Pippin O'Chi and I were a therapy dog team. She was/is the most loving little dog who just wanted/wants to give all the love she can to anyone willing to accept it. As a team, we wanted to help children, and wanted to promote reading and inspire children to read more. Pippin loves to snuggle with anyone, and loves children. Boy, oh, boy, she sure got/gets excited when she sees the pet carrier out.
I have retired her due to two things the therapy group I had worked and paid to get therapy training through, did; things I feel were extremely wrong. I have removed their name in the "About Me" section. After I let this group know my feelings about these wrong - in my opinion, they have NOT even tried to contact me, but they were more than willing to take my money for the course work.
What did they do? First, in their training courses, they stated how important it was that we, as the human side of the team, were to advocate for our animals and keep them safe. This was repeated multiple times. I have no problem with that at all, but this therapy animal group has a "Do as I say, not as I do" way of doing things!
Pippin was rejected by her mother at birth, never even getting any of the colostrum milk, which is so important to the immune system. She has little fur. Is her lack of fur caused from not receiving the colotrum milk or genetics, I do not know. Her fur is thin on her upper side. She has zero fur underneath. Fur on animals is the equivalent to us humans wearing clothes in order to keep warm in colder months, or to keep the sun from burning our skin in warmer months. Pippin needs to wear clothing in the cold months, in order to keep warm. She actually burns more calories trying to stay warm, even with clothes on. This increase in calorie burning requires that she eat more, in order to compensate, but there have been times that her blood sugar still dropped, causing her to have a seizure. (Each time any being has a seizure, a little bit of damage is done to the brain.) When I tried to "ADVOCATE" for Pippin to wear a coat or sweatshirt while doing therapy work, stating all the above, this therapy animal group, who hammered home that we should advocate for our animals, would not budge an inch on their "rules" that animals were not to wear clothing. Even when I stated that we were NEVER ever going to go into a healthcare facility, and that the situation affected Pippin's health, they, in my opinion, showed they did not give a darn, and "rules were rules." Funny thing is that every human, in a therapy animal team, wears clothes...go figure!
Pippin misses going out to visit other humans. She still gets excited when she sees the pet carrier, even when I have it out to take a kitten to the vet.
Our country has fallen into dark times with those who feel they have the right to dictate this or that, regardless of the harms their dictating causes. Too bad this therapy animal group has fallen into this same thinking, and is so blinded, in so many ways...THEIR LOSS!!
No comments:
Post a Comment