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By Sharon L. Peters for USA TODAY
Behind the scenes at the nation’s most horrific tragedies, a small group of volunteers, two- and four-legged, unseen and unsung, work quietly to break trauma’s grip on the survivors.
Because they know that a few minutes with a sensitive dog can bring a smile or vanquish the pain for a moment, one or several of the 92 therapy dog handlers and their dogs that make up HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response will journey (often hundreds of miles) when asked, to provide comfort after tragedy strikes.
They were on the scene after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina and the shootings at Virginia Tech. And they’ve been at scores of horrors that may not have grabbed national headlines but that slammed a community to its knees.
“People in crisis often feel very isolated,” says Amy Rideout, president of the non-profit that has specially trained HOPE teams from coast to coast. “Just reaching out and petting a dog can be the first step in breaking through that.”
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