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Pets Helping Kids
By Larry Barkan
For you dog and kid lovers, I want to tell you about a great organization where I volunteer here in Phoenix that you may want to emulate in your cities and towns. The organization is called "Gabriel's Angels" (gabrielsangels.org). Gabriel's Angels provides pet therapy to "abused, neglected and at risk children." I visit a place called Youth At Risk twice a month with a Golden Retriever named Sophie and her human companion Michelle. My Golden, Annie, is too old and ailing to do this work. As we walk in with Sophie, 30 kids who have been instructed to remain sitting on the floor until told they can move, violate the rules and rush forward to hug, pet and brush Sophie. They love these activities as well as brushing Sophie's teeth which was an interesting day because neither Michelle nor I had ever done that and here we were trying to instruct 30 kids. Children who are shy, children who are scared, children who are anxious lose all their inhibitions in the loving presence of Sophie. Yesterday, I participated in a fund raising breakfast for Gabriel's Angels. There were 1,100 people in attendance, drawn there by their love and commitment to dogs and kids. I was asked to speak on why I volunteer. In my talk, I noted that maybe, just maybe, if we can make these "at risk" kids feel loved, they'll pass that love on to the world they'll inherit from us. The world can certainly use it.
I’m Larry Barkan. I love dogs. I never had a dog as a child because my parents thought they would make the house “dirty” (they were right). Consequently, I had a pretend dog, a German Shepherd, who I talked to mostly in the bathroom. I’m sure a psychiatrist can explain my choice of this room for the conversation. Annie was my third dog and first Golden Retriever. Our first two dogs had been saved from the streets. My wife Carol bought Annie from a family whose Golden just had a litter. She was a puppy when we got her. I had never gone through training a puppy and I was unsure I wanted to. Now that Annie is gone, she is my forever dog as are my first two dogs, Sable and Katy who have long since departed from this earth. Professionally, I teach various leadership and management topics and I am an author. You can learn about me and my books at larrybarkan.com and conflictresolutiontraining.net
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Sophie
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
Advocate For Dogs
A forum to talk about our love of dogs
www.lovegoldenretrievers.com/uncategoriz...pdate
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Larry great Intel. I will look into joining "Gabriel's Angels" On my website http://www.dog-first-aid-101.com I have a lot of information about Golden Retrievers. I hope you will come read some of the stories. http://www.dog-first-aid-101.com/golden-retrievers-history.html
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Nice, useful site Bill. The video of the streakers, etc. is interesting. Are people really that starved for attention? I guess so.
The paliative powers of dogs is well recognised in Europe where they (and cats) are often allowed to live with and visit the old and infirm. Even my Scamp, who can be a ratty old bird when in a bad mood, turns to a jelly when faced with someone who is ill or in some way 'different' from other people.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Yes, it's amazing the power of animals to help us. Are we higher on the ecological scale or are they?
I think that it's very cool that you volunteer to work with kids.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thanks, James. I don't have any children of my own and, this year, I realized that if we don't take care of our children they may not care for this planet we're leaving them.
I was wondering if you took Annie to the Gabriel's Angels Tucson Beach Party in 2009. I saw photos of it and it looks like it would be a lot of fun. Keep up the good work with the healing pet therapy for at-risk children. The world needs more of you.
Best wishes,
Laraine
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thanks, for the comment, Laraine. I didn't take Annie to that beach party. I live in Tempe, Arizona and didn't start volunteering for Gabriel's Angels until this year. Coincidentally and sadly, we put Annie down yesterday. You can see the blog post about it at lovegoldenretrievers.com if you're interested (right after where I inserted the post about "Pets Helping Kids").
What a great story, Larry. Thank you for being involved and for sharing with us.
Keep up the good work.
Best wishes.
Frederick
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thanks for your very kind comments, Frederick.
So Sorry, Larry. Thank you and your wife for writing so lovingly of Annie. It allowed me to cry once again for the loss of my Minnie. It is true that the pain does lessen as the years go by but still we do miss those trusting special dog-persons for the rest of our lives. My hubby always tells me that it is okay to cry .. just don't let it destroy us. Good advice I think.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thanks, Laraine. I can't reread what I wrote just yet. Maybe in a few months. At least I'll have a record of how I felt at the time...as if I need to be reminded of our loss. Sorry about Minnie. It's so hard to lose our innocent friends who just want to love us and ask so little in return. Fortunately, we're taking care of a friend's Golden Retriever this week which helps us ease into being without Annie.
Dogs and neglected children remind me a charity organization in South Africa. There selected dogs are used to interact with children who cannot use their muscles. This means when a dog child relationship has deepened so much that the handicapped child manages to comb it then this is an absolute miracle.
The company is called Paws for people. I think that it also exists in the USA.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Thank you so much. I'm going to check out "Paws For People."
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