# Pet Therapy in Hospice



## SeaBreeze (Oct 1, 2013)

Pawsitive Pals in San Diego, Ca. has a pet therapy program for those in hospice.  They help people to relax, improve morale, loneliness, depression, stress, help with isolation, etc.


----------



## Diwundrin (Oct 1, 2013)

They do that a lot here too.  Saw a clip of a woman who takes a miniature horse around some aged hostels.
There was kind of 'pet therapy' in the aged hostel Mum was in.  It was on the outskirts of a rural town and came with a few acres of grazing paddocks around it.  They ran a small flock of sheep and 2 Alpacas on it.  One side of the facility had a long verandah that overlooked the paddocks and the oldies would shuffle out with their spare bits of bread and toast to feed the sheep over the railing.

It was high excitement time in lambing season, you'd have thought they were getting more grandkids or something.
The Alpacas were more stand offish but they'd lay along the verandah in the shade and look up with those silly faces and you had to luv 'em.  

One year only one was shorn properly, don't know why but they got an amateur in to do the other one and you never saw anything as funny as that poor thing looked.   Bad hair day on a monumental scale.  It was hilarious and I'm sure it was embarrased, it used to get up and stalk off when anyone laughed at it.

Mum was never an animal person, she never had a pet of her own in her entire life, nor wanted one, but put up with mine.  Yet even she would feed them and sat for hours watching them from the window.  
Animals are great therapy, even sheep and especially Alpacas with bad haircuts.

They had a cat too but it was a snobby thing that never let anyone touch it and used to spend all day hiding under cars.  They had 2 big bird cages with small parrots and some finches too in the common rooms.  They were complained about because of the noise by some, but got a lot love and attention from others.


----------



## Old Hipster (Oct 2, 2013)

I have a friend who does this, he has a mini Schnauzer.

Here they are:


----------



## Diwundrin (Oct 2, 2013)

Oh that's sad TWH.


----------



## That Guy (Oct 2, 2013)

Helen Keller with her dog.  Therapy animals are the greatest!


----------



## SeaBreeze (Oct 2, 2013)

TWHRider said:


> There is a lady on one of the horse forums I belong to that has Mini Horse she trained as a therapy horse.  He is somewhat of a celebrity in their local town and he would visit the local nursing home (inside) on a regular basis.
> 
> He was diagnosed with cancer, this past year and I honestly don't know the outcome of that because, coward that I am, I can't make myself follow the thread.  He is such a little sweetie and it breaks my heart to know he is suffering the same Fate as some of the humans he has offered comfort to



Sorry to hear about that little horse suffering with cancer.   Here's a post from Haopee at PetForums about a therapy horse...



> Meet Tonto. (Ironic how Tonto in our local dialect means "mischievous")
> 
> 
> 
> ...


----------



## Michael. (Oct 4, 2013)

.

We have them over here in the UK and they do an excellent job.

Well done to all the people who give up some of their spare time to give a little comfort to others.


Pets As Therapy Film UK

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=LwFjLeMuRSg

.


----------



## Old Hipster (Oct 4, 2013)

Oh that is so sad about the miniature horse.


----------

