5 minute read
Animals
from 07092021 WEEKEND
by tribune242
Oh by gosh, by golly….
Wally! Animal matters | KIM ARANHA
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WhatsApp is an amazing tool, amazingly annoying and amazingly useful and fun. I belong to all sorts of WhatsApp groups and when every member of the group feels compelled to say good morning and send an accompanying gif it can overload your phone and make more “pings” than a Russian submarine. On the other hand, it is a brilliant way to disseminate information and to share video clips of interest or that make you laugh.
I received a video clip yesterday that I have watched several times already and really did feel compelled to share with some others. It was about Wally the emotional support alligator. The video starts with a grey-haired gentleman telling us that he lost three family members and two life-long friends during the short period of two weeks, and depression really set in.
A friend of his rescued gators and found Wally when he was 14 months old. Wally is five feet in length and is now four years old. Even though he is a cold-blooded animal, Wally enjoys to snuggle and apparently, he has never bitten anything, never killed anything, and is just a very friendly and laid-back alligator. He is the only emotional support alligator in the world. He enjoys eating chicken wings and goes on ‘meet and greets’ with his owner.
Wally’s human credits him with helping him through a dark period and without Wally’s existence he would have been put on medication. It all sounds a bit crazy, doesn’t it? But if you Google search “Wally, the emotional support Alligator” you can see film clips of him and his owner.
One cannot help but wonder how this extraordinary alligator and his devoted “Dad: will cope when Wally reaches his full potential size of 16 feet!
In Surfside, Florida, dogs Charlie and Abbie are part of the Crisis Support Team giving emotional support to the first responders at the horrifically tragic site of the condo collapse on Miami Beach. Two weeks later they continue to recover bodies from the rubble and are still finding more dead every day. It is also worth reminding people that in the recovery operation the first responders depend greatly on assistance from other canines trained to find survivors deep in the rubble.
Did you know that some rescue canines become depressed if they only find dead bodies? Their trainers have to stage rescues of living people to boost their morale. A healthy human has to hide under debris and the canine gets to “save” their life and then the dog is happy again.
Charlie and Abbie have the daunting task of helping the brave responders handle the emotional toil of going back day after day for over 14 days looking for the dead buried deep under concrete and steel.
Charlie and Abbie are part of the first team of ten rescue dogs to become response canines in the innovative programme of the Miami Dade Fire Rescue. All the members of the team were rescued from shelters. Charlie is a retired greyhound and, like his fellow team members, has a calming influence that helps crews to avoid suffering from PTSD. The amazing therapeutic aide a dog can provide is unique.
Therapy animals are gaining international recognition, hospitals all around the world welcome therapy animal care for their patients. Most of these therapy animals are dogs, I presume because of their nature and long history of being man’s best friend. Dogs are most certainly easier to move around with than an alligator, with all due respect to Wally.
However, not to be forgotten are the therapy horses who visit hospitals. There are teams of mini horses who visit sick children. Literally thousands of children benefit from their gentle and caring visits, and there are also big, full-sized, horses too, who go to hospitals.
The bottom line is that therapy animals are on the rise. More and more pets are being groomed to provide humans with the reassurance and comfort that they frequently cannot get from another human.
I was reading an article recently and one of the fire fighters in Florida was explaining how great it was to have emotional therapy dogs. One of the things he said was that if a human is comforting you, they most likely will ask how you are feeling, dogs don’t do that. Dogs don’t need to, they know how you feel, and they know what you need. A dog will sit by your side, put his head on your lap, sigh a big sigh, and just simply be there, for as long as you need him to be.
It saddens me greatly that I do not see the Bahamas becoming a country that will embrace the emotional therapy animal. It will take a long time for people here to understand the benefit of comfort from a dog or any other emotional therapy animal.
JOIE Henney and his registered emotional support alligator named Wally in 2019. (Ty Lohr/ York Daily Record via AP)
PET OF THE WEEK Meet Midnight!
By The Bahamas Humane Society
Midnight is the last of her siblings to be adopted, and she’s waiting on you to give her her forever home. This young lady’s about three months old.
Midnight has a very sweet personality and is good with children and adults alike. She’d love to get out of this crate and into a home and she hopes you’ll be patient during the housebreaking process. She’s looking forward to finding out more about walks and gardens and beaches. Do you have the right space for Midnight? If so, give the Bahamas Humane Society a call at 3235138 to find out more! Midnight is eagerly awaiting you.
