bike, fitted with a sidecar for 6-year-old Chibby Choo and 1-year-old K Poppy.

Hamm, also the facilities director at First United Methodist Church Jupiter-Tequesta, estimated he raised at least $15,000 in support of the nonprofit leading up to and during the trek.

That money helped him buy a small bus for Paws for Compassion,

which will ferry his dogs between Jupiter and communities around Lake Okeechobee, an area where he wants to spread pet therapy.

RICHARD GRAULICH / THE PALM BEACH POST Jay Hamm, with K Poppy, took his two dogs cross-country to raise awareness about pet therapy.