CITY RAMPS UP WATER RESTRICTIONS DUE TO INCREASED HEAT, DROUGHT Find out what stage g 3 rules mean for your y home usage { Page A6 }
times Chilliwack
Â
THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015
Get out the hairspray, look who’s w playing the Chilliwack Fair
{ Page A19 }
chilliwacktimes.com
/chilliwacktimes
{ Page A20 } @chilliwacktimes
Violent man who attacked cops lucky to be alive
› Cover Story
He pointed a gun, tried to fire Taser, and broke Mountie’s hand
ANIMALS THAT HEAL in that environment watching their children at play. Tiffany, a mother of two and former resident of second stage, has found a new friend in Hugo who first snuggles her ankles, then struts away and performs a dance. The bird and dogs are new since Tiffany’s year-long stay here ended, but they are just one more reason to visit second stage. Like many current and former residents at second stage, the mother and her two children first stayed at the originally named Xolhemet (first stage) transition house. { See WILMA, page A4 }
{ See TEREPOCKI, page A3 }
Greg LaychakTIMES
A
“Hello, big dog,” she says before another girl leads the dog inside by his collar. The two therapy dogs belong to B.J. Fleetham who brings them to the second stage program along with their winged companion, Hugo the parrot. “They have a kid thing,” says Fleetham, who has been bringing the animals once a week for half a year. “I never taught it, they’re bred for children.”
She and her furry/feathered friends are here as recent partners of the second stage program that helps women and their children who come from a history of family abuse. “It’s very therapeutic for the families,” says Kathleen Mosa, executive director of Xolhemet society. “I think the moms love it more than the kids.” The animals have a relaxing effect on everyone, and Fleetham says many of the women have opened up to her 7042631
t over 210 pounds Leeroy, an English mastiff, is taller than most of the children swarming around him on a sunny afternoon in the backyard of Xolhemet’s second stage facility. He lumbers through the playground with his companion, a bloodhound named MaGee, both quiet and patient while a dozen giggling kids touch and admire them. One girl who has been pulling at MaGee’s ears stops under eye level of her canine friend and earnestly greets him.
Therapy dogs help women and children at transition house
A
Chilliwack man is lucky he wasn’t killed by police after a violent confrontation where he aimed a gun at an officer, threw a dumbbell at another, tried to take that Mountie’s gun and got hold of a Taser. “The reality is he is lucky he didn’t get shot,” Judge Richard Browning told Preston Terepocki’s lawyer in court last Thursday. Terepocki faces a raft of charges after the July 6 incident, including disarming a police officer, use of an imitation firearm, threatening to use a weapon, resisting arrest and uttering threats. His lawyer, Martin Finch, told the court at a bail hearing Thursday that Terepocki remembers nothing from the violent struggle with two officers, even suggesting someone might have slipped a drug into his drink at the bar. “He has no recollection of the
B.J. Fleetham with her therapy dog companions Leeroy, left, and MaGee leaving the Xolhemet second stage facility last Thursday. BY GREG LAYCHAK glaychak@chilliwacktimes.com
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
604.792.5151 8645 Young Rd. Chilliwack www.jadamandsons.com
• • • •
Plumbing Showroom Warehouse Shopping Full Service Department Complete Renovation Centre
“Serving Chilliwack for over 32 Years”
SHOP OUR ENTIRE PREOWNED INVENTORY ONLINE
7043360
Price 60¢