Old Friends

Yet in a place where many residents are elderly, local retirement homes, assisted-living facilities, and nursing homes often don't allow pets to move in with their owners.

"It's an age where people are losing so much in their lives, [pets] are the last thing to go many times," says Diana Gualario, administrator of the Canterbury House in Naples.

Canterbury does, in fact, allow pets-as long as they are mature and well behaved, and the owner can care for the animal. But Canterbury's in the minority. Administrators at many facilities fret about a variety of issues that make resident pet ownership impractical: liability concerns, space considerations, health and fire codes, and the comfort of other residents.

The Humane Society of Collier County received more than 800 animals last year, according to executive director Terry Tilley, 131 of which were surrendered because the owners were moving to a location that does not allow pets, and 26 because of "owner illness," which includes admission into a nursing home. While some of these pets find good homes, the owners often suffer from the separation, says

Susan Wilson, a receptionist at the Bentley Village assisted-living care center in Naples. "A lot of times, if you take their pets away, they go into a depression," she says of patients there..

Some organizations have responded, bringing pets for visits to those no longer allowed to keep them. These groups provide pets and handlers to local hospitals and hospices, nursing homes, adult living facilities, and even private homes in what is often referred to as "pet therapy."

"The really good thing about pet therapy," says the Humane Society's Tilley, "is that a lot of these people respond in no way to human contact, but put an animal in their lap and it's like a light bulb goes off." Collier County's Humane Society runs a pet therapy program that sends volunteers to local facilities with carefully selected pets.

"They absolutely love it. It brings a smile to their faces," says Peggy Martin, executive director of the Carlisle in Naples, one of the facilities the Humane Society of Collier County has visited.

Volunteer Leigh Rector has worked with the Humane Society's program for two years. "The results are incredible," she says. She tells of bringing a kitten to visit a woman who could not speak. "Her eyes lit up right away," she recounts. "As I was leaving she took my hand and squeezed it real tight, and I knew that was 'Thank you.'"

Yet the Humane Society had to cut its program back from 26 facilities served to only about six after liability issues forced its insurance company to require coverage from the facilities visited. "Our pet therapy program went to nonexistent, basically," says Tilley. Only those facilities willing and financially able to carry the rider for the program were able to continue it. Some organizations offer a solution, but Pet Partners, an organization run through Florida Gulf Coast University's Center for Positive Aging, solves the liability issue by certifying pets and handlers through an organization that insures the animals and their trainers and covers any claims made by the facilities and people visited.

Pet Partners' director Linda Buettner, who had her family's dog and horse certified for pet therapy through the Delta Society in New York state, decided to continue the work when she moved here. She became a certified instructor and evaluator for pets and handlers, and launched Pet Partners in the summer of 2001. "It's very, very popular," she says of the program. "We can't keep up with it."

The Delta Society, which certifies the pet-and-human teams, also insures each team for up to $1 million. The volunteers pay only $45 per year for this coverage, which allows them to visit facilities that can't afford to add a special rider to their own coverage.

May Ann Ritter is the local volunteer coordinator for a similar program, offered through Therapy Dogs, a Wyoming-based evaluating and certifying organization that provides $3 million in coverage for its volunteers. Her more than 20 volunteers work in the Lee Memorial Health System, bringing animals in to visit and work with patients.

"The animals absolutely strike a point of stimulus to a person that nothing else can," Ritter says. "I have seen people for the first time reach out; I have heard people for the first time speak."

Even the employees benefit from the pets. "The staff comes out to greet the dogs," Ritter says. "Nurses, therapists, doctors. They have a lot of stressful jobs there, and they'll come out and pet the dogs, or sit on the floor and play with them."

Hospice of Naples keeps a therapy dog "on staff" for the benefit of residents and their families alike. "There's a special bond between animals and people," says president and CEO Diane Cox. "It provides tremendous comfort. Hospice is all about comfort care. [Pets] help people focus on something different from their illness."

Nor are the benefits of animal therapy confined to feel-good visits. Therapy Dogs' Mary Ann Ritter was drawn into the world of pet therapy after she suffered a stroke six years ago. Ritter had shown her two collies in obedience prior to her stroke, and her therapist at Lee suggested she bring them to her outpatient therapy afterward. Her own pets helped Ritter with balance, tactile sensation and learning to walk again.

Now the pets she helps certify for Lee Memorial are also used in that type of physical therapy. And the volunteers bring pets into the oncology unit as well. "People in chemotherapy drip units schedule themselves on the days the dogs are going to be there," Ritter says.

"It's unconditional acceptance," says Linda Buettner. "It's very hard to be withdrawn or sad when there's somebody wagging their tail in front of you. It's just an uplift whenever the animal comes."

And, when faced with the pain and loneliness of illness or advanced age, that may be the best medicine of all.