An old lady is sitting in a lounge in a home for the elderly. She is totally withdrawn into herself. She has no friends and no relations to visit her, except maybe once a year.
She has given up talking to anyone, she has nothing left to live for. Her past life has faded into a blur, so even her memories are shadows. Every single day is the same as the one before.
The dog is a P.A.T. Dog, a PRO-Dog Active Therapy visiting dog, one of over 4,500 who regularly visit the sick, the elderly, the mentally disturbed, the blind, the deaf, in homes and hospitals all over the United Kingdom.
The whole thing started in 1976 when Lesley Scott Ordish, a magistrate and freelance journalist, decided to form a national charity to counteract the growing intolerance to dogs in our society; to promote better understanding and attitudes; to encourage better dog ownership; to take educational programmes into schools; and to provide medical and veterinary advice and information in a realistic and useful way. PRO Dogs stands for Public Relations Organisation for Dogs.
In June 1983, the first pilot for PAT Dogs took place in Derbyshire. Even Lesley Scott Ordish could not have dreamed that this would grow to the extent that PRO-Dogs have now registered over 4,500 PAT Dogs. These dogs are temperament-tested, registered and provided with an identification disc, and are then sent to visit homes and hospitals nearby. There are local PAT Dog coordinators in most areas to ensure that everything runs smoothly. The coordinators are in touch with all the homes and all the visiting teams.
Likewise in the States there are 8,000 registered therapy dogs, according to Paula Cingota, who runs the San Diego branch of Therapy Dogs International, each insured for $1 million, and with some working with terminal cancer patients in hospices.
- Lesley Scott-Ordish, Rocky Bank, 4 New Road, Ditton, Maidstone, Kent ME20 7AD (tel 0730 848499). This scheme was a highly commended Social Inventions Award winner.
- Michaela Edridge, 267 Hillbury Road, Warlingham, Surrey CR3 9TL.
- Society for Companion Animal Studies, c/o Anne Docherty, The Mews Cottage, 7 Botanic Crescent Lane, Glasgow G20 8AA (tel 041 9452088).