Kpets-Keystone Pet Enhanced Therapy Services

Virginia "Ginny" Swartzell and her Therapy Dogs have become a part of the 4Main family at Holy Spirit. Each week Ginny and one of her “children” bring joy and laughter to the many patients on 4Main as well as the staff. Tessa, one of Ginny’s “children“, has become one of our 4Main “RNs” with her beautiful, frilly nursing outfit that she wears when she visits with our patients.
Holy Spirit Hospital recently participated in their Magnet Appraisal Visit to achieve Magnet Designation through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Ginny and Tessa were gracious enough to come in and be here for the 4Main unit tour with the Magnet Appraiser. As part of our 4Main family, Ginny and Tessa were very helpful in demonstrating the mission and vision of 4Main and the commitment to our patients and their families.
4Main thanks Ginny and Tessa and K-Pets for their dedication to the patients and staff on our unit.

Jill Herbert, who use to work for SeniorLIFE brought pet therapy to our center and put information on your website.

Jill, her high school daughter Jubilee Herbert, and their dog Molly brought along Nancy Dixon and her dog Jill to our Adult Day Care Center in 2012. Our Members loved them! They were very professional and courteous, and their dogs calm and obedient. This group had problems with our hours, due to our Monday through Friday 8-4:30 PM, conflicting with Jubilees schooling.

We now have Lori Napoli and her dog Kramer coming to our center. This is such a blessing! The SeniorLIFE members are so happy. One of our members stated that the new therapy dog “really connected with her and that has never happened before.”

Thank you all so much for what you do. This is such a treat for those who miss having animals!

My Golden Retriever, Hunter, and I jointed KPETS over a year ago. Hunter is only two years old but has the demeanor of an “old soul”. This “Old Soul” has melted the hearts of many children at the Shrewsbury Library’s “Tales for Tails”.
There are moments when five children are reading five different books all at the same time. Some will show Hunter the pictures in the books. One little boy was very shy to read in front of his parents. They decided to walk around the library while the boy sat and rubbed Hunter’s belly. There was a dog book sitting on Hunter’s blanket. I told the little boy Hunter had just finished reading the book and if he liked, he could read it to Hunter. The boy was slow at picking up the book. As the boy read, he would stumble through some of the words. I asked him to show the word to Hunter. I would then put my ear to Hunter’s snout. I would then tell the boy the word. He was so impressed that Hunter “could read”. This encouraged him that he decided to get another book to read. When his parents returned to the reading area, they were thrilled by the sight of their shy son reading to Hunter. They kept thanking me for breaking the shyness and shell that was surrounding their son. One dog, one boy, one book, one magical moment is all it took.

I became involved with KPETS last year with my 10 year old Brittany who I rescued 7 years ago. She was put into a rescue organization because her original owners could not spend enough time with her since they commuted over an hour each way to their employment. This is important since Haley, my KPETS certified dog, just craves attention from everyone. Haley gets as much out of KPETS as she gives to the kids at the library or the folks at the nursing home or the people who stop at the information booth when we are fundraising. We have been to the golf tournament and to the Bow Wow Bingo fundraisers and she just loves everyone and all of the dogs too!!!

KPETS have been in the New Oxford Area Library since 2008.
I have had parents tell me their child began reading with more confidence since they visited the library to read aloud to the therapy animals.
We have also had the therapy animals in the library for writing workshop for 5th to 7th grade students. The families are so impressed with the training and the impact on the kids and the pleasure they have in this experience. Talented writers and therapy animals at the library. A wining combination for all.
Be sure to "check out" the books in the New Oxford Area Library Mystery series.

