LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs Bring Peace and Healing to the Grieving in Boston and Texas

K-9 Comfort Dogs Ruthie and Luther, along
with team members Rich and Dona Martin,
visit with Lee Ann Yanni, a survivor of the
bombings in Boston, just before she under-
went surgery to repair her shattered leg.

After ministering to those shaken by the bombings along the route of the Boston Marathon, specially trained therapy dogs have been deployed to help those struggling to recover from the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas.

The dogs and their handlers are members of the Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dog team that is headquartered just outside of Chicago. In Boston and in Texas, these Golden Retrievers and their handlers have come alongside victims, families, first responders, medical personnel, public works employees, school children and just folks on the streets who are in need of some unconditional love, non-judgmental ears, and what Tim Hetzner, President of the LCC, calls “furry counseling.”

Luther and Ruthie, bags packed, ready to deploy.

The program was born in 2008 in the wake of a number of tragedies including Hurricane Katrina and the shooting at Northern Illinois University. It began with only four dogs. Now there are 67. The dogs and their handlers were in Newtown, Connecticut following the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and they came alongside flood victims in Roanoke, Illinois. When they are not responding to a crisis, teams are deployed to hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other places to make comfort visits.

Tim Hetzner, President of Lutheran
Church Charities. 

In Episode 24, I speak with Tim Hetzner, who led the team in West, Texas and who was also with the team deployed to Boston. Tim shares stories from the ministry in these cities and recounts how the dogs have been able to break through to help people move toward healing. Often, individuals will begin by petting the dogs and hugging them. Then the tears and the worry-filled and pain-filled words follow. 

While in Boston, the team spent time working at the First Lutheran Church which sits very near the finish line of the Marathon. The Wednesday Night Runners' Club of Boston, most of whom were marathoners from Monday's race, were among those who came by to talk through the events of the week and to work through their thoughts and feelings together as a group with the K-9 Comfort Dogs. Wherever the team went they helped provide a respite area, a place to step away from the fear and sadness to work through the healing process individually or in groups.

Home base for the team in Texas is Waco's St. Paul Lutheran Church but a good bit of the ministry has been done in the local schools and with university students shaken to the core by the disaster.

Bringing comfort.

Each of the dogs in the program, including those deployed to Boston and Texas, has its own Facebook page. Home page for all is: https://www.facebook.com/k9comfort?fref=ts. For more information on the Comfort Dogs visit: http://www.lutheranchurchcharities.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=25&Itemid=95.

All photos provided by Lutheran Church Charities.