Category: Awww

Meet Zoe, the NFL’s First Emotional Support Dog

There’s a new member of the San Francisco 49ers, but this one is a whole lot shorter than the other pro football players.

And, unlike any of her teammates, Zoë is female — and she has four legs. She’s a French Bulldog who’s the first to serve as a certified emotional support animal for an NFL team.

Zoë, who’s just a year old, was adopted by the 49ers in October 2018. As a “specifically designated” emotional support animal, her duties are to help keep the players’ spirits up and to calm them when they’re stressed out. Also, just like most dogs, she’s happy to give the team her unconditional love, whether they happen to be winning or losing.

“The players rely on Zoë to brighten their day,” a 49ers spokesperson told CNN. “Meetings, practice, and workouts can make for a long day. Zoë acts as a stress reliever.”

It was defensive lineman Solomon Thomas’ idea for his team to adopt a dog. He was inspired by Vito, another French bulldog who a 49ers employee was puppy sitting last year. Vito got to come to the 49ers training camp every day, and the players took a shine to the little guy.

Thomas’ sister had recently died when he approached Austin Moss II, the 49ers’ director of player engagement and Zoë’s official owner, to suggest having an emotional support dog for the team.

“I knew that he had just gone through a really tragic experience with losing his sister, so it was just really cool to see him get as much joy as he did coming into the office,” Moss told KRON. “And I knew that it was having a good impact, having a dog here.”

Thomas said that whenever he’s feeling down, he likes to play with Zoë. He feels like he has a special bond with her. “She just kind of helps me get my mind off stuff I don’t need to be thinking about,” he told KRON. “Or negative things I don’t want to be thinking about. She’s just really instrumental in helping me just kinda mentally relax and refresh.”

Zoë is more interested in playing “volleyball” than football with Thomas and the rest of the team. She also loves to play with balloons…and, unsurprisingly, she loves treats. “[S]o we keep the treats around, and we’re working on doing shake, sit lay down, all those things,” Moss told KRON.

The benefits of having an emotional support dog for the team were immediately apparent, Moss said.

“These guys are very strong powerful men that aren’t used to be able to express their emotions freely,” he told KRON. “But when you come in here in a safe space, and you know that it’s just about being yourself and having a good time and getting some help that you may need — Zoe brings a lot of value to that.”

Hmm, imagine if Michael Vick had been able to cuddle with an emotional support dog early in his career. Perhaps it might have prevented him from killing Pit Bulls with his bare hands, but who knows.

You can follow Zoë’s adventures on her Instagram account, the49ersfrenchie.

Photo: the49ersfrenchie/Instagram

Animal Shelters Provide Cozy ‘Real-Life Rooms’ to Help Dogs Get Adopted

October is National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month…which should be every single month, right?! To help reduce the huge number of pets who don’t make it out of animal shelters alive — an average of 2.7 million every year in the United States — some shelters are taking innovative steps to help dogs find homes.

“Real-life rooms” provide a soothing environment for stressed-out shelter dogs. The rooms are furnished like a cozy living room, with comfy sofas or chairs, TVs, rugs on the floor and soft lighting from a lamp.

For an hour or so, dogs can enjoy the room by themselves, or often a volunteer or staff member will join them.

Fearful dogs who are less likely to be adopted may get the most benefit from real-life rooms. The rooms also help dogs who were always kept outside adjust to living indoors.

The Toledo Area Humane Society (TAHS) in Ohio, one of the oldest animal welfare organizations in the U.S., created its first real-life room several years ago. Its latest room debuted last month at a new shelter in Maumee.

“[Dogs] all handle the stress of sheltering differently; some get really amped up, some sort of become very introverted,” Stephen Heaven, president and CEO of TAHS, told the Toledo Blade. “It’s nice to give those guys a break.”

A Respite from the Non-Stop Barking

Dogs in shelters get very stressed out by the constant barking of the other dogs, a 2006 study discovered.

“While employees may wear hearing protectors, dogs don’t have that option,” said Crista Coppola, a veterinary medicine instructor at the University of Illinois. “Excessive noise in shelters can physically stress dogs and lead to behavioral, physiological and anatomical responses.”

