Pet therapy provides a healthy alternative

WITH LOVE AND CARE-Calabasas resident Fredda Hamilton and her pet Shih-Tzu dog of six years, Skipper, have been involved in a pet therapy program at Sherman Oaks Hospital for two years. Hamilton hopes others will volunteer as she does. Authorities have known for years that contact with pets and babies helps healing. MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn

If you’ve ever witnessed childbirth or been in a room with a newborn baby, you’ve probably found it hard to frown. In fact, you might not be able to hide your smile. A joyous energy radiates from the child and infects all those in the room. That energy is said to heal those who are sick or unhealthy. And that same energy is also present in animals.

Calabasas resident Fredda Hamilton and her pet Shih-Tzu dog of six years, Skipper, have been involved in a pet therapy program at Sherman Oaks Hospital since October of 2000. She learned of the community service through a news story.

"I think you—as a caregiver—get just as much out of volunteer work as the people who are ill," Hamilton said.

Hamilton helps patients in TCU (Transitional Care Unit), mostly between 50 and 80 years old. These patients aren’t critically ill, but are recuperating. Hamilton and Skipper visit the hospital two or three times a month, she said.

"While they’re hospitalized," Hamilton said, "we can come in and sit and talk with them and watch TV with them and they can pet Skipper. Some of them want to sit him on the bed." It’s great fun, she said, and the right thing to do.

"I was brought up in Texas," Hamilton said, "and in Texas everybody is your neighbor. You’re a friend of everybody and everybody cares for each other … In Texas, you just drop by someone’s house and they invite you in for a piece of pie. Out here, you just don’t go by a person’s house. You call first."

Hamilton was raised in an environment where helping others was an expectation, she said. And she’s done it so much that she not only enjoys it—she can’t live without it.

As part of her long list of charity work, Hamilton is a "cuddler" at Queen of Angels Presbyterian Hospital in Hollywood. She cares and looks after newborn babies when the mothers are still recovering from surgery. Hamilton has also been a Girl Scout troop leader and is actively involved in writing the U.S. president about her concerns on the country’s behalf.

Though it might not seem possible, Hamilton works full time. She usually can find time on Sundays to visit recovering patients.

Each time she and Skipper pay a visit to Sherman Oaks Hospital, Hamilton washes and grooms her pet. "I want him to be clean," she said.

But before Skipper could visit patients for the first time, he had to be tested by an animal shelter.

"Part of the test," Hamilton said, "is a walk around the block and (the animal shelter volunteer) tested Skipper’s obedience and his personality." The volunteer dropped a book to see if a loud noise would scare Skipper and make him violent or defensive.

"Skipper is usually very, very skittish," Hamilton said. "If you sneak up on him and touch his tail, he takes off flying. So when (the volunteer) said she was going to drop a book, I said ‘Uh-oh, he’s going to flunk this.’" But when the book was dropped, Hamilton said, Skipper didn’t budge.

The final test results approved Skipper for the pet therapy program and he’s done very well with patients so far, Hamilton said. Only once has a problem arisen, but not on Skipper’s part.

One patient said dogs shouldn’t be allowed in a hospital, Hamilton said. "So I said, ‘Okay. Well, have a nice day.’ And then I left," she said.

Hamilton herself also had to be tested. The program required that she be tested for tuberculosis to be in contact with patients. But Hamilton was already checked previously because of her volunteer work as a "cuddler."

On President George Bush’s Website, Hamilton said, he asks each American to contribute 4,000 hours in volunteer community service over the next two years. "Now that’s ambitious for me because a lot of the time I’m at work," she said. But she does what she can, Hamilton said.

And what she can do has been greatly appreciated, according to Ernespine Garcia, volunteer services coordinator at Sherman Oaks Hospital. Pet therapy volunteers visit patients about three to five days every week, she said, and they are very effective.

Hamilton hopes others will volunteer as she does and as President Bush desires.

One day the coin might be flipped and the volunteer might be in a hospital bed. It would be nice for someone to come visit him and introduce him to a family pet or infant.

And hopefully the energy that radiates from within will spread to someone else and lead to a quick recovery.