The Power of Compassion

Our Animal-Assisted Therapy Volunteer Appreciation Dinner last Friday was a wonderful, inspirational evening for everybody — and every animal — in attendance.

With nearly 300 people, 65 dogs, two cats and one guinea pig, you might expect that the atmosphere was more frenzied than formal. But the animals got along and were well-behaved throughout the evening — a real testament to our volunteers and the training, commitment and hard work that goes into becoming a registered American Humane Association animal-assisted therapy handler/animal team.

During the past year, our 200-plus animal-assisted therapy volunteer teams provided tens of thousands of hours of service to schools, hospitals, libraries, mental health centers, hospices, child welfare settings and veterans facilities.

In addition to honoring our teams for the outstanding service they perform for the community, a real highlight of the evening was when our volunteers, and representatives of several of the facilities they serve, shared some of their stories about the children and adults they have helped. At times, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house (except for the therapy animals). These stories really drove home the power of the human-animal bond and the benefits of strengthening the inextricable link between people, animals and the world we share.

For example, a representative from Denver Children’s Home, whose mission is “to provide a therapeutic, safe place for emotionally distressed children, adolescents and their families to heal and grow” — told this story about a little boy who had difficulty managing his anger:  The boy had spent hours and hours building a toy in his art class. One of his classmates accidentally bumped into the toy, and it broke. The boy was furious at his classmate and had a meltdown of emotions. He later painstakingly rebuilt the entire toy. A few days afterward, Emma, the therapy dog who visited the boy every week, accidentally bumped into the toy, breaking it again. This time, instead of lashing out with rage, the little boy looked at Emma and calmly said, “That’s okay, Emma, you didn’t mean to.”

Throughout the evening, the power of compassion to enhance and even change lives was vividly clear. And one coincidental reunion seems to indicate that things do happen for a reason. Our Vice President of Animal Welfare, Dori Villalon, was seated randomly at a table and, as she joined the guests there, a couple jumped up and excitedly asked if she remembered them. She didn’t recognize them at first, but as they related their story to her, it all came back in a flash.

As Dori tells it, about eight years ago, while she was Executive Director of the Larimer Humane Society in Fort Collins, Colo., one of her officers responded to a call from a man who had seen his neighbor strike her dog on the head with an ax and drag its body to a wood pile. The dog was found alive, but with serious head trauma. The case generated a lot of media coverage, and the shelter received about 200 calls from people wanting to adopt the little white dog. For some reason, the one call that resonated with her was from a man who explained that he and his wife already had two diabetic dogs, were not sure if they could take another dog into their home, but that they were truly touched by the story of Buddy. Dori called them, they arrived at the shelter within a couple of hours, and the match was made.

Well, the couple that greeted Dori at the table was the same couple who adopted Buddy. They told her that, after adopting him, they have dedicated their lives to rescuing dogs. The wife has been on puppy-mill rescue missions, and the couple has eight dogs rehabilitating in their house right now and are awaiting a determination of their nonprofit status. They are planning to open a dog hydrotherapy spa to generate funding for their future rescue efforts. As the woman was telling Dori about her work, she took her hands and told her that being selected to adopt Buddy had changed the course of her life.

Now, just think about it. Out of the 200 callers who wanted to adopt an abused little dog, what made Dori pick this couple, who then went on to help more and more dogs in need? What moves a person to choose to become an animal-assisted therapy volunteer? And what makes some dogs, cats, horses or even guinea pigs the perfect therapy animals that can enhance and change the lives of the people they interact with?

I leave that to you to decide. What I do know is that compassion can create a momentum of its own, and the possibilities are only limited by the number of hearts that open themselves up to helping others.

Thank you again, to our volunteers, sponsors, partners — and to everyone else who makes compassion a daily part of their life.