Page 29 - Robeson Living Fall 2019

vice equipment, such as a wheelchair. Gaines, and knew Luke would be great at it.

“These guys have been to Wesley Pines, they go there about “When we got Luke, his temperament was just so lov-
once a month. Sue takes Sadie there every Sunday,” Gaines ing,” Christy said. “I didn’t even know therapy dogs were
said. “This week we are also going to a children’s camp to a thing, but I loved sharing him with everybody. Cat told
do therapy with the children and to teach them dog safety. me about the program, and that they have training up in
Now that Southeastern Health has passed this policy, we Fayetteville with Cape Fear Dog Training. I said, ‘Gosh,
will start going almost anywhere in the system that desires well, let’s just go ahead and do that.’ He was really smart
a therapy dog, if they have a need we can service.” and responsive and sweet tempered, so we took the class,
but when he was one year old he didn’t pass because he
Gaines said she wanted to get involved with therapy dogs had too much energy. Now he’ll be five in October, and
after seeing how a dog helped a wounded soldier in Iraq. when we retook the test last fall he passed with flying col-
She started with her first therapy dog in 2013. ors. When we got Buddy, it was the same thing. We just
love to share them with other people.”
“We had a young man that woke up with no legs below
his knees, and he was not speaking to anyone. We also had
a bomb-sniffing dog that was bored at the time, because
things had kind of calmed down at that point,” Gaines said.
“So, they took the bomb-sniffing dog to the guy, and within
an hour that young man was talking, and he was engaging
with the staff. That was just the dog. That’s why I do it,
because I believe this is medicine and it’s a medicine that is
far and away sometimes better than what I can offer.”

Christy said she first learned about therapy dogs from

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