Pets as Therapy arrives in Nepal - Part 2

This post is a continuation of the previous entry which you can read by clicking here.

We had selected 2 adorable dogs from KAT to be the first pets as therapy mascots. Mango is a Tibetan Terrier and KAT’s own mascot after he was rescued from the street in a terrible condition. He loves people and has a very easygoing temperament. Tara is also a KAT rescuee and is paraplegic so she can only use her front 2 legs to move. This doesn’t stop her at all and she likes to think she is ‘queen bee’ in the KAT compound!

So a day after the girls from Bal Mandir had visited KAT, we piled the 2 dogs into a taxi and set off for Bal Mandir. None of us really knew what to expect so there was some trepidation in the air.

We need not have worried. The dogs showed no concern as they were lead through the big hallways of the orphanage towards a room containing around 20 kids between the ages of 1 and 3 years. The looks on the children’s faces as 2 dogs entered their playpen was priceless. There were smiles, squeals of glee, curious stares and quite a few screams of terror! None of this seemed to faze Tara and Mango as they proceeded to sniff around the place and approach anyone who seemed even remotely interested in patting them.


With a small amount of encouragement almost all of the kids began to happily pat the dogs, and even the more scared ones began to join in as they saw their friends doing it. Fortunately we had the older girls from the day before’s visit to assist in soothing the more concerned kids. To help with children who were still afraid, we read a ‘Spot’ book to them and explained that these dogs were the same as the dog in the book so there was no need to be afraid. This worked magnificently and in the end all of the children had patted the dogs at least once.

Once everyone in the playpen was calm some of the older children with disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, were brought in to meet the dogs. Despite also showing some initial fear these kids quickly became much more comfortable with Tara and Mango and watching them patting the dogs and playing with them was simply beautiful. We were witnessing first hand what many studies had proven, that this type of interaction does wonders for a person’s mental state and emotional wellbeing.

The afternoon proved to be more amazing than we could have imagined and we didn’t want it to end. However after almost 2 hours of poking and prodding the dogs showed signs of tiring so we lead them back to their taxi and returned them to their home at KAT. There they were greeted with special treats and proceeded to chow down without a care in the world – it would seem it was all in a day’s work for Tara and Mango!