JOY ON FOUR LEGS Pet ministry in Houston_122203

Posted: 12/19/03

Nancy Malley and Niko, a poodle, greet Irene Tesch at the Regency Village Nursing Home in Webster, where pets are used as a therapeutic ministry.

JOY ON FOUR LEGS:
Pet ministry in Houston

By George Henson

Staff Writer

HOUSTON--Joy comes in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes with four legs.

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Posted: 12/19/03

Nancy Malley and Niko, a poodle, greet Irene Tesch at the Regency Village Nursing Home in Webster, where pets are used as a therapeutic ministry.

JOY ON FOUR LEGS:
Pet ministry in Houston

By George Henson

Staff Writer

HOUSTON–Joy comes in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes with four legs.

The Faithful Friends animal-assisted therapy ministry of University Baptist Church in Houston spread yuletide cheer this holiday season to hospitalized children, incarcerated teens and senior adults no longer capable of living in their own homes.

“These pets have a very special way of demonstrating God's unconditional love,” said Shari Ferguson, founder of the ministry. “They don't care what you look like, whether you've had a bad day or a good one, or whether you have physical or emotional pains. They love you just the way you are all the time. This is what people who are in long-term care facilities or recovering in rehabilitation hospitals need most of all–to be loved just the way they are.”

For some children the animals visit, that also means not caring about what has happened in the past. One of the ministry's longest and most productive relationships is with the Devereaux Treatment Center for Youth.

Volunteers and their pets line up outside the dining hall at Regency Village Nursing Home in Webster. The humans and animals delivered Christmas cheer as part of an ongoing pet ministry in the Houston area. Volunteers report that in nursing homes, hospitals and centers caring for traumatized children, pets break down barriers of communication and demonstrate unconditional love.

Youth come to this facility for a variety of reasons–none of them good. Some have known physical or sexual trauma and are working with counselors to overcome their emotional scars. Others have been involved with gangs or have been abusers themselves. Many have experienced both sides of the equation.

The animals, especially the dogs, create a key component of treatment. The animals visit weekly, and the youth are given the opportunity to “train” them. ready know the proper response to such commands as “sit” and “stay,” the youth learn how to use positive reinforcement to achieve the results they desire rather than employing abusive behavior and speech.

One of Ferguson's dogs is particularly loved by the youth. Bear is a chow she found with a clothesline tied around his neck and showed obvious signs of abuse. When she finally trapped the dog in an enclosed yard and won its confidence, animal specialists told her the dog probably never would recover from its injuries or be friendly with humans again.

After months of veterinary care and a year of learning to socialize with humans, Bear went to Devereaux. While the other dogs chased balls and caught Frisbees, Bear found a quiet spot to sit, Ferguson recalled. After a while, a boy came over, and Ferguson told him Bear's story of past abuse. Before an hour had passed, the boy was telling Bear how much he loved him.

When the visit was over, therapists told Ferguson the boy also had been physically abused, but no therapy method had caused him to open up about his experiences. In the coming weeks, the boy and Bear developed such a relationship that the therapists used the dog to break through, and finally the boy talked about his own situation.

“Many tears flowed–from the boy, from me and the therapists,” Ferguson said.

The ministry group, which began in October 1993 with only two dogs and two humans, now numbers more than 150 two-legged volunteers and even more animals. Over the years, the animals involved have included dogs, cats, rabbits, a turtle, a ferret and a rat.

The ministry has grown to include more people who are not members of University Baptist Church than those who are.

“We allow them to be a part, because I believe Faithful Friends can be a ministry to everybody involved,” Ferguson said. “I tell everyone up front that we will pray before each visit for the people we will minister to, the people who will be taking the animals and for the animals themselves. I also let them know that those in Faithful Friends pray for the needs of one another just in general. Now, if they are not comfortable being a part of a group that prayer is such a large part of, I tell them that maybe they need to find another group.”

Some have come to become involved at University Baptist Church after their initial experience with Faithful Friends.

The group has no age restrictions, and all ages are represented in the ministry.

The ministry conducts temperament tests for its animals monthly. This is not an obedience test, but a measure of how the animal reacts to strangers and to strange environments, assuring no signs of aggression are present. Animals also must have up-to-date veterinary records on file.

Pet ownership is not a requirement for participation. Many of the volunteers have more than one pet, but the rules of the group establish a one-to-one ratio of human to animal on visits.

Like many of the participants, Jeff Heflin, leader of one of the nursing home groups, was attracted by a way to be of service to others and also involve the dogs he loves.

“I had three dogs, and it just seemed like a good match,” he said.

Fifteen groups of volunteers take their pets to hospitals and nursing homes, as well as to Devereaux

His son, Kevin, enjoys the way his dog, Sasha, affects the people they visit.

“I like how the residents are so happy when they get to see Sasha and the other animals and pet them,” he said. “It makes them really happy, and I like that.”

Fifteen groups of volunteers take their pets to hospitals and nursing homes, as well as to Devereaux.

Each year at Christmastime, the animals deliver small gifts to the people they visit, like the residents at Regency Village Nursing Home. This year, each resident was given a decorated Santa hat.

Irene Tesch was thrilled to have Niko, a small poodle, sit in her lap and cuddle, all the while licking the hand of yet another resident.

Albert Lively enjoyed petting the head of Star, a full-grown Irish Setter, whose height made strokes from someone in a wheelchair an easy task.

Buzzy, a spunky Pomeranian, was a crowd pleaser as he danced around in circles on his hind legs.

The animals make an extraordinary impact during the Christmas season, particularly at nursing homes., Ferguson said. Fifty percent of Texas nursing home residents don't have spouses or surviving family, and 60 percent have no regular visitors.

“Sometimes we take pictures of the residents with their favorite pet that comes to visit them,” Ferguson said. “When we gave the pictures to one resident, she sat with the pictures in her lap and kept looking at them over and over again. She liked them so much that she said she was going to put them in a special place on the wall along with the pictures of her grandchildren.”

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