Time to say Good-Bye (part 1)

Hello and welcome all to my second last blog!  It has been a long journey for all of us since the beginning of Feburary, and it is hard to believe that the good-bye's have finally come, especially for all of us, since we are in grade 12. Both you and I have learnt a lot through these blogs, myself especially, therefore I wanted to take these last two to say good-bye and just give a reminder of what we have learnt together, as a class.

We have all learnt that animals have health benefits for their human counter-parts, especially those who may be challenged in some way. We have learnt that together, with animals the help of animals, everyone can reach different goals, that are set to be achieved.  Everyone now knows that "Hippo-therapy" does not actually mean therapy with Hippos, that is actually horse therapy.  That the horse's movement under the rider permits the rider to feel the full motion in their hips of what it would be like for the rider to actually walk on their own on solid ground. The difference between a service animal and therapy animal is not the training, but the certification, all of these animals are very well trained to offer help, but therapy animals don't need to be certified.

There are also all those strange or more unique service and therapy animals.  Redrock the Boa Constrictor who alerts his owner to oncoming seizures, Capuchin monkeys to help the paraplegic, or Sadie the Parrot who helps with her owners panic attack.  Who knew llamas and alpacas could make so many people laugh and have fun, or that dolphins could have such amazing healing and helping capabilities?  I have said it before and I will say it again, all of these unusual service and therapy animals have definitely stepped up to the plate in terms of helping society, whether it be the old, the handicapped, or those fighting terminal illness, these animals have helped in the only way they could.