What have Muffin and Mary been up to?
By Mary
They haven’t been in Rally practice for a long time…
What have Muffin and Mary been up to?
Sorry my fellow Rally buddies, Muffin and I have been busy with lots of thing. One of them is Furry Friends.
Muffin passed her evaluation and etiquette class November 2007.
She started visiting senior home since January 2008 and giving lots of licks to those in need. Muffin is visiting a senior home every 2nd and maybe 3rd Sat afternoon.
…what does Muffin need to do on visits?
Basically nothing!!!
All she needs to do is go there, be calm and get lots of petting.
But as most of you know. Asking Muffin to be calm is not that easy. There are also many things Muffin is still getting used to. Like stay calm with wheelchairs, walkers pass by. Stay calm when alarm goes off and sudden loud noise. Be ok with lots of shaking hands petting. And also getting used to elevator rides.
One of the biggest obstacles for Muffin is when visits the neighborhood (where people with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease stays). Some of them cannot control their motion and their legs keeping kicking involuntarily. Muffin needs to sit next to him/her and stay calm. Muffin was nervous with the involuntary kicking, she is still learning to accept that.
Another thing to Muffin’s disadvantage is her size. This is what the behaviorist told us. Since Muffin is not a small (lap) dog, nor is Muffin big enough to sit on the floor and tall enough for people to pet her head without crouching down. It makes it harder for senior people to pet her.
A BIG disappointment for Muffin about the whole furry friends thing is: NO treats allowed during visit.
Overall, Furry Friends is a very rewarding program. Those grannies will share their stories with you. (although it’s the same story week after week) They’ll talked about the dogs that they used to have, tell you to treasure your dog and how precious your dog is, and thankful that Furry friends volunteers are willing to come out and share our pets with them. It’s very rewarding to see my dog can put smiles on other people’s face.
Below is some information about Furry Friends:
Website: http://www.furryfriends.org
What is Furry Friends?
Furry Friends Pet Assisted Therapy Services is the South Bay’s oldest all-volunteer organization devoted to bringing the healing power of animals to those less fortunate in our community. The Furry Friends mission is to consistently facilitate delivery of the love and affection of our volunteers and their pets. We enhance the lives and touch the hearts of people with special needs. Furry Friends is a California non-profit organization.
Our volunteers work as teams to bring Furry Friends on visits to people who live in various kinds of institutions, e.g. nursing homes, facilities for disabled or seriously ill children, hospital rehabilitation wards, the Children’s Shelter, psychiatric facilities, etc. Currently our visits to facilities are in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties, California.
The pets belong to the volunteers who go on visits. All pets must pass a physical and behavioral evaluation before attending visits.
How to be a Furry Friend?
We require a veterinarian pet assessment of the animal’s health, vaccination records and temperament. This assessment is free at dozens of vets around the south bay.
The new volunteer and their pet need to attend an etiquette class held every month by our staff behaviorist. Your pet has to pass the etiquette class and evaluation. After evaluation, staff behaviorist will write down comments on file for team caption to review. Then new volunteer can sign up specific site that they preferred to visit. Team captain of the site will contact each volunteer and design if their pet temperament will fit in that group.
Add comment May 1st, 2008
Sometimes, I just think that he thinks he is one of us, always wants to eat our food. One time, he stole and ate a burrito on the table. We didn’t even know until I saw his face, with that fulfillment look.
