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More!
Pet
Visitation Teams
Whose heart
doesn't break when seeing a sick child or a lonely senior citizen? Often
we wonder, "What can I do to help?" Through the Pet Visitation
Program, the SPCA has found a way to temporarily alleviate the pain
and sadness of both children and the elderly. Special teams of volunteers
and their pets regularly visit hospitals, nursing homes, retirement
centers, and assisted living facilities in the tri-county region. The
PVP has also been instrumental in providing rehabilitation to stroke
and brain-injured patients!
No one
can resist the unconditional love of a pet. When the PVP teams arrive
on the scene, there are smiles on everyone's face, including staff and
visitors alike. When the pets arrive, the energy in the room becomes
electric. Everyone wants to give the dogs and cats a head pat or a chin
scratch. Everyone wants to share a story about a special pet in their
lives. Suddenly everyone is smiling, and for a moment, their emotional
or physical pain is forgotten.
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Dear
Friends at the SPCA,
Please
accept my heartfelt thanks for the visits you made to the hospital
to visit my son, who was diagnosed with cancer sometime ago. Before
he passed, all too often he was a patient in the hospital. The
nurses and doctors were certainly supportive of him, but his days
were still difficult. Even the child with the best disposition
finds needles and medicine and surgery too hard to bear some days.
But,
oh, when the pets would arrive…I would see his smile just
beam. And then he would laugh - a sound I heard too infrequently
during those days. He became a little boy again - not a cancer
patient. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your visits.
I am eternally grateful.
Joshua's
Mother
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For information
on the Pet Visitation Program, contact Dmorrow@ohs-spca.org
or 407.323.8685 ext 226.
Sponsor
a Pet Visitation Team.
