Funeral Therapy Dogs Provide Furry Comfort to Mourners

If you’ve ever lost a loved one, you know how very difficult those first few weeks can be. If you had pets at the time, they were probably a major source of comfort for you as you grieved, their fur absorbing plenty of your tears.

To help mourners cope, the state of Texas got its first certified funeral therapy dog in 2017. Kermit, a Border Collie mix, was trained in how to deal with grieving people. (Based on my experience with my own dogs, I’m guessing minimal training is necessary.)

Kermit belongs to Melissa Unfred, who works for Affordable Burial and Cremation Service in Austin. She used to take Kermit to work with her before he became certified, and she noticed his demeanor changed when he was inside the business.

“A lot of people have been really surprised that he’s not hyper,” Unfred told KVUE. “You see that as a hand will go out to pet him, it’s like an immediate sigh of relief.”

Kermit can instinctively determine who’s suffering the most. “He’s something of a chameleon — he can kind of sense the energy in the room,” Unfred told KVUE. “Sometimes I will start to go upstairs and Kermit isn’t behind me. He ended up staying behind … He just moves himself into the position where he’s closest to the primary griever.”

In New York, a Goldendoodle named Lulu has been comforting mourners at Ballard-Durand Funeral & Cremation Services for the past few years.

Just like Kermit, Lulu has “an uncanny knack for knowing who needs her,” Matthew Fiorillo, president of the funeral home, told TODAY. “She’ll park herself right next to an older person to let them pet her one minute and the next she’s prancing around with kids. It’s been really impressive to watch.”

Humans need to touch, Fiorillo said. “Even just petting her can be a subtle distraction from the tremendous amount of grief people are going through,” he told TODAY.

Vinny, another Goldendoodle, is currently training to become a funeral therapy dog at the Kuhn Funeral Home in West Reading, Pa.

“Death is hard for all of us,” Michael Kuhn, the funeral home’s president, told WFMZ. “Death is sometimes, I think, even harder at younger ages, so to have sort of a distraction and a loving creature next to you, I think that’s going to serve really well.”

Kuhn told WFMZ the idea of having a funeral therapy dog on the premises “kind of immediately resonated with me. It just makes a lot of sense.”

It really does make sense. Just as therapy dogs comforting hospital patients have become commonplace nowadays, more and more funeral homes across the country are adding therapy dogs to their staffs. As Kermit, Lulu and Vinny have proven, funeral therapy dogs truly help make the process of mourning a little less painful.

If you think your compassionate pet has the makings of a great therapy dog, check out these tips for how to go about making it happen.

This story was originally published on Care2.com.

Photo: henriethaan

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

Volunteer Rescuers Carry Exhausted 190-Pound Mastiff Down Mountain Trail

Floyd, a 3-year-old, 190-pound Mastiff, managed to hike up the Grandeur Peak mountain trail in Utah on Sunday afternoon with his dog dad. But when it was time to head back down the trail, Floyd refused to budge.

As the sun began to set and the temperature began to drop, other hikers who saw the duo called 911.

Volunteer first responders with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue (SLCOSAR) team immediately sprang into action. “They had no hesitation whatsoever, even when they heard it was a dog,” Sgt. Melody Gray, of the Unified Police Department, told CNN.

Armed with a stretcher, the team “headed up the trail to make sure Floyd could get off the mountain … before it got too cold,” SLCOSAR posted on its Facebook page Sunday.

During their four-hour rescue effort, the team strapped Floyd onto the stretcher and carried the big guy all the way down the trail. At one point they had to walk across a narrow concrete beam above a creek, but neither they nor Floyd seemed the least bit nervous.

“Floyd was a good boy and was happy to be assisted,” SLCOSAR wrote in its Facebook post. “Floyd, his human and all the team members got off the mountain around 10:30 p.m.”

In a comment on the Facebook post, Amy Sandoval wrote that Floyd is her brother’s dog. During their hike, her brother took a wrong turn and the two had to find their way back to the trail. By then, Floyd was exhausted.

The Mastiff is fine and has been getting plenty of TLC at home. “Hopefully, Floyd will be up and hiking again soon!” SLCOSAR wrote. (And hopefully those future hikes will be on flatter trails!)

The all-volunteer SLCOSAR has over 30 members who are on call 24/7. All members are trained and equipped to handle any type of outdoor emergency.  It’s pretty impressive that these heroes perform nearly 100 rescues every year, all free of charge.

Each of these rescues costs SLOCSAR about $12,000. If you’d like to make a donation to help the team continue their heroic efforts, visit their website.

Photo: Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue/Facebook

Yellow Lab Puppy Shoots Woman (She’s Okay)

In what police reports call an “accidental” shooting — as if a dog could actually grab a gun and shoot someone intentionally — a 7-month-old Yellow Lab puppy named Molly apparently shot a 44-year-old woman named Tina Springer in Oklahoma last Thursday.

Molly was in the backseat and Springer was in the front passenger seat in a pickup truck driven by Brent Parks, 79, that was stopped at a railroad crossing. Spooked by the passing train, Molly jumped onto the console between the two front seats, causing a loaded .22 caliber handgun tucked beneath it to fire. Springer was shot in the thigh.

Parks called 911. “The dog [expletive] stepped on [the gun] and it went off,” he calmly told the operator.

“The dog shot her?” the operator asked, understandably sounding a wee bit suspicious.

“Yeah,” Parks replied. He said Springer, who could be heard moaning, was “bleeding pretty bad.” He was told to use his belt as a tourniquet. The Enid Police Department and Life EMS soon arrived, and Springer was rushed to a nearby hospital.

The good news is that Springer had surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. No one else was hurt. Molly apparently will not be charged with attempted murder. But what’s scary is that according to KFOR, police found three shell casings inside the truck, and the serial number on the gun had been scratched off.

While this case is being investigated, Deans, who told authorities the gun isn’t usually loaded, should definitely put that firearm away in a safe place.

It’s also pretty disturbing that in the video below, Molly is on a chain attached to a tree. Let’s hope it was only temporary. According to the Humane Society of the United States, “An otherwise friendly and docile dog, when kept continuously chained or intensively confined in any way, becomes neurotic, unhappy, anxious and often aggressive.” …And we already know just what Molly is capable of, har har.

Molly’s family “vows to steer clear of trains” in the future, KFOR reports. Hopefully they’ll also steer clear of keeping loaded guns in dangerous places — and they won’t chain their young dog.

Photo: KFOR Oklahoma’s News 4/YouTube

LAPD Adopts Puppy Found on a Busy Hollywood Street

When Officers Mercado and Tavera with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) found an abandoned puppy wandering on a busy Hollywood street, they didn’t turn him over to L.A. Animal Services, where the little guy may — or more likely, may not — have eventually found a forever home.

Instead, the LAPD Hollywood division has adopted the puppy, naming him Hobart after the street he was discovered on. As you can see from the video, “#HollywoodHobart” has become very attached to one of his rescuers!

Although the LAPD joked about Hobert joining its K-9 unit, the little pup could become a comfort dog, working his charm not only on crime victims but on stressed-out officers. As I wrote for Care2.com in September 2018, comfort dogs are becoming more and more common in police stations.

Many thanks to Officers Mercado and Tavera for likely saving Hobart’s life, and here’s hoping this lucky dog brings lots of joy to the LAPD Hollywood division.

Photo: @LAPDHollywood/Twitter

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