Jacey Birch, Anchor/Animal Advocate
Published:
Jacey Birch, Anchor/Animal Advocate
DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – Seeing eye dogs and police K9′s were once the only working dogs you would see out and about.
But these days, service and therapy animals have started to infiltrate every area of our lives and you are bound to see a four legged animal helping humans pretty much anywhere you go.
One South Florida dog brings “doggy medicine” and smiles to every room of one local hospital.
Mona and Edna have been making the rounds at Broward Health North for the last five years.
“Going down the hall, you can see the smiles on the employees as well as the patients — everybody loves seeing this little dog,” Edna Stickel told Local 10 News.
“I think everyone feels better when they are around animals,” patient Cynthia Peterson said.
Peterson broke her hip and has been in rehab for three months, learning to walk again.
She met Mona at the gym during physical therapy and Mona helped her through her toughest times.
“I think when you have been through surgery and you’re in the hospital, it makes you feel better and it almost brings tears to my eyes. I’m like, ‘Oh, a puppy!’ So I really believe in pet therapy,” Peterson said.
Stickel has been a fixture in the outpatient rehabilitation program for the last 24 years.
It was her idea to introduce pet therapy to the patients. She likes to call it “doggy medicine!”
“Mona brings the life out of the patient when they see her. You know, I know what canines do!” she said. “They just smile, they miss their pets at home and she just brings happiness to them!”
“Whenever someone is in the hospital, I don’t think that anybody’s having a great time, so, you know, when she is taking Mona around, people just light up when they see her,” Broward Health North CEO Matthew Garner said.
And she doesn’t just socialize either. The 11-year-old Bijon maltese poodle sings too.
With her lab coat on, stethoscope near her paw and her canine therapy credentials, Mona takes her job very seriously.
“She walks in like, ‘I’m here to do my job!’ You know? She knows everybody is happy to see her because she’s happy to see them,” Stickel said.
Mona actually follows in the footsteps of her older sister Mia who brought pet therapy to Broward Health North for eight years, and now Mona has been working for the past five.
She does have a little sister too, but she will not be taking over once Mona retires as she failed the therapy animal test.
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Jacey Birch anchors Local 10 News Mornings each weekday from 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. She is also proud to be the animal advocate for Local 10's investigative team.
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