Red is a wonderful herding dog, but I think one of the reasons Dr. Karen Thompson wanted me to have Red was that she saw his potential to be a therapy dog, he opens people up and brings light and smiles wherever he goes. This is the new work of the dog, especially the therapy dog. Some people believe it is wrong for animals to work but I believe it is their sacred mission.
The therapy dogs of the world are heroic, they bring light and sunshine and laughter wherever they go. I see it with Lenore and especially with Red. I see it in the faces of the veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and our many other wars. I saw it this morning when I went to the dentist, where Red is always welcome unless it makes anyone uncomfortable – that hasn’t happened yet.
Red starts in the dental waiting room, where people are nervous and he moves from seat to seat, I listen for the laughter and the exclamations of surprise and joy and then he moves from cublcle to cublice, here he greats the dental technicians and staff – Rosemary and Jennifer – there are smiles everywhere, even in a dental office.
One man lying in a dental chair with his mouth open reached his arm out and Red put his head in his hand. I saw the man smile, and he thanked for bringing Red into see him.
Cambridge Dental Care is a very special place for me, and for my town. My dentist, Dr. Harvey Coco, has become a friend, as have Shelley and Jennifer and Rosemary and Betty. They know Maria and joke with me that they will tell her if I misbehave and she will come in and throttle me.
They are also special friends of Red, they are upset if I don’t bring him, it is a pleasure to go there, it is bright and cheerful and Dr. Coco and I have so much fun laughing with one another that they sometimes have to tell us to keep it down. He loves football, which I don’t, but we share a similar warped sense of humor. They take wonderful care of my teeth, many of which were nearly ruined by my grandmother’s penny candy store.
They are part of the fabric of my very special small town, they help deepen the sense of safety and community I feel here so strongly.
The work of the therapy dog is profound. The therapy dog brings light to the world, sunshine into darkness, he helps people shed anxiety and worry, connects them to the world in which they intuitively feel safe and connected – the world of nature and animals. Therapy dogs ease pain, and help people connect to the safe and beautiful parts of there lives. Horses do this work as well, I am learning. There are therapy animals who are trained, but more and more, I believe all animals are therapeutic, they ar healers, they remind us of the love and comfort that exists in the world.
We need to keep these animals in our world, people need them so badly.