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Ann and Theo, Zoey, and Sophie: Ann has had therapy dogs since 2005 when she trained her first therapy dog, Nikki. She saw the powerful effect a dog could have on people while working with children. Since she is a teacher, she has used her dogs to motivate children to read or calm children down and even to help second language learners learn English. Sometimes their first words are "dog". For ten years at Oak Grove, Ann had a reading program with her dogs and saw great gain in her students' reading. Now her Westies come to Centennial Middle School. They also visit retirement and nursing homes and the Montrose Public Library. Her newest therapy dogs are Theo and Zoey. They like to go on walks and watch dog movies.
Don and Winston- Don and Winston have volunteered many hours at the Montrose Memorial Hospital, three local schools and Montrose Regional Library. Winston is a gorgeous Golden Retriever who has been featured in The Therapy Dog Inc. magazine. Nothing pleases Winston more than putting smiles on faces.
Wendy and Molly- Wendy and her Sheltie, Molly, have been MTD members for six years. Since Wendy is a retired elementary school teacher, most of their visitations have been to area schools and the Montrose Regional Library's Reading to Rover program. Molly loves kids. When Wendy and Molly pull up to a school, Molly barks and wags her tail like crazy. Wendy and Molly look forward to many more visits to schools in the future.
Terri and Zia Joy and Topper: Topper is a 4 year old pit bull/Labrador mix, adopted from the Montrose Animal Shelter when she was a year old. She has been registered with Therapy Dogs, Inc., (now Alliance for Therapy Dogs) since March of 2014, and since then has made many visits to nursing homes, assisted living, schools, the House of Promise day care center, and Community Options (her very favorite place to visit). In 2016, she has been temporarily been sidelined from therapy work as she has had surgeries for 2 torn ACLs. When she is not working, Topper loves to play ball, go on long walks, snuggle with her kitties, and get ear rubs. Paula and Gus The Blacks and Libby : We adopted Libby from the Canon City Animal Shelter in March of 2010 and she showed such a quiet, loving nature we kept thinking she would make a good therapy dog. We contacted the Bruce McCandless Veterans Home about visiting dogs, they tested her and she became a once a week visitor to our Veterans. She brought a lot of smiles to those special people. We were thrilled when we got to Montrose and found Morningstar Therapy Dogs, had her tested and she now goes to nursing homes and Reading to Rover. When we would walk down the street in Ouray last summer if someone was sitting on a bench she would pull over to them and lay her head on their lap thinking they "needed" her. Carolyn and Molly: We were so fortunate to have Miss Molly join our family Jan 31, 2008. It all started on Valentine's Day when she was being taken out before bedtime by my husband, Bill. It had snowed and blown very badly that day. Slippery stairs resulted in Molly and Bill falling down When my husband was in the hospital, one of the nurses knew about our puppy and asked if I would like to have Molly come up to the ICU one Sunday afternoon. Our nurse asked if we would let her take Molly around to see the other patients that might need a "puppy fix". That was the beginning of Molly as a therapy dog. During a visit to our vet, she suggested that Molly would make a perfect therapy dog. When she was old enough to be certified, she began bringing much love to many people in our community. This ranged from children in the school library that read to her, to many of the elderly in various facilities. Miss Molly has been doing this for around eight years and is a real joy! Audrey and Mikey Moto Bill and Daisy Sue and Mackenzie: Mackenzie is a golden retriever, born in August 2014 in Bozeman, Montana. She lives in Montrose with Sue Danner and Kenzie's "big sister," 9 year old Tessa, a retired therapy dog. She is the third Danner therapy dog, Tessa and the late Adobe, having worked with Sue at the Center for Mental Health for 14 years. When Sue and Tessa retired, Sue wanted to continue the therapy dog work by getting Kenzie certified. They visit people in nursing homes, where Kenzie has a number of special friends, Kenzie interacts with children at the CASA office (Court-Appointed Special Advocates) at which Sue is a volunteer, and Kenzie especially enjoys hearing stories children read to her at the library in the Reading to Rover Program. In her recreation time she plays with Tessa and several other doggie friends, and she will fetch a ball until she is ready to drop. Marcia and Macee Laura and Smoke and Jessie |
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Karen and Jet- Jet is a Labrador retriever, now retired from therapy dog visiting. Karen and Jet registered in 2008. They visited local schools, nursing homes, the library, and participated in many events and fund raisers for therapy dogs. Jet loves everyone and has to say hi to anyone he sees.
Shane and Maddy- Shane and Maddy have been registered as a Therapy Dog team since October 2013. Maddison is a border collie who loves to play with her tennis balls when she isn't listening to kids read.
Judy, Joe, and Reggie- Reggie is known around town as the dog that sticks his head out the moon roof of the car. The view must be more to his liking. He is a standard poodle-- 90% legs. He enjoys his visits everywhere and is a loving, friendly, sweet boy.
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