A Rock Star Hit!

Eisntein is a 5 1/2 year old Cavalier King Charles

Donna Beirne is a dedicated volunteer and dog lover. She and her Cavalier King Charles, Audrey,  are regulars at the Jewish Home for the Aging / Grancell Village. And recently, Donna took over as Leader for this site. As if this is not enough, Donna also fosters dogs from the Cavalier Rescue USA. 

One of her foster, Eisntein, a 5 1/2 year old purebred Blenheim color, is a loving dog, full of energy who wants to make friends and explore wherever he goes. He quickly won Donna's heart and her husband became quickly attached. So they decided to adopt him.

Donna states: "I thought he would be great on therapy visits with all that energy and love to give.  I worked on his basic obedience commands and saw he would be a natural for therapy outings.   I finally brought him to the Lend A Paw Certification at the end of April 2012." And of course, Einstein, aka, "Ein" passed with flying colors!

Ein gave kisses to everyone!

Ein’s first visit was to New Horizons, a school and workplace for the developmentally challenged adults. The folks at New Horizons have a lot of energy and love the Lend A Paw teams, especially the new ones! So, naturally, Ein was a Rock Star hit! Donna says: " Ein was having fun greeting so many new friends,  granting requests to have his photo taken with all and gave kisses to everyone who came by for some puppy love. Everyone wanted to get his or her picture taken with Ein and we tried to accommodate everybody."

When asked about her other therapy dog, Audrey, and whether she will continue to take her for visits, Donna tells me that: "She will continue her therapy dog visits too.  Audrey has a bit of a lower energy level and tires more easily than Ein and is definitely more selective on handing out doggie kisses.  She still loves going to her regular twice-monthly visits at Jewish Home for the Aging at Grancell Village and is always excited to see her red vest come out.  I would love to see both of them go out on a visit together sometime.  Maybe after Ein gets more visits under his vest, he can go out with another LAP handler and I can take Audrey on the same visit. "

Everyone wanted their picture taken with Ein!

That sounds like a great plan! Thank you Donna for your wonderful work!

Story by Nathalie Seguin, photos courtesy of Donna Beirne.

LAP Coloring Contest

The coloring page designed by Isabella Koelman.

At New Horizons, in North Hills, the clients love the LAP Teams and get very excited to meet the volunteers and their dogs. Servicing adults with developmental disabilities, New Horizons offers a Day Training Activity Center program which focuses on the reinforcement and development of skills and experiences designed to fulfill each client's potential. The program provides training in functional living skills, opportunities to explore creative self expression, and community visits to participate in recreational, educational, cultural, and volunteer activities. Arts and Craft is one of the on-campus programs offered, and when our Lend A Paw site leader, Lisa Erving, organized a coloring contest, the teachers loved the idea and turned it into the class project of the week.

Lisa requested a custom coloring page from Isabella Koelman, an artist who specializes in paintings and drawings of pets. Lisa sent her photos of the Lend A Paw Therapy Teams, and Isabella designed a festive coloring page that included Callie, Ash, Gabi, Lexee, Daisy and Audrey, the dogs that regularly visited New Horizons at the time.

Angela submitted this beautiful picture!

Lisa & Ash, and Donna and her dog Audrey, distributed the coloring pages. Entry information and directions were written on the back. "The clients really enjoyed it," says Lisa. "They like talking about how different all the dogs are." Over 70 coloring pages were turned in! Lisa also left some blank pages with the teachers and every once in a while, another one gets turned in.

Lisa asked Isabella Koelman to be the judge and to pick a winner. However, Mrs. Koelman couldn't chose only one. "She said she loved them all," reports Lisa, "so everyone was a winner!" At their next visit, she handed out goody bags which contained a handful of candies, stickers, copies of cartoons, and a little plastic medal that says "winner." Lisa even saved some of the bags to handout to the ones that were turned in late!

This was Julian's entry!

This was such a successful event that the teachers and staff at New Horizons asked Lisa to organize another one soon!

To see more beautifully colored images, visit the New Horizons coloring contest gallery.

Story by Nathalie Seguin and Lisa Erving.

Scheduled Visits - January 2012

Here is a calendar of all Lend A Paw scheduled visits for the month of January 2012. Click on an event to see details about the visit. Choose the event(s) you wish to participate in and contact the Leader of the site to RSVP.

Halloween Spirit

October was a busy month for the Lend A Paw program and it was definitely a fun one. The LAP teams demonstrated that everyone can have Halloween Spirit and dress up... even the dogs! Some teams even brought candies to pass out. One of the most popular visit was at the Jewish Home For The Aging / Eisenberg Village, on Saturday, November 29th. This is an annual event and the residents and clients of this facility really enjoy seeing all the dogs in costumes! This year, 8 dog/handler teams were present: Andy and Bailer, Chris and Mason, Lisa and Ash, Lori and Buckwheat, Lydia and Cali, Marshall and Genny, Sarah and Bailey, and Judy and Chloe. From the smallest to the tallest, they all dressed up and paraded in front of a large audience. Even the staff of the Jewish Home wanted to witness this amazing show!

8 dog/handler teams participated in this visit.

Judy and her cute butterfly, Chloe, delighted the residents.

Bailey was supposed to be a vampire but with his friendly face, he didn't scare anyone!

"Which way to the trail?" says Camper Buckwheat.

What an adorable pumpkin Ash makes!

Miss Genny dressed as an Angel.

And the King (Bailer) was in the building!

Chris and Mason both dressed up and made lots of heads turn!