We first heard about KPETS when Karen and Sammy visited the hospital where I was an occupational therapist. Having a golden retriever(Poz, a 6 year old golden whom we rescued from the humane league at age 2), I immediately thought "Poz would LOVE doing this" as well as did all my therapist friends. My husband and I went to the pre-assessment and we knew KPETS would be a great thing for Poz, we were hooked. Poz passed all his assessments with flying colors and we were officially a KPETS team. Seeing the joy and happiness on people's faces when they see Poz coming is something that just brings such joy to our lives. We love Poz so much and to be able to share him with others and know what a good job and good work he is doing by just being himself and letting them pet him, is so rewarding. We absolutely LOVE KPETs and doing as much as we can to be involved whenever we can(which can sometimes be difficult with a very active 2 year old!). You can not imagine the smiles you can get from a visit or the stories you hear from others about their lives, their dogs and just their lives today. KPETS means so much to us, to be able to give back to our community is something we love. Poz is truly an amazing Golden and we are so happy to have him and can't imagine a day without him! Even better is being able to share him with so many others when we do therapy with him, it's the smiles on other's faces seeing him and knowing the joy it brings them, just absolutely amazing!

I am the program director for a school-based Boys and Girls Club site. We have been so lucky to have a KPETS volunteer join our program this school year. Over the course of the year, Kathy and her wonderful dog, Jazz, have worked with groups of our students to improve their reading skills. Over a series of weeks, the students are able to take turns reading to Jazz, which makes them less nervous than reading with an adult. The students are exposed to other crafts and dog-related activities as well. It is truly a great incentive to deepen their interest in reading, and the program is reaping results as well- a teacher of a current participant just came to me and said, "I don't know what you're doing with [name removed for privacy], but keep it up because her test scores are rocketing up!"

KPETS is an amazing organization. I bond with my dog and others. I can share the gift of my furry friend with those who are in need of a smile. It is wonderful to see those who are struggling light up and smile when they see the therapy dogs coming.

KPETS is an amazing organization!! Karen and her team of volunteers are selfless in the time and devotion that give to the community ... not to mention the unconditional love and kisses provided by their furry friends. Watching the children run to the dogs when they are at church or at other locations allows one to see the human bonding between the therapy dogs and others. Furry friends greet everyone warmly and compassionately ... creating a ray of sunshine for everyone!!

Meeko and I were doing our regular visit with a small class at a school. Our visit went really well and the students had a great time working and visiting with Meeko. That was awesome enough. Meeko is truly turning into a fantastic little therapy dog. He may only weigh 6lbs, but he really has a big heart for kids and just seems to know who needs a little extra therapy at times.

We had finished our classroom visit, exited the room and were making our way down the hall to leave when we came upon a student and a staff member sitting in the hall. Meeko immediately went to this student, I asked the staff member if it was okay, noting that it appeared the student had been crying. He nodded and the student asked if he could hold Meeko. I said certainly, and placed Meeko in his lap. Meeko looked up and began licking this child’s tears. The child began smiling and talking to Meeko. He had Meeko do a few a tricks, sat on the floor and played with him for a couple of minutes, got up turned to me, smiled and ran off into the classroom.

I looked at the staff member sitting on the chair who had been with this student, obviously consoling this child. He looked at me in wonder and said, “That was the most amazing thing I ever saw.” He proceeded to tell me that there was speaker in the class talking about smoking and the effects of it. This student’s mother had just been diagnosed with lung cancer from smoking. He had become upset when they began talking about it in class. The staff member said he had been trying to console him for about 20 minutes but was unable to. He said he had never seen anything like that happen before. I smiled and said that is the magic of pet therapy. We peeked in on the child in the classroom before we left, he looked back with the biggest smile ever, gave us two thumbs up. I returned the thumbs up, smiled and winked, then as we turned and made our way down the hall, I thought, “Isn’t it amazing how our dog’s just know what to do?” I am so proud of Meeko. He will forever be the Chihuahua that touched the lives of so many children. The little dog with a big heart!

My little Westie, McGuffee, loves meeting with children and senior citizens. He is small and friendly and everyone enjoys him. He marched in the K-Pets Christmas Parade, made several visits to Manorcare and participates in the annual Pupapolooza.