Dog Therapy

Doggies from Heaven

“Penny’s from Heaven” is more than just a song. To servicemen and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan it is a San Antonio organization offering encouragement and support through pet assisted therapy.
The Penny’s from Heaven Foundation is the brainchild of Patsy Swendson. She should be a familiar name and voice to San Antonians – she was on KENS television and radio for twenty years and has written 49 cookbooks. Today, she also owns and operates Cook’s Cottage, a bed-and-breakfast in Fredericksburg, but her passion is working with and promoting therapy dogs.

It was Swendson’s veteran therapy dog, golden retriever Penny, who inspired her book, “Penny’s From Heaven: Stories of Healing.” Swendson founded the group in 2006 to “honor America’s fallen heroes by providing support and encouragement to our service men and women in rehabilitation, through pet-assisted therapy, offering hope and inspiration to them, as well as their families – nurturing, training and caring for the special dogs that provide therapy or services.”

She stresses that the dogs in the program aren’t just the “meet and greet” dogs that you might see in hospital or school settings, though those dogs certainly have a special place.
“We are different because we are utilizing the sensitivity and intuitive nature of the dogs as a modality to reach specific goals and expectations with the patients/clients.”

The dogs and their owner/handlers work with patients at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Institute of San Antonio (RIOSA), Fisher House and The Barracks at Brook Army Medical Center (BAMC).

Currently, there are ten volunteer teams who make up Paws on Therapy. Among them are Staff Sgt. Nathan Combs and his dog Bak, a drug detection dog at Randolph AFB; and Pastor Barbara Galloway Edgar of Coker United Methodist Church and her dog, Gracie. These teams work with church and hospital settings.

“We work with the staff who let us know what the patient’s goals are,” Swendson says. For example stroke patients might need help working with their hands, and that’s when it would be beneficial to brush a therapy dog. Patients with depression or in need of other physical therapy after surgery also find help working with the dogs.

Their work with injured servicemen has been praised by animal and veterans’ organizations, and best of all by the soldiers themselves.

“We even have prescription cards we made that remind a patient who the dog was they worked with and ask them to (for instance) remember the dog’s name,” which is a good memory exercise, Swendson adds.

In addition to their work with live dogs in therapy settings, the foundation is hard at work providing stuffed animal toys for children in war torn Iraq. Operation Puppy Love sends toys that soldiers on patrol give to children in schools, on the street or in the hospital.

The organization also sends K9 comfort packages to military dogs hard at work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Donations are accepted from around the country and sent to military bases.

Contributions can be made through the Web site:
www.pennysfromheavenfoundation.org.
see link on upper right side