Speaker 1: Welcome to Maria's Mutts and Stuff. With me today, I
Speaker 1: have Janie Tierney, who is the board president, and Mary
Speaker 1: Beth Coooney, who is the executive director of Creature Comfort
Speaker 1: Pet Therapy. This interview, you're going to need some patience
Speaker 1: to give it a listen because I had many many
Speaker 1: technical difficulties which I didn't realize at the time. There
Speaker 1: was no way I would know until after the interview
Speaker 1: was over, so I try to clean it up as
Speaker 1: best as I can. I hope that you'll be patient
Speaker 1: in listening. But they really have an amazing organization, Creature
Speaker 1: Comfort Pet Therapy. They've helped so many people with their
Speaker 1: volunteers of dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and even too
Speaker 1: many horses. So I thank you for your patients in
Speaker 1: listening to this. It's Maria's MutS and Stuff.
Speaker 2: What a great idea on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3: So I actor will give you a little background about therapy.
Speaker 3: This organization twenty eleven by two women had the understand
Speaker 3: of pet therapy help people heal and risonfort and to
Speaker 3: create an organization that pet therapy, which is a service
Speaker 3: that animals who have a special glove strength being petted
Speaker 3: by stranger, being in strange places, eing environments and meet
Speaker 3: their owners. Could be hospitals, nursing grees. We work with
Speaker 3: Alzheimer's hospice set up appointments for them where the animals
Speaker 3: must be invited to go anywhere as a service and
Speaker 3: they help people to stress, to relax, to read better.
Speaker 1: I know most people think of service animals as dogs,
Speaker 1: But tell me what animals do you have?
Speaker 3: So we have cats, guinea pigs, and we have too
Speaker 3: many horses. These animals go into all these facilities again,
Speaker 3: assist people in and.
Speaker 4: Is it a limitation of time?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 4: How long? The person mee? How does that go?
Speaker 3: Is normally about an Hour's One of the things that
Speaker 3: you would look there with these animals is that they
Speaker 3: are putagy themselves sure, and the ambassadors if their owners
Speaker 3: or they're thirsty or they need to go, and they
Speaker 3: take care of that and takes care of giving so
Speaker 3: much and it's so natural in them, intuitive and tuned in.
Speaker 4: To the people who it's amazing. And how do the
Speaker 4: visitations go?
Speaker 3: So we contract with facilita or what we call recurring
Speaker 3: visits once a week, sometimes twice a month. We have
Speaker 3: some facilities that in years, we have facilities that have
Speaker 3: been within yous.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 3: The recurring visits happen on a route. We have what
Speaker 3: we call one time visits. Stility will reach out and
Speaker 3: say we're having it, but you need this stress distress
Speaker 3: for group and that can happen just one maybe just
Speaker 3: quarterly or something like that. And then we have on
Speaker 3: call respond to an emergency loses somebody and there's a
Speaker 3: volov's need there. We'll end up there. We will come
Speaker 3: as best we can and we get volunteer. We'll take
Speaker 3: that time. And we have on call visits us to
Speaker 3: our other types.
Speaker 4: Of visits and Janie, you've gone on these visits.
Speaker 5: We are a team itself and my husband Michael, that
Speaker 5: is our eighty pound your all named Mulligan. Mulligan has
Speaker 5: been a member of the Creature Come Therapy team staff
Speaker 5: approximately four years. He's six and yeah, and he doesn't
Speaker 5: have a preference. We're going to work and he sees
Speaker 5: my that you know, kerchief come out front door and.
Speaker 2: He won't eat.
Speaker 1: Probably knows, oh it's time for me and help someone.
Speaker 1: Is there wation that really stands out there are.
Speaker 5: A couple so one of the most creature comfort. I'm
Speaker 5: a retired elementary school principal and one of the reasons
Speaker 5: involved in this type of was because I saw the impact.
Speaker 5: And not only did I see it, but I also
Speaker 5: research around the impacts have upon literacy developers. It is
Speaker 5: proved that young children to two independent reading levels cess
Speaker 5: level when reading to adult wow. So we knew with work. Actually,
Speaker 5: from the time we got Mulligan wanted to do this
Speaker 5: work with him. Used to come to school. We engaged
Speaker 5: in literacy on various other types of things, anticipating the
Speaker 5: impact or the presence was going to have. And as
Speaker 5: the building princes that had started the year as a
Speaker 5: first who was extremely adversile, he had extremity to the
Speaker 5: poorly run or would run into the street.
