MORSi ROAStS IRAN - Kuwait Times

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012
Joseph Luciano (right) and his wife Adriana play with their dogs in Clermont, Florida. — MCT
Niobe and Cha-cha raced to the couch toward
hospice volunteer Jim Hays during a visit to the
home of patient Joseph Luciano, in Florida’s
Four Corners area. The pooches competed to get the
volunteer’s attention, barking and wildly waging their
tails. They darted off only after he rubbed behind their
ears. “They took to me right away,” said Hays, 64. “I just
visit with them and show them a little attention - and I
bring treats. It’s just part of the visit.”
Hospice volunteers are stepping in more and more
to care for the pets of dying patients - feeding and
walking dogs, administering flea medication, driving
pets to the groomer or veterinarian and more.
“Hospice is supposed to take care of the patient and
the family,” said Lisa Gray, volunteer department manager
of Cornerstone Hospice and Palliative Care. “For a
lot of them, their family is their pet.”
Cornerstone, which rolled out the pet-care program
a few months ago in Lake, Fla, paid to board Luciano’s
dogs while the 85-year-old Navy veteran, his wife,
Adriana, and Hays took a weekend trip to Pensacola,
Fla. Adriana Luciano, 61, said she’s still able to feed and
walk the dogs - Niobe is a bichon frise and Cha-cha a
mixed breed - in between caring for her ailing husband.
However, she said it’s a relief to have
Cornerstone in case she needs help with the dogs,
who sleep with them in the bedroom.
“They’re like children. We can’t leave them alone for
more than a few hours,” she said. Throughout the
country, hospices are starting to recognize the therapeutic
benefits of keeping the animal and owner
together until the end, said Delana Taylor Mcnac,
founder and manager of Pet Peace of Mind, a national
organization that works with other hospices around
the country. Nationwide, 50 hospices offer the program.
“It’s catching on now that hospice is beginning
to see a cultural change on the importance of pets,”
she said.
Cornerstone, which serves more than 700 patients
and already has volunteers bring their pets into assisted-living
facilities to visit hospice patients, is one of
two nonprofits in the state to partner with Pet Peace of
Mind. It received a grant to provide pet care, such as
buying food for those who can’t afford it.
Taylor Mcnac, a former hospice chaplain and veterinarian
from Tulsa, Okla, estimated that 10 to 20 percent
of hospice patients have pets. But only about half
of them are receiving pet- care assistance. She said
some patients have refused to go into hospice centers
out of fear of giving up their pets. “The pets provide
them comfort when they’re aging and going through
the end-of-life journey. It’s important to do whatever
we can to keep them together,” she said. At least three
other hospices in Florida have applied to the Pet Peace
of Mind program, she said.
Hospice of the Comforter, which serves about 500
patients a day in Florida’s Orange, Osceola and
Seminole counties, doesn’t have a formal pet program,
but its volunteers have been caring for patients and
their pets as long as the nonprofit has been around,
volunteer services director Rose van der Berg said.
“Pets are another member of the family,” she said.
“We recognize that.” Feeding an animal or dropping it
off at the vet is considered a “standard” task such as
doing household chores and running errands.
Occasionally, hospice volunteers help find the pet a
new home once the owner dies. “It gives them
(patients) peace of mind to know that all those they
Pets
Taking on a dual role
More hospices are stepping in to take care of dying patients’ pets
love, including their pets, will be taken care,” van der
Berg said.
That’s the spirit the South Lake Animal League
brings as it helps Cornerstone Hospice provide a “safe
haven” for orphaned animals until a home can be
found to take them in, president Doreen Barker said.
The league is looking for a permanent home for a cat
in foster care and housing another cat at its no-kill animal
shelter in Groveland, she said “We will love and
care for these pets until we find them a happy new
home,” Barker said. — MCT
Kathy Bailey (left) a volunteer
with the Hospice of Summa
Pet Peace of Mind, sits with
hospice patient Dolores
Starcher and her daughter
Susan Oblisk and Starcher’s
dog Catherine in Oblisk’s
home. — MCT photos