Gone to the dogs: Giving back extends from owner to pet by Jennifer Holloway
THE FINAL MONTHS of 2011 kept Tux Murphy pretty busy. In October, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel turned four; in November, he began working as a trained animal-assisted therapy dog and in December, he was named “Dog of the Year” by a Houston, Texas, magazine called The West University Buzz. All the while he kept his owner, Springfield College alumna Katy Curran Casey, company during the weeks she worked from their Houston home. Casey graduated from the College in 1989 with a major in athletic training and minor in secondary physical education. She says she initially learned the importance of community service and giving back from watching her parents, both educators. She also found many opportunities to serve others while at Springfield College. “Being an RA, I was exposed to those opportunities,” she says. “The majors are also very different there. It’s more about teaching and helping people.” Casey found her coursework in athletic training supported the College’s philosophy. “It’s prevention first, then getting injured people back to playing,” she says. “It’s a healing, nurturing type of profession.”
Casey’s career path took her to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga. When she relocated and began telecommuting from Houston, she missed the social aspects of an office setting. While attending a black-tie affair, she discovered a dog on the silent auction, a place she felt an animal should never be. She outbid the other contenders and named her prize Tux (after the black-tie event and his similar coloring) Murphy (her mother’s maiden name).
local service initiatives with her husband, Casey decided to also involve Tux Murphy. She began the certification process for him to become a therapy dog, a path that involves background checks, temperament tests for the dog, and medical evaluations by a veterinarian.
“Scientific research shows how much animals can help people recover physical and emotional strength,” Casey says. Currently, Tux Murphy is on a team that works in a physical therapy department at a Houston-based cancer hospital. The team works with patients two Saturdays a month for an hour.
As “Dog of the Year,” Tux Murphy won lavish prizes of vaca- tions to dog retreats and pet supply gift certificates. He and Casey donated them to a local dog rescue organization.
Tux Murphy and his team help patients recover strength, increase range of motion, build muscle tone, and improve mobility through retrieving tennis balls and other activities like having patients brush and pet them. Additionally, many patients at the hospital are away from their own pets for long periods of time, and simply being near the dogs improves their emotional health.
Casey’s role during the visits is also an important one. She not only supervises her dog; she interacts with the patients. She and Tux Murphy currently work in geriatrics, and she spends a lot of time just listening to patients. Though Casey began
serving her community prior to her time at Springfield College, she acknowledges the impact her time there had on her, and now on her dog. “It’s engrained when you’re there; it’s part of your fiber,” she says. “You leave and it stays with you.”1
Tux and Katy Curran Casey (seated at right) with animal assisted therapy friends.
“He was kind of my savior that first year and a half [of telecom- muting],” Casey says. “He got me away from the computer.” Already involved on several national boards and in various other
TRIANGLE 1 Vol. 83, No. 3
For those interested in volun- teering in a similar way with
your dog, organizations such as the Delta Society, Therapy Dogs, Inc., and Therapy Dogs International might provide local opportunities.
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