Speaker 4: It was terriforable.
Speaker 5: It was terror terrifying for the staff.
Speaker 4: Of course for him.
Speaker 5: We were standing out in front and vision this. You know,
Speaker 5: you had the principal dog and I looked at student
Speaker 5: and I said, you know, I said, because what am
Speaker 5: I going to do with Mulligan? If missus Teriarney has
Speaker 5: to be in school, I'll help have leashes that have
Speaker 5: second handled the bye bye as we get like ovidog
Speaker 5: and so we have a sliche and this child grabbed
Speaker 5: the second. Then he walked Mulligan to us and then
Speaker 5: down to his classroom every day for one hundred and
Speaker 5: eighty days. And the child never anxiety regarding.
Speaker 1: Amazing, and it's so simple, the love of a dog. Amazing,
Speaker 1: just that we were there and the circumstances to do that, right,
Speaker 1: But it's just and it's amazing.
Speaker 4: It was okay because of the dog.
Speaker 5: Life changing for him.
Speaker 1: Of course, not doing very well. Oh that's awesome. Ray,
Speaker 1: that worked and with a happy ending. It's great.
Speaker 4: But of course you need volunteers.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 3: Yes, staff is only five of whom are part time.
Speaker 3: So we do the amount of work for a very
Speaker 3: small but our main implos as in quotes. Because there
Speaker 3: are tiers we have five hundred and one. Half of
Speaker 3: those have four legs of course, so that's so maybe
Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty teen private owner and their pet
Speaker 3: are doing probably at least four hours a year, so
Speaker 3: that's about three thousand, and this is hours of them.
Speaker 3: They probably touch at people a year.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: In facilities in nine counties. How much we daily basis,
Speaker 3: I mean there can be visits a day three hundred
Speaker 3: and six of that we're attending to.
Speaker 4: It's a lot, say for someone who's listen.
Speaker 1: You know I'm retired, you know my dog is very
Speaker 1: well blah blah.
Speaker 2: We do.
Speaker 3: We have a very personalized, centralized system. So if you
Speaker 3: put in an application on our we give you a
Speaker 3: call and we talk about that phone call. It's an
Speaker 3: intake phone call, which is how do you see your
Speaker 3: animal concerned about a particular thing around and still jumping
Speaker 3: a little bit on people you with finding trainers for
Speaker 3: conditions and in general our approach we want you to
Speaker 3: pass the avoir this because there is an evaluation, but
Speaker 3: we have such hands on help to help them to
Speaker 3: become the team that you want attend. Then from there
Speaker 3: do with what is your energy of you So maybe
Speaker 3: this is a better animal for a very quiet library
Speaker 3: or and we kind of guide you, and then from
Speaker 3: there you get to sign.
Speaker 2: We have all these visits.
Speaker 3: On accounts and so if you can as you can go.
Speaker 3: We appreciate the things we are careful with. Is that
Speaker 3: theist because animals change very so over that we are
Speaker 3: one of the few that actually does a reascepts.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's because you could come to us.
Speaker 3: And see you know having you know, a twelve year
Speaker 3: old animal, get threeen twelve.
Speaker 2: And fourteen or between two. So we always there.
Speaker 3: Literally a phone call away is a phone call away,
Speaker 3: So if you're having or any concerns, you call us,
Speaker 3: you through it, we can help you with it.
Speaker 1: No, that's excellent. I'm so happy you said that, because
Speaker 1: it's really animals. They're like we are change over the
Speaker 1: years and animals do. That's excellent because I don't know
Speaker 1: organizations do a rheas.
Speaker 4: So I think that's excellent that you do that.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yes, and always read the teams if you
Speaker 3: haven't done a visit in a law or an email
Speaker 3: from us just saying tell us what can we help within.