This was Cali's first visit and she performed like a pro!

Story and Photography by Nathalie Seguin.

2nd Annual Lend A Paw Picnic

   On Sunday, October 16th we held our Second Annual LAP Appreciation Picnic at Serrania Park in Woodland Hills. Over 30 volunteer humans and dogs gathered for food, fun and conversation.

The annual picnic gives volunteers a chance to get to know each other, and the program leaders an opportunity to express our gratitude and appreciation for our valued volunteer Handlers and Therapy Dogs.
                     

Lisa and her dog, Ash, recently celebrated their one 

year anniversary with the program. They completed a whopping 60 visits in one year! Lisa hopes to get her younger dog, Cinder, certified soon so that she can continue to bring love and joy to all the individuals they visit.

                                                                  

Amanda and her dog, Newman, a rescue 

whom she rehabilitated, joined the program 

in September. They are looking forward to 

visiting the children's locations, in order to 

help educate children on humane treatment 

of animals.                                                                                                  

Sarah Jane and Bailey have been an LAP Team since 2008. They  were awarded for completing over 100 visits since becoming certified in 2008. Sarah Jane and Bailey have also brought Lend A Paw to KEEN Los Angeles, an organization which provides sports and activities to children with developmental challenges. The Therapy Dogs help to facilitate social interaction with developmentally challenged children at this location. Interaction with the dogs can also help to build confidence and interpersonal communication skills.

A BIG thank you to all of our Volunteer Handlers and Dogs. We also extend a special thanks to our "behind the scenes" volunteers such as Nathalie Seguin who our writes our blog, and Mel Whitney and Liz Kessler who have assisted with administrative duties this year. Our mission of rescuing animals and giving back to the community could not be fulfilled without all of your hard work and dedication. Here's to the upcoming year and all that we will accomplish!

Story by Sharon Vincuilla, Lend A Paw Director

A Birthday Celebration

     Last Wednesday, July 13th, the staff and students of New Horizons took part in a very special celebration. One of our Lend A Paw dogs, Ash, turned 2 years old, and everyone was invited to the party!

Lisa and the birthday boy, Ash!

      The celebration took place during one of the Lend A Paw monthly visits to the center. Lisa, Ash's owner and handler, went above and beyond the call of duty and made this visit a very special one. With the help of Audrey and Donna and Belle and Terry, as well as Ash's Grandma, AKA Lisa's boss, Sandra, she decorated the lunch area. There were over 120 party hats, goodie bags filled with silly toys, party horns, scarves, crazy silly glasses and candy, coloring books and of course, a big cake!

Over 120 hats and goodie bags were distributed!

      There was also a very large birthday card that participants could sign and decorate. According to Lisa, "the Birthday Card was a big hit! I just tried to count how many people signed it: it's like more than a hundred!" The Lend A Paw teams walked around handing out hats and goodie bags. Within half an hour, they were all gone. Which was perfect since it was time to sing "Happy Birthday!"Everyone gathered around to sing. Then Donna, Audrey's owner and handler, started cutting the cake (a white cake with strawberry mousse filling.) Yum! Everyone lined up to wait for the cake and pretty soon, 3 teachers came over to help cut and distribute slices of cake.

The "birthday card" was a big hit!

The cake: white cake with strawberry mousse filling. Yum!

      Terry, Belle's owner and handler, and Sandra, handed out a special coloring page of the Lend A Paw dogs who visit New Horizons (made by Isabella Koelman) for a coloring contest. The most artistic coloring will get a prize in August!

Belle and owner/handler Terry handed out a special coloring page.

The coloring page made by Isabella Koelman.

Audrey also helped with the hats and goodie bags!

     "I think everyone had a great time," says Lisa. "The kids were so excited; a birthday party for a dog! Who knew something so simple could make so many people smile?!"

Story by Nathalie Seguin and Lisa Erving, photos by Donna Beirne

Scheduled Visits - Week of July 18th

There are four scheduled Lend A Paw visits for this week:

Wednesday, July 20th @ 11:00 AM:

ECF Kayne Eras School 

5350 Machado Road

Culver City, CA

Wonderful site that LOVES LAP. Come to visit at-risk kids who are really benefitting from our work there.

Wednesday, July 20th @ 1:30 PM:

New Horizons - Classroom visit

15725 Parthenia Street

North Hills, CA

This is our second visit of the month to this school and workplace for developmentally challenged adults. We stop a few minutes inside each classroom in order to give the hard working students a break. Because we are visiting smaller groups we only need up to 3 Therapy Teams to carry out this visit.
Please join us, Ash and Lisa 

Saturday, July 23rd @ 7:30AM:

Ann Douglas Center

LA Mission

Meet at K9s Only

18603 Topham Street

Tarzana, CA

This is a visit to the Mommie and Me program that meets on Saturday morning.  We will meet at K9's Only, Tarzana and carpool to the downtown center. We will leave about 7:45 am and return by 10 to 10:30. UNLESS someone has a bigger car than mine, we can take 3 teams including me and Cody. If someone else has a larger car and can drive, we can take more. 

Saturday, July 23rd @ 10:00 AM: 

Jewish Home for the Aging / Eisenberg Village

18855 Victory Blvd.,

Reseda, CA

Please join Andy and Bailer for our second visit in July at the Jewish Home for the Aging / Eisenberg Village. We all meet at the parking lot benches 5 minutes prior to our start time. If anyone has any questions, please call Andy: (818) 458-3822. 

Andy & Bailer…..woof woof……