Post by Tammy on Apr 17, 2009 16:38:40 GMT -5
This article was posted on the Yahoo group that I belong to.
www.oregoncitynewsonline.com/features/story.php?story_id=123672497722634600
Gracie has been to Lloyd Center, retirement facilities, Oregon City Healthcare and to the state penitentiary — which is somewhat surprising, given that Gracie is indisputably a goat.
Then again, Gracie is no ordinary goat. The registered mini-Nubian is a certified therapy goat.
Gracie, who will be 6 years old this month, is the only goat ever to be certified by the Dove Lewis Animal Assisted Therapy and Education organization, noted owner Sandy Amos, an Oregon City resident.
Another first for Gracie is coming up this Friday, when she walks the runway at Boutiques Unleashed, an event to benefit the Dove Lewis Pet Loss Support Program.
Although Gracie has not been a “supermodel” before, she is used to attracting attention wherever she goes, Amos said.
Her usual venue is a retirement community where she offers unconditional love to residents, but she definitely turned heads during her trip to Lloyd Center’s Barnes and Noble for a Christmas event.
Amos took Gracie into the restroom at the bookstore, in order to empty her “pellet bag,” and said she wondered what people thought when they saw goat hooves in the stall.
“It was just hilarious — we got a lot of weird looks, and as we walked through the mall camera phones were going off,” she said.
Jim Amos, Sandy’s husband, said one person even asked him what kind of dog Gracie was.
Favorite with seniors
The goat has a following in local retirement communities, Sandy Amos said.
“She seems to instinctively know that people in wheelchairs are her target. She goes right up to them and nuzzles their leg. If they bend over, she gives them a kiss. She seems to sense they really need her.”
One of Gracie’s favorite people is a man named Bill, who lives at Marquis Care in Oregon City, Amos said.
“He loves Gracie; he’s been moved to the Alzheimer’s wing, and he’s fading fast. He doesn’t [recognize] too many people now, and sits in his chair almost asleep. Gracie goes in and finds him and starts nuzzling his hands, and he wakes up and says, ‘It’s the little goat.’
“He doesn’t know anyone else, but he knows the goat,” she said.
A new resident recently moved to the same facility and caregivers told Amos that she had not spoken very much. When Amos asked her if she wanted to pet the goat, the woman nodded, and began to pet Gracie.
“Then she started telling a story about her own goat as she petted Gracie, and [the caregivers] said that was the first time she had talked,” Amos said, adding, “There is something magical about therapy animals — they bring out the smiles.”
Gracie’s story
The goat was one of quadruplets born during spring break nearly six years ago.
“By morning, three of them were dead, but Gracie survived. I picked her up, wrapped her in a towel, took her home and put her in front of the fire — she was very frail. It took her two days to stand, and when she walked down the hall it was a red-letter day,” Amos said.
When Gracie was strong enough, Amos returned her to the farm where she was born, and she entered “the nursery” with other young goats that were being bottle fed. There Gracie met Dove, who became her great friend, Amos said.
The two young goats eventually joined Amos’s small herd, but a friend kept telling her that Gracie should become a therapy goat.
“So I called Dove Lewis and took her in to meet Heather Toland, director of Dove Lewis’s animal assisted therapy program, who said Gracie had the right personality to be a therapy animal.”
Amos did have to solve one big problem, in that Gracie could not be housebroken. She invented what she calls a “pellet bag,” that she straps onto Gracie’s backside. “It’s very sanitary,” she said.
When the goat gets dressed up for appearances at various events, Amos attaches decorative fabric to disguise the bag.
As for what makes Gracie so popular, Amos thinks it is the “novelty” factor. Although most people have had some contact with a goat, many don’t realize that the animals can behave themselves.
Amos added, “Goats can have gentle personalities and I always say that Gracie has been very well trained.”
www.oregoncitynewsonline.com/features/story.php?story_id=123672497722634600
Gracie has been to Lloyd Center, retirement facilities, Oregon City Healthcare and to the state penitentiary — which is somewhat surprising, given that Gracie is indisputably a goat.
Then again, Gracie is no ordinary goat. The registered mini-Nubian is a certified therapy goat.
Gracie, who will be 6 years old this month, is the only goat ever to be certified by the Dove Lewis Animal Assisted Therapy and Education organization, noted owner Sandy Amos, an Oregon City resident.
Another first for Gracie is coming up this Friday, when she walks the runway at Boutiques Unleashed, an event to benefit the Dove Lewis Pet Loss Support Program.
Although Gracie has not been a “supermodel” before, she is used to attracting attention wherever she goes, Amos said.
Her usual venue is a retirement community where she offers unconditional love to residents, but she definitely turned heads during her trip to Lloyd Center’s Barnes and Noble for a Christmas event.
Amos took Gracie into the restroom at the bookstore, in order to empty her “pellet bag,” and said she wondered what people thought when they saw goat hooves in the stall.
“It was just hilarious — we got a lot of weird looks, and as we walked through the mall camera phones were going off,” she said.
Jim Amos, Sandy’s husband, said one person even asked him what kind of dog Gracie was.
Favorite with seniors
The goat has a following in local retirement communities, Sandy Amos said.
“She seems to instinctively know that people in wheelchairs are her target. She goes right up to them and nuzzles their leg. If they bend over, she gives them a kiss. She seems to sense they really need her.”
One of Gracie’s favorite people is a man named Bill, who lives at Marquis Care in Oregon City, Amos said.
“He loves Gracie; he’s been moved to the Alzheimer’s wing, and he’s fading fast. He doesn’t [recognize] too many people now, and sits in his chair almost asleep. Gracie goes in and finds him and starts nuzzling his hands, and he wakes up and says, ‘It’s the little goat.’
“He doesn’t know anyone else, but he knows the goat,” she said.
A new resident recently moved to the same facility and caregivers told Amos that she had not spoken very much. When Amos asked her if she wanted to pet the goat, the woman nodded, and began to pet Gracie.
“Then she started telling a story about her own goat as she petted Gracie, and [the caregivers] said that was the first time she had talked,” Amos said, adding, “There is something magical about therapy animals — they bring out the smiles.”
Gracie’s story
The goat was one of quadruplets born during spring break nearly six years ago.
“By morning, three of them were dead, but Gracie survived. I picked her up, wrapped her in a towel, took her home and put her in front of the fire — she was very frail. It took her two days to stand, and when she walked down the hall it was a red-letter day,” Amos said.
When Gracie was strong enough, Amos returned her to the farm where she was born, and she entered “the nursery” with other young goats that were being bottle fed. There Gracie met Dove, who became her great friend, Amos said.
The two young goats eventually joined Amos’s small herd, but a friend kept telling her that Gracie should become a therapy goat.
“So I called Dove Lewis and took her in to meet Heather Toland, director of Dove Lewis’s animal assisted therapy program, who said Gracie had the right personality to be a therapy animal.”
Amos did have to solve one big problem, in that Gracie could not be housebroken. She invented what she calls a “pellet bag,” that she straps onto Gracie’s backside. “It’s very sanitary,” she said.
When the goat gets dressed up for appearances at various events, Amos attaches decorative fabric to disguise the bag.
As for what makes Gracie so popular, Amos thinks it is the “novelty” factor. Although most people have had some contact with a goat, many don’t realize that the animals can behave themselves.
Amos added, “Goats can have gentle personalities and I always say that Gracie has been very well trained.”