Speaker 3: I think that's and we also do educator our teams
Speaker 3: will have been on Alzheimer's or grief choose that they
Speaker 3: may be dealing with with them to see because they're
Speaker 3: not necessarily psychologists themselves of what they're doing. And there's
Speaker 3: a dedicationalized belief system in this in toal they really
Speaker 3: believe in the polls and it's scientifically proven. They are
Speaker 3: producing oxytose, which is basically a wellness chemical and it
Speaker 3: is literally reducing blood sualization, minimizing actually healing your body.
Speaker 3: If you love animals, you respond, and our teams know
Speaker 3: and they saw, they see it a response from powerful
Speaker 3: many times you know, we help them for dealing with
Speaker 3: whether you understand Alzheimer's in general. So we're always there
Speaker 3: again brain and teach volunteers. But they're what they're going
Speaker 3: to encounter it right?
Speaker 4: No, No, it's very very important.
Speaker 2: Ken either they can go to our website.
Speaker 3: There's an at leaf for a facility to sign up
Speaker 3: and become and again we have a lead to help
Speaker 3: us to automate things more more of our detailed and
Speaker 3: carefully so we keep every track things.
Speaker 1: Sure and that would be at ccpettherapy dot org.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 4: Where do you see yourself down the road?
Speaker 2: Gonnis take that one a little bit.
Speaker 5: I think that a catechismic shift these last two years
Speaker 5: post in the acceptance as an emote health intervention, and
Speaker 5: with that thea has exploded quest that we're having can't
Speaker 5: keep up with Sure, I continue to grow our volume
Speaker 5: with quality to be able to sing number of individuals
Speaker 5: that will result allowing them toysickally, emotionally or simply just
Speaker 5: to bring these face who might be struggling with a
Speaker 5: dark moment or a bit. But I will say on
Speaker 5: you know, we care deeply about our care deeply about
Speaker 5: the facilities and the deal with through attrition, through pets
Speaker 5: coming and going in our lives that our dogs unfortunately,
Speaker 5: like bands and volunteers also board five years down the road.
Speaker 5: I do allow individuals to tribute to the organization in
Speaker 5: your capacities that may right just the joy that we
Speaker 5: even return.
Speaker 4: No, I see that. Of course you can always use donations.
Speaker 1: Oh welcome, Yes, yeah, I mean for those who are
Speaker 1: listening and I thing who are across the country to
Speaker 1: help out and they can't volunteer area, they can also
Speaker 1: go to Ccpettherapy dot org. CEC pettherapy dot org.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, As Jannas said, the demand we probably get
Speaker 3: thirty to forty to some months a lot, and so
Speaker 3: to get more and more volunteers on Born four. The
Speaker 3: funding is made to continue to be a stabilable organization
Speaker 3: so that we can to meet this need that is
Speaker 3: so extensive, and especially there's for mental health in schools now.
Speaker 3: There's so many things that are that we can on
Speaker 3: all age levels and all so we're excited about the
Speaker 3: donations are important. We have a gala coming up in
Speaker 3: the Living Legacy Gala coming out Worth. It's going to
Speaker 3: be at the Men Morristown and we started in Morristown.
Speaker 3: Honoring at that galla. Or are just lost our second
Speaker 3: co founder? This you have Annie Murphy and Joan Bear
Speaker 3: going to tell the story again this and how they're
Speaker 3: exploded into amazing organization that is beyond its size really
Speaker 3: and it's kind of growing.
Speaker 2: And you know, somebody can said, be careful what you
Speaker 2: wish for, and true that's good though we are.
Speaker 3: They kind of knew een years ago when pet therapy
Speaker 3: wasn't quell. Of course, it's so extensiveized, it's it's well
Speaker 3: exceptically proven.
Speaker 2: Uh. Now it's our job.
Speaker 4: To just get right exactly.
Speaker 1: But the most important thing it's donations ccpettherapy dot org.
Speaker 1: So Mary Beth Cooney and Janie Tierney, thank you for
Speaker 1: all you do and thank you so much for sharing
Speaker 1: his story with me today.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for get a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thank you, and again my apologies for all of the
Speaker 1: technical difficulties in this interview. I hope you were able
Speaker 1: to get the full story. The most important thing is
Speaker 1: you should visit ccpet therapy dot com, and thank you
Speaker 1: for listening.