Happiness is a Warm Puppy

Story by Janie Nafsinger, Photos by Robert Bowling
© Tigard Times, Tigard, Oregon
December 18, 1997

Have Paws Will Travel, a program of the Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter, brings pets and people together.

MAN'S BEST FRIEND - Warren Leibig of Tigard, a patient at the Tigard Medical Rehabilitation Center, makes friends with Spy, a Kerry blue terrier visiting the center Friday afternoon through Have Paws Will Travel.

TIGARD - Just about everybody wants to see Spy this afternoon.

He's man's best friend, all right.

The 2 1/2-year-old Kerry blue terrier stops traffic as he makes his Friday rounds at the Tigard Medical Rehabilitation Center with his "human," Sue Ann Bailey of Raleigh Hills.

"Oh, you are just so handsome," one staffer exclaims, pausing from her errand to scratch Spy under the chin.

It's his beard that fascinates Irene McClain, one of the patients at the center. "Yes, just like a little billy goat," McClain says, reaching from her bed to pat the dog's whiskers.

Her roommate wants to see Spay too. "Oh, are you a boy? He's beautiful," says Cornell, a dog lover who raised Irish setters.

Caroline Drouin of Tigard, who's staying at the center while she recuperates from surgery, also gets a visit from Spy. "He's got quite a mustache there," she says, reaching from her wheelchair to scratch Spy under the chin.

"He loves attention, doesn't he?" Drouin adds.

Spy gives attention right back too. That's part of his purpose in Have Paws Will Travel, an animal visitation program run by the Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter in Hillsboro.

Bringing pets and people together, Have Paws Will Travel uses 14 human/dog teams that visit nursing homes, assisted-living centers, day-care programs and other facilities in Washington County.

These four-legged good-will ambassadors, accompanied by their human handlers, cheer up people with special needs, many of whom are confined to residential settings where pets aren't allowed.

"It's a day brightener," said Susan Field, the program coordinator. "I also have data that says a visit from an animal lowers the heart rate and blood pressure, and even reduces depression."

VISITOR - Spy brings a smile to Ruth Palmer's face at the Tigard rehab center. "He's a sweetheart," says Spy's owner, Sue Ann Bailey.

Bailey, Spy's owner, agrees. "Petting a dog can be as good for the a person as it is for the dog." Bailey says.

Bailey visits the Tigard medical Rehabilitation Center an average of once a week. She brings either Spy or her 10-year-old Sheltie, Max.

Spy and Max are both show dogs. And like all the other animals in Have Paws Will Travel have completed extensive training for animal-assisted therapy and activities. Bailey and her dogs passed a performance test. "It shows the dog has the temperament to do this kind of work," Bailey says.

"The dogs must be friendly but not overly so," she explains. "They don't want them to jump into wheelchairs or into a patient's bed. But they don't want the pets too shy either."

Bailey and her two dogs took part in a similar animal visitation program in Florida before they moved to Raleigh Hills in March.

So far, Max and Spy have made one visit each to the Tigard rehab center through Have Paws Will Travel. They stay there for 1 1/2 hours, depending on how they hold up. "Yawning is usually the first sign of stress," Bailey says.

Bailey's 90-year old father lives in an assisted-living home in California, so she knows that a shortage of visitors can be a problem in such facilities.

"I think it's terrific," Bailey says of Paws Will Travel.

The program started placing animal/handler teams in October, says Field, the program coordinator.

"We always wanted to do a program like this," Field says. "So last January we wrote a grant and got $5,000 from Stimson Lumber Co. (based in Forest Grave). The money paid for training and animal evaluation."

Field has placed 14 teams with six facilities and community programs in Washington County. In addition to the Tigard rehab center, participants include st. Mary's Home for Boys in Beaverton; Washington County Hospice; Cornell Estates Living Center in Hillsboro; A Child's Place/Un Lugar Para Niños bilingual day care in Hillsboro; and Lou_Del health Care Center in Forest Grave.

So far all the animals in the program are dogs. "We can use cats in the future." Field says.

Have Paws Will Travel has no shortage of human participants, either. Field received more than 100 phone calls for applications to volunteer, and the program has a waiting list for the next training session in January.

"We've had a wonderful response," Field says.

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