Entrant's First Name
Judy

I am a Therapy Animal

Tell us a story about how pet therapy touched your life.
Brady and I are in the READ program. That allows us to be part of the poorest elementary school in St. John's county. All the kids know "Brady". My heart melts when a student, that you know doesn't have a good environment at home, comes up and hugs Brady for the love, and Brady, embraces them back as best he can. When Brady walks down the hall, it puts a smile on all the kids faces, and the kids all shout out, "Brady".

Give us an example of a special interaction between your therapy animal and the person they were visiting.
One day, I was taking pictures of the kids with Brady to put into a book for them at the end of the year. One young girl asked me if we could look together at the pics I took. Sure, I said. We looked. She picked out the best one, I agreed, and then she asked me if I could get her two copies of that picture. I said of course, why two? She said she would send one to her Mom and one to her Dad. I said, great, do they travel a lot or out of town? She said, no, they are incarcerated. I said, okay, we'll get two copies. Wow. Who knew? The teacher said that the child never talks about it and was surprised to know that she told Brady and me.