Grover Barkley (seated, left) and Ethelene Hawks (right) enjoy a visit from Garth, the bull mastiff, along with Alleghany Critters for Comfort volunteer Steve Walls, at SunBridge Care & Rehabilitation of Alleghany. Meanwhile, Carly (the white dog) relaxes in front of the nursing home as Michele Hamm holds her leash.

‘Critters' give comfort to many local patients

As important as the human touch is, a group of volunteers has been visiting nursing homes and lifting residents' spirits with the help of the not-so-human touch.

About 30 people — many of them school-age children — are involved in Alleghany Critters for Comfort, accompanied by four-footed and/or feathered companions.

Bob Edwards, director of the local N.C. Cooperative Extension office, is one of the program's leaders. He recalled a national county agents' meeting where a speaker said that animal-assisted therapy is the fastest-growing area of health care in the U.S. Edwards said that, of different kinds of visits to nursing homes, animal visitation can have the longest-lasting positive emotional effect.

While dogs and cats are obvious mainstays of the program, visits have also included goats, sheep, donkeys, rabbits and chickens.

Although Alleghany Critters for Comfort became a regular program just a few months ago, its origins go back about 10 years, when Edwards and his son Andrew began taking animals on visits to nursing homes and summer youth programs. The creatures included farm animals as well as cats and dogs.

In addition to the benefit to the patients, the animals can serve as an ice-breaker for the human connection. "I wanted to get my son over the fear of people who are different," said Edwards. Later, when Andrew went to college and was assigned to write a paper about someone who had had a significant impact on his life, he wrote about one of the nursing home patients.

Local Volunteer Coordinator Debbie White began accompanying them on the visits, and she and Bob Edwards did some research about pet therapy.

"She dogged me about this until we started the program," Edwards said with a laugh.

The effort was part of Make a Difference Day the last two years.

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