Not surprisingly, being in a calm, quiet area significantly reduces the level of stress hormones in shelter dogs.

“When they spend time in the real-life room, their cortisol levels drop,” Kelly Sears, director of animal welfare for TAHS, told the Toledo Blade.

Another Toledo animal shelter, Lucas County Canine Care and Control, also has a real-life room.

“You’ll see a dog who is jumping and lunging in the kennel, then he’s in there for five minutes and is passed out on the couch sleeping,” Jodi Harding, the shelter’s interim director, told the Toledo Blade. “It’s stressful back in the kennels. Any dog is going to do better in a quiet environment where they can relax a little bit.”

In fact, thanks to decompression time in the real-life room, a dog named Cubbie was taken off anxiety medications. A dog named Jake who’d spent his entire life outdoors would constantly pace back and forth inside his kennel at the shelter. After Jake spent time in the real-life room, his pacing almost stopped.

The Perfect Place for a Meet-and-Greet

The areas of many shelters designated for potential adopters to interact with pets can be stress inducing for the animals, so it’s difficult to gauge a dog’s true personality.

But the relaxed atmosphere of real-life rooms helps put the pets at ease, making these areas ideal for a meet-and-greet. “It definitely shows a different side of the dog,” Harding told the Toledo Blade.

Kelli Nicholas, a volunteer adoption counselor at Pet Orphans in Van Nuys, Calif., said the shelter’s three real-life rooms “can really change a dog’s personality for the better” — which means higher adoption rates.

Real-life rooms can be inexpensively created with donated furnishings. Here’s hoping there’s at least one in every shelter soon.

Photo: Gateway Pet Guardians/YouTube

This story was originally published on Care2.com.

Shelter Dog Bruno Becomes Indiana’s First Law Enforcement Comfort Dog

When the sheriff of Lake County, Ind., adopted Bruno from an animal shelter four years ago, the two-year-old American Bulldog was in really bad shape. He had been beaten. He was skinny, malnourished and in serious need of medical care.

Bruno was nursed back to health by members of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department. Among them was Joe Hamer, a deputy who became Bruno’s handler, mainly because the dog liked to follow him around most of all. But Bruno needed to have a job to do.

Hamer, chairman of Indiana’s Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Critical Incident Memorial Team, had an idea. Bruno was calm and caring. He had the perfect personality to become a comfort dog for law enforcement officers, first responders, and their families.

“That was the whole concept. We didn’t know of any dogs specifically for law enforcement,” Hamer told the Chicago Tribune. “And that’s when he became Sheriff Bruno.” The former shelter dog was likely the first law enforcement comfort dog in the state of Indiana.

As a comfort dog, Bruno’s duties include providing support for police officers having bad days on the job, and for the families of officers killed in the line of duty. Bruno attends the funerals of fallen two- and four-legged police officers.

“He will actually gravitate toward people when they are sad. When they cry he goes to them,” Hamer told WSBT. “That is not something that we taught him. That is just him. He does all that on his own. He reacts that way.”

After working in Lake County for a couple of years, Hamer and Bruno moved to Missouri in 2017 when Hamer became the program director for Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), a nonprofit that helps the families and co-workers of fallen police officers rebuild their lives.

Earlier this year, Hamer and Bruno joined the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department in Missouri. Sheriff Bill Redman knew Hamer as a fellow member of the FOP Critical Incident Memorial Team. He was also aware of Bruno’s amazing qualities and wanted the dog to join his department.

“Seeing Bruno do his work, bringing joy to the family members, especially the children, I knew he would be beneficial to our community,” Redman told the Chicago Tribune.

Hamer said Bruno is the best dog he’s ever had in his lifetime. I believe it — Bruno reminds me a lot of my late, great Leroy Brown, who was also a Bulldog mix and one of my best dogs ever. Good ol’ Leroy reacted the very same way whenever someone was crying or otherwise stressed out and in need of some furry consolation.

Bruno, Hamer told the Chicago Tribune, “has the most amazing attitude for a dog that was abused, beaten and neglected. The way he has changed his life has been amazing.”

Bruno was born on May 15, which happens to be National Law Enforcement Memorial Day. For the first time ever this year, a dog had the honor of placing a flower at the Peace Officers’ Memorial Service in Washington, D.C., in memory of K9 officers killed in the line of duty. That dog was Bruno.

