Furry Therapists

When just getting out of bed can be a major challenge some days the thought of taking on the responsibility of a pet can seem overwhelming and an insurmountable challenge. A pet would mean having to feed, water, groom, clean up after and give attention to an animal that is totally dependant on us when we can barely do those things for ourselves some days. I must be nuts for even suggesting such a thing, right?

I thought the exact same thing in March of 2006 on my way home in a four hour car ride from my last ankle surgery when my husband said "I have a surprise for you" then told me that we were going to be stopping to pick up an 8 week old chihuahua puppy for me to train to be my service dog. I just had my ankle fused and endured my 19th surgery in 10 years on my ankle, I was nauseous and in pain and he wanted me to take care of and train a tiny puppy? We stopped and I managed to use crutches to hobble into the home of the breeder and sat on a sofa while the man of the house came in carrying two impossibly tiny puppies, a solid white female short haired female and a copper colored long haired male which he placed on my lap and my husband said "choose." The female was timid and shaking and the male simply looked into my eyes then crawled to my arm and curled against it and laid his head on my hand. I chose the male because he seemed to not be shy and I love the look of long haired Chihuahua's.

We left the breeder, my ankle screaming in pain and that tiny puppy already asleep in my lap, stopped by a pet store to pick up food, a tiny crate, a puppy litter pan (yes, they make doggie litter pans) and all the other things that a puppy needs along with a pink teddy bear that was five times larger than my new puppy and my husband picking on me for picking a pink teddy bear for a male puppy.

At home I settled on the bed, placed the crate on an end table level with the bed and set up the litter pan and placed the puppy in it over and over until he finally piddled in it at which time I made the biggest fuss in the world. He loves all that clapping and cheering and within an hour his little mind locked onto the idea that if he does his thing in the pan there was a major party. I fed my new little pet and almost panicked when after eating he took off like a flash and was pleased and shocked when his little legs raced him to the litter pan where he struggled over the high lip (all of 2 inches) into the pan to go potty!

My husband went back to work the next day, leaving me home alone, barely able to take care of myself let alone a puppy and instead of being able to sleep my time away I had to get up every hour to offer my new pup the chance to visit the litter pan and every 3 hours to feed him along with giving him play time and grooming. I was exhausted and in pain, my stomach constantly spasming and my blood pressure going nuts but I could not give in and simply sleep.

I soon named my new puppy "Casanova, Prince of Mischief" on his papers and "Loki" (for the Norse God of Mischief and Trickery) became his nickname. Every time I took care of him I would work on simple commands and soon he was sitting, laying down and all the other basic obedience commands without fail. Eventually at 10 weeks old he started his official "Puppy Obedience" classes and he soared through them like a champ since he already knew the commands by voice and hand signal. The trainer thought he was hilarious because when told to "down" he would lay down so fast she called it the 'Loki Splat' and when he was learning the 'come command' he would race to me and skid to a stop on his tush, sliding a little on the linoleum floor in his haste. He was extremely bonded to me even at that early age, something that I encouraged since a Service Dog should be bonded strongly with their handler. Our trainer called him the 'velcro pup' because he was always right there where I was looking up at me just in case I asked him to do anything.

After his puppy classes I continued his Service Dog training at home and he picked up things so fast that I would often (and still do) have trouble thinking up new things to teach him and challenge him with. Teaching a dog how to be a service animal is a very prolonged process... every task is actually a series of smaller tasks that they must master before putting them together as a single act. To teach a dog how to turn on a 'touch lamp' you first have to teach them to touch things with their nose, then you have to teach them to touch different objects by name by simply pointing at them. Then you have to teach them to only touch it once for each command. Loki was turning on and off the touch lamp in a single afternoon... and soon it was simply saying the command "light" that would trigger the command. The cell phone took longer because it would be making noise when he had to go get it and even though he learned to bring it by name quickly the first time it made noise when he was supposed to bring it he ran for the hills! "MOM!!! That thing is yelling at me!!!"

Loki is now four years old and I would never have thought that he would mean as much to me as he does. I honestly do not know what shape I would be in right now if I did not have him to take care of and it never occurred to me in those initial days when I would be in tears just wanting to go back to my routine of sleeping all the time that he would be the one taking care of me and giving me the strength to keep active.

Because of Loki I can honestly say that I fully endorse the idea of those with chronic illness to have a pet. You do not have to train it to be your service animal but teaching them tricks will not only give you goals to meet but will enrich your pet's live by keeping their minds active and in turn give the both of you hours of fun.

Choose your pet carefully and consider things such as cost (vet costs, training, housing, food) allergies (if you are allergic to dogs consider breeds that are 'hair' breeds and not 'fur' breeds such as poodles, llhasa apsos, maltese, yorkies, ect. They take more time in grooming but are considered hypoallergenic) and other factors. Maybe your perfect pet would be a cat (they can be trained as well), ferret (they can be trained, I have seen it), guinea pig, bird or even a rat! Choose a pet that interacts with you, something that likes interaction with humans and fits into your lifestyle. Fish are great, but they will not force you to get out of bed to train and work with them and neither will most reptiles.

Set goals and work towards those goals in small steps that are realistic and do not tax you too much but still challenge you to push just a tiny bit more each time.

Puppies are wonderful, but consider an older pet from the local shelter or pound if you are not going to be training it as a service animal because chances are that they are already house broken which will take away some of the challenge of having a pet. Not only will you have a wonderful pet but you will save a life and in return they will do the same for you in amazing ways that will shock and humble you such as giving you confidence that you can do more than you thought.

If you cannot get a pet, consider offering to volunteer at a pound or shelter once a week to go in and give the animals attention and affection. Animals in shelters are in very stressful situations where they are kept in kennels or cages most of the time and that can cause them to be anxious, shy or too energetic making people pass them by for their calmer kennel mates. Volunteering to go in once a week and spend a little one on one time with these animals will help to calm them and give them positive interactions that could make them more adoptable... possibly saving their lives.

I never knew when I saw that tiny puppy crawl up on the pink teddy bear, his minuscule legs not even reaching the bed as he sprawled on top of it and started sucking on it's nose that in four years time I would be looking at him, laying on that same teddy bear and sucking on that same nose (that bear has been re-stuffed twice and washed more times than I can count) what a change he would make in my life... my furry little therapist does more than just get things I drop and bring me things... he gave me back my self respect.