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Bulldogs predisposed to genetic weaknesses
By Connie Bloom
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Feb 16, 2008
''I can still eat, gab and complain and I do it all,'' confided Emma Holmes, 87, scooting her wheelchair behind Annabelle, a luscious English bulldog and the attraction of the day.
Stand back.
Dressed in a sequined pink brimmed hat and feathery boa, the 50-pound pooch provided a breathtaking view, a combination of slink and waddle as she strolled through the Cuyahoga Falls Village Retirement Community, home to about 130 seniors, including the charming Holmes.
''She's the dearest thing,'' said another resident, Anita Plazzo, 80. ''It's the second time I've seen her. I'm still fairly new here.''
It's a regular route for the therapy dog and her mother hen, Cindy Vacco of Kent, who've been visiting the home for four years to bring doggie kisses and good cheer to folks who sometimes struggle to find them.
Annabelle understands the aches and pains of her senior friends and at 7, is practically a Red Hat lady herself. A victim of puppy mill breeding, she was purchased in a store and cost Vacco $17,000 in
medical intervention, not counting her prescriptions.
''I feel like I own a wing at Metro,'' Vacco said. ''Do not buy your dogs from a pet store. Go through a breeder or a rescue.''
The endearing bulldog has hip dysplasia, dry eye, seizures and water on the brain, all from irresponsible breeding. Despite their sturdy appearance, bulldogs and other purebreds are predisposed to certain genetic weaknesses without the problems of bad breeding, a chance not worth taking, Vacco said.
She doesn't hesitate to lift her goddess pup onto a wheelchair or cart when the dog gets tired to give her hips a rest. That also compensates for her inconvenient height when visiting people in wheelchairs and beds.
Therapy dogs
Annabelle and Vacco are a Therapy Dog International dog/handler team, licensed and insured by the volunteer organization dedicated to regulating, testing and registering dogs to visit hospitals and other institutions.
Dogs with easygoing temperaments are tested and evaluated by certified examiners (see http://www.tdi-dog.org for information). TDI dogs are unflappable around service equipment, crutches and wheelchairs and barely sniff when an alarm goes off.
Therapy dogs seem to understand the nature of their work and let strangers paw them for pure pleasure. With just a little canine teasing, silent seniors have spoken and sullen ones have brightened up, said Nan DeMoss, activities director at the Cuyahoga Falls facility.
''Cindy knows the residents by name,'' she said, and she hears about it if somehow someone gets missed during a visit. ''They bring such happiness to the residents.''
This particular Saturday, Annabelle danced in a circle of wheelchairs demonstrating her amazing tricks. The one that got the loudest aahs of appreciation was flattening out on her round belly to suck up a kibble Vacco held close to the floor. Acts like that are hard to follow.
DeMoss advertised for a therapy dog and started the tradition when the facility opened eight years ago. It was a raging success. A policy to allow visits from the family pets also has made life a little sweeter.
Annabelle has donated 350 hours of puppy love to the retirement community and also drops in at the Gardens of Western Reserve several times a month.
''I don't have any family around and look forward to seeing her,'' said Emma Holmes, a Marine in WWII who showed me around the place, full of pride and tips.
Vacco piled the pooch on Holmes' lap and they scooted down the hallway for the inevitable goodbye.
''She loves riding on the elevator and sleeps in the car and is dead for the rest of the afternoon,'' when they go home, said her mom.
Akron opening Tuesday
Magical things are happening at 51 Vesper St., in the Howard Street corridor the city of Akron has cleaned up.
A few months ago, floors of the spacious two-story, once home to 110 cats, were covered with feces and urine, its walls white and grimy, the air thick with fleas.
''You could smell it from the street,'' said Pat Mihaly of Heaven Can Wait, the rescue group that pulls dogs and cats exclusively from death row at the pound.
You've read about these remarkable women before, the mother-daughter team of Mihaly and Heather Nagel, respectively. If you need to move a mountain, give them a call.
Their five-year-old operation outgrew its Cuyahoga Falls storefront — the Heaven Can Wait Rescue and Adoption Center — after only a year. The pair prayed for a new location and visited a long line of condemned homes, which were the right price, but nothing panned out until Vesper Street.
''We said we can fix this,'' Mihaly said. ''We can get rid of fleas. . . . We're a machine.''
They painted, they sanded, they refinished floors.
They cleared away rubble. And so the humble house on Vesper, a recent donation, rises from its long history of neglect and abuse to become the Heaven Can Wait House, a multifunction building with heart and promise and not a whiff of stink.
The grand opening is 5-8 p.m. Tuesday. Animal people are invited to attend, enjoy appetizers, take the tour, meet adoptable cats in the Cattery, shake paws with an adoptable pooch or two, and soak up the freshly painted, colorful rooms.
Plans are in the works for Sundays With Pat, a once-a-month outreach for animal-loving kids. ''There's not much they can do at a younger age, so we educate them on animal care,'' said Mihaly, who also visits schools and other organizations.
They still need a fence around the backyard, which is large enough to include a small parking lot if gods should bring them one. Mihaly is a woman of unshakable faith and is sure a concrete pad will appear. Her minister mailman is a sure sign.
Connie Bloom can be reached at 330-996-3568 or cbloom@ thebeaconjournal.com.
''I can still eat, gab and complain and I do it all,'' confided Emma Holmes, 87, scooting her wheelchair behind Annabelle, a luscious English bulldog and the attraction of the day.
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