Drury - A dogs gift : the inspirational story of veterans and children healed by mans best friend

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2015 by Bob Drury

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Contents

Introduction

An Accidental Destiny

Terry henry cries easily. Oh, as a former navy man, air force counterintelligence operative, and State Department security specialist, Ive seen him act the tough guy on many occasions. But Ive also witnessed Terrys tears flow at the memory of the disabled children and traumatized veterans with whom he has placed Assistance Dogs, and his eyes often glisten when he talks about the grace of his daughter, Kyria, or where his own force of fate has led him. I find this admirable.

I do not cry easily. I guess I fancy myself the same sort of tough guy. Streetwise crime reporter. Hard-bitten war correspondent. Wore those labels like a suit of armor, until I met Terry and began chronicling the wonder of the work he and Kyria do. So I suppose the fact that I have cried with Terry on more than one occasion is a testament not only to the lives he has changed but also to the path he has chosen. Either that or I am just a sucker for watching a sick and lonely childs unbridled joy at getting a dog.

Terry is the executive director and, in his words, chief groomer, kennel cleaner, and dog bowl washer of the nonprofit organization paws4people and its several offshoots, including paws4vets, paws4prisons, and paws4reading. A lean and pensive fifty- nine-year-old whose round and smooth baby face and inquisitive blue eyes are offset by his gruff public persona, Terry started paws4people fourteen years ago with Kyria out of his Virginia home after accompanying his daughter and her pet Golden Retriever, Riley, on a visit to a nursing home. It was serendipity. The frail and often ill seniors reacted to the dog with an energy that shocked the facilitys staff, not only playing and chattering with Riley but also interacting with each other as never before.

Terry watched the animals emotional effect on these elderly shut-ins, and something just clicked. In what he now refers to as a blindingly idiotic idea, he quit his second career as a telecommunications engineer and threw himself into the cause of healing others through the power of dogs. He has not stopped since, despite financial, personal, and emotional setbacks. Moreover, paws4people has attracted hundreds of industrious and loyal volunteers and is on the verge of huge institutional changes. Yet the organization still feels like the pop-and-daughter outfit that manages to survive on a shoestring budget of private donations.

Over the past twelve years, Terry and Kyrianow twenty-seven and teaching college courses in Assistance Dog Traininghave placed their dogs free of charge with more than four hundred children and veterans in need. Considering that each puppy they raise costs close to $35,000 to house, feed, and train before the dog can even get to work, the financial and emotional burden has sometimes seemed unmanageable, if not futile.

Terry often drives long distanceshundreds of milespicking up his dogs from training centers or delivering them to clients. And though he is loath to wear his religion on his sleeve for friends and strangers alike, he admits to listening to spiritual and inspirational books on tape during these journeys. He once told me that he believes absolutely in the philosophy of life espoused by Rhonda Byrne in The Secretthat your uplifting thoughts can be made manifest in real life if you believe strongly enoughand has taken to heart the preachings of evangelicals such as the charismatic Texas pastor Joel Osteen.

When we were at our nadir, when the times were so hard that we didnt know where wed get the money for the next bag of dog food, it was our faith that got us through, Terry said one night as we strolled the lawn of paws4peoples rustic headquarters in Wilmington, North Carolina. A new moon had risen in the October sky, and its hard, bright light danced through the branches of the pine trees swaying above us.

During this one particular down period, I remembered something Id listened to from one of Joel Osteens sermons...

And here Terry paused, as if looking for just the right words. I waited as the moons lovely shadows played across the ground. Finally he said, It was about just concentrating on the positive, about no matter how many times you get knocked down, keep getting back up. About how God sees your resolve and determination. And when you do everything you can do, thats when God will step in and do what you cant do. And I reminded myself what a blessing it is that I can be doing this work.

Think about it, he continued. Ive had the pleasure and privilege of seeing these disabled kids we help regain a little more normalcy in their lives. Of seeing these broken veterans we help to get back on their feet. What on earth do I have to complain about?

At this I was surprised to see a tear form in his eye and roll down his cheek, and it struck me that Terry, like Shakespeares Hamlet, believes there is a divinity that shapes our ends. It was also at that moment that I decided to write this book.

As Terry and Kyria visited more and more nursing homes as the years passed, Kyria badgered her reluctant father into acquiring more dogs. In a short time their kennel grew to five Golden Retrievers, and the life-affirming reactions of the seniors to the visiting dogs continued to astound and impress Terry. By the time Kyria entered her teens, she had also convinced her dad to turn his attention to special ed classrooms. So while Kyria concentrated on helping teenagers with special needs in her own high schoolkids born with physical or mental disorders, or suffering from debilitating illnesses and syndromesTerry began traveling to local grade schools with the dogs to work with even younger children who were similarly afflicted.

Through trial and error and by reading as much of the literature as they could get their hands on (Kyria would even spend a summer at acclaimed trainer Bonnie Bergins University of Canine Studies in northern California), Terry determined that Golden Retrievers and Labradors, or some mutt-mix thereof, made the ideal Assistance Dog breeds. Just the right combination of temperament, compassion, loyalty, andto be honestdumbness is how he explains it.