American Humane: Email - Therapy Dog Brings Healing to Wounded Warriors
Taking the First Steps to a New Life
Lacey and Thea spend every Saturday at Fort Carson’s Evans Army Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo., as part of the Wounded Warriors Project, which provides support to service men and women injured in the war on terrorism. Many are amputees who arrive at Evans to begin the grueling process of learning to walk again using prostheses or robotics. Lacey attends their physical therapy sessions, offering unconditional love, acceptance and encouragement as patients take their first tentative steps with their new limbs - and are rewarded with a congratulatory wag and wiggle.
Lacey also brings her calm, soothing presence to service members with post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as deployed service members’ families who are patients at Evans - everyone from military retirees to pregnant wives to newborns.
Thea, who is the civilian commander of the 50th Force Support Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs and is married to a retired Air Force officer, has a special place in her heart for the wounded warriors at Evans. “A lot of people miss their dogs when they’re deployed, so when they return, Lacey helps give them some sense of connection and normalcy. We get thanked all the time for coming to visit these men and women. It’s so important to their recovery to know that people care about them.”
As long as courageous service men and women continue to make sacrifices for our country, the need for animal-assisted therapy will continue to grow.
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