Amazing Creatures, Amazing Bonds
As we enter into my favorite part of the year, I wanted to reflect on gratitude and the amazing gift that we humans can share with animals as caretakers, helpers and more.
First, however, I want to give appreciation to our veterinary technicians. We celebrated National Veterinary Technician week in mid-October, but it’s always good to continue the celebration of gratitude.
All veterinary staffs from front to back work so incredibly hard. But veterinary technicians are that absolute key to all successful practices – these team members are the hands-on paw-holders who care for each and every pet, no matter their situation at a veterinary hospital or clinic. They are the nurses with technical skills in anesthesia and more, the educators that help veterinarians cover all the necessary information needed to help you be a good pet parent, and they are the support for owners stressed about their pet’s stay in the hospital to ensure that they know that Fido or Fluffy is resting quietly in their cage or started eating this afternoon. Why do they work so hard? Because of the amazing bond between people and animals.
Now to share some amazing stories of the pets among us supporting their humans through the human-animal bond.
Dogs
The horror of shootings at schools will never be easy to bear, but one special dog named Spartacus helped for many months in the aftermath of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. This giant Akita was among the first responders to the crisis and stayed on campus for several months after to be a source of support and companionship to the traumatized faculty and students. The positive effects of Spartacus’ presence even led to the passing of a new Connecticut law that mandates that all crisis victims have access to therapy dogs within 24 hours of a crisis.
Cats
Oscar the Cat. Oscar is truly famous, having gone viral many times in social media. But he doesn’t let that keep him away from his duties at Steere House Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I. Oscar has been an amazing caretaker to the elderly residents in the Safe Haven Advanced Care Unit. He’s especially known for detecting a patient’s imminent death and being there to offer comfort to patient and family at a critical time. He was even written up in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Other Special Creatures
Buttercup, a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, is a hero to special needs children in San Francisco. Partnered with speech pathologist Lois Brady, Buttercup offers her spiky self to helping autistic children in schools. Her sweet nature and innate calmness even brought out one autistic boy to speak for the first time to his classmates after therapy.
These are just a few examples of the amazing animals out there helping humans. Specially trained animals – dogs, cats, alpacas, llamas, horses, monkeys and more – are all out there offering animal assisted therapy for children, the elderly, soldiers suffering PTSD and more that brings real results because of the special connection between animal and human.
Dr. Margot can be reached at parkhillvet.com