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[yakalskovich]

Awwww dog!

I had heard about something like that, vaguely, and got some RP mileage out of it here, but it is nice to have a proper article about it.

Comments

[_inbetween_]

I thought it was quite common - there is actually a cat parked around here that belongs to/is for psychotherapy with animals (dogs, and not physiotherapy). And they finally allow one small pet in a few pensioner's homes. Sigh. I wish we had an office cat.

[yakalskovich]

As cats tend to bond to places, having a cat in a busy workplace is quite a good idea. Have you seen the Bodega Cats tumblr?

And yes, animal therapy is common here, but probably not for PTSDed veterans yet.-

[_inbetween_]

... is that an acronym? I avoided the cats tag so far, since it's limitless, but you are forcing me ...

PTSS hereabouts is probably more general - of course it is never just limited to war veterns but there are much higher numbers in the US of course.

[yakalskovich]

PTSD = post-traumatic stress disorder.
PTSS = post-traumatic stress syndrome?

It's got different names in different languages, of course. Here in Germany, for example, it's known as PTBS for 'post-traumatische Belastungsstörung'. So PTSS might well be what they call it where you are.

That article has some terrifying numbers from the US. 18 veterans kill themselves every day, and in those terrible animal-killing non-shelters they have, an animal is killed about every 8 minutes. It seems like a good idea to match them. Picking 'shelter' dogs for them is apparently the especially novel idea.-

[yakalskovich]

I've got an RPG character in milliways_bar who is a ex-Crusader knight with bad PTSD, so the subject interests me.

And my friends downstairs used to have a Rottweiler named Q who was a total teddy bear and absolutely good with children. Grown-up strangers tended to be scared of him, but would soon find out they were wrong.

Here he is with my Little Lady (= niece) when she was four:

[yakalskovich]

Oh yes! The dog died a few years ago, and the niece is already 12 now, but those were some fun days...