“I don’t know how to explain the reaction people have to him,” Hamer told the Chicago Tribune. “He has this spirit about him that everyone sees.”

You can see Bruno’s spirit (and send him a friend request!) on his Facebook page.

Photo credit: Sheriff Bruno/Facebook

Sacramento Police Dispatcher Adopts Shelter Dog Who Comforted Him after Tragedy

As she stood watch over a woman packing her things to leave during a domestic disturbance call, Officer Tara O’Sullivan with the Sacramento Police Department (SPD) was ambushed by Adel Sambrano Ramos, who shot and killed her. O’Sullivan was only 26 years old and had graduated from the Sacramento Police Academy just six months ago.

“She gave her young life while protecting our community,” Deputy Chief Dave Peletta told reporters the morning after the June 19 shooting. “There are no words to convey the depth of sadness we feel or how heartbroken we are for the family of our young, brave officer.”

The unidentified SPD dispatcher who monitored the tragedy is “the best of the best,” the department wrote on its Facebook page June 22, “and hearing those two words, ‘officer down,’ is every dispatcher’s worst nightmare.”

As they frequently do for police dispatchers after critical incidents, the Front Street Animal Shelter brought in some homeless dogs to provide the SPD dispatcher with some much-needed emotional therapy. The manager of the shelter happens to be a former dispatcher with this police department.

After they provide lots of furry comfort, the dogs are usually returned to the shelter. But that wasn’t the case with this dispatcher.

“This story, after the events of this week, is a little bit of light in the darkness,” the Sacramento Police Department wrote on Facebook. “Please indulge us.”

The dispatcher immediately hit it off with a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix from the Front Street Animal Shelter and decided to adopt him. He’s named his new family member Sullivan or “Sully,” in honor of the young fallen officer.

“We like to think they rescued each other,” the Sacramento Police Department wrote.

May Officer Sullivan rest in peace, and may the dispatcher and Sully enjoy many years of happiness together.

A scholarship in O’Sullivan’s name is being created at her alma mater, Sacramento State University. To find out how to make a donation, go to the university’s website.

To help support the Front Street Animal Shelter, visit its website.

Photo: Sacramento Police Department/Facebook

Pit Bull Found Alive in Rubble Days After Apartment Fire

Kayla Marie Blake saved the life of her Pit Bull, Rebel, two times. The first time was three years ago, when she adopted him from a shelter. The second time was last week, when she left him in the bedroom of her apartment with the door closed.

While this may not seem like a life-saving action, it was the closed door that probably saved Rebel’s life when a five-alarm fire broke out in the Harrisonburg, Va., apartment building on March 28.

Harrisonburg Fire officials said ‏all occupants of the complex were safely evacuated within an hour, but that didn’t include some four-legged occupants, including Rebel.

Fearing the worst, Blake returned to the apartment complex two days after the fire. “I saw the window of my room, and I couldn’t believe how much was still left compared to the rest of the building,” she told WTVR.

Imagine the relief Blake felt when she heard Rebel barking from inside her third-story apartment. But she was still concerned that he may have been injured. She called the fire department to check on her dog.

When firefighters entered Blake’s bedroom, Rebel was hiding under a desk.

“He was growling at them,” Blake told WTVR. “Then he started barking and didn’t stop until he saw me enter the room.”

A crowd that had gathered outside the apartment complex cheered when Blake emerged, carrying her beloved Rebel in her arms.

Despite his ordeal, Rebel only suffered a burn to his nose. His veterinarian said it was hard to tell the dog had lived through a fire.

Rebel isn’t the only lucky pet to survive the fire. Another dog was found alive, curled up in a bathtub, about five hours after the fire was put out. Sadly, a cat didn’t survive the fire, which is believed to have been caused by “improperly discarded smoking materials,” according to the fire department.

Blake’s apartment may be a total loss, but she still has what mattered to her most. “Rebel was the only salvageable thing in the room,” she told WTVR. “I’m just happy I have my best friend back. The rest can be replaced.”

Photo: Harrisonburg Fire Department/Twitter

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