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As you might expect, the Center forAddiction Treatment in Cincinnati’sWest End neighborhood is full of peo-ple seeking treatment for their sub-stance use issues.

Except for the first Sunday everymonth.

That’s when a visitor with velvetyblack fur and kind brown eyes amblesup to patients in the short-term resi-dential drug and alcohol treatmentprogram. And he lets them touch him.

Some in the room relax. Somesmile. Some reach out for the dog.

Pets as therapy are nothing new.Maybe they were always therapy.They tend to bring out the better in al-most all of us. We become more hu-man in their presence somehow.

If having pets in the room workswonders for troubled children, thedisabled, emergency workers and theelderly, why wouldn’t it work for thosein recovery?

Larry Bennett asked that question.Bennett and his 4-year-old dog,

Dog alters lives at CAT HouseA furry friend for those in recoveryValerie RoyzmanCincinnati EnquirerUSA TODAY NETWORK

Kelly Phipps, a graduate of the Center for Addiction Treatment who is soon to be a peer mentor there, pets on Fryethe black lab. “It’s unconditional love you can’t get anywhere,” Phipps says. Larry Bennett, right, makes a monthlySunday visit with his therapy dog to the West End drug recovery program. SAM GREENE/THE ENQUIRERSee RECOVERY, Page 8A

8A ❚ TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2019 ❚ THE ENQUIRER

Frye, began volunteering their time atthe CAT House in December 2017.They also visit hospitals, schools andautistic children at Stepping Stones, anonprofit for people with disabilities.Last week, the pair traveled to RedCross shelters in Dayton after torna-does destroyed homes and business-es in the area.

It’s important to note that therapyanimals are not service animals. Ser-vice animals are trained to assistthose with disabilities. Therapy ani-mals provide solace, sweetness, calmto anyone.

Bennett knows his lab isn’t made ofmagic. The duo is pretty ordinary, butdelivering even a small amount of joymakes the difference. Bennett reallybelieves that.

His idea of taking Frye to those inrecovery was a direct result of hearingabout a program started by BarbaraWalkenhorst, recovery coach andcase manager at CAT, where gradu-ates of rehab programs were return-ing to fire stations and hugging thefirefighters who revived them withnaloxone, the antidote for opioidoverdose, and care.

“If the firefighters and patients aregetting hugs, maybe someone wouldlike to hug my dog. Do you think yourpatients would benefit from meetinga lovely dog?” he asked Walkenhorst.

“Absolutely,” Bennett rememberedher saying.

A simple solution to an incrediblycomplex problem?

Could be.Nearly 30 patients sat in a meeting

room at CAT last week. They listenedas Bennett joked that this was histhird leash and PetSmart was sellingthem to him at a discount now be-cause it’s Frye’s favorite thing to chewon.

The room laughed.Frye stretched his legs, rolled onto

his back and shook his whole body –this was his way of asking for a bellyrub, Bennett said. A patient knelt ontothe floor to oblige.

“I fell in love,” she said later, strok-ing his satiny, floppy ears. “I’m gener-ally closed off, and he changed mymind.”

Another patient gently took thedog’s face in her hands. She sighed.

Frye kissed her.Bennett is not just a dog fan. He’s

an associate professor and the pro-gram chair for fire science and emer-gency management at the Universityof Cincinnati. He called the gatheringan “informal, laid-back experience”when he spends from a half-hour toan hour recounting Frye’s story fromrescue pup to certified therapy dog,then hands out Frye stickers for pa-tients to wear or paste on their note-books.

The facility’s inpatient program isfull and most of the patients are thereto treat opioid addictions.

Sitting quietly in the room was Kel-ly Phipps, who graduated the programin November.

Phipps has struggled with sub-stance use for years. Primarily alco-

hol, but drugs, too, she said.She just marked eight months

drug-free. In mid-June, she will startas a peer mentor at the center.

Throughout it all, she’s been an an-imal lover.

“With my pets being at home, thatwas a big thing for me,” Phipps said. “Ididn’t want to leave them. They aresuch a comfort. It’s unconditional loveyou can’t get anywhere.”

She said seeing Frye was like, “OK,this is my inspiration to keep goingand get home to see my pets so I canlove on them the same way.”

Pet therapy, then, is more motiva-tion to return to what used to be. It isalso comfort while trying to get free ofdrugs.

Nancy Blamer, development man-ager at CAT, said many new patientsfeel “a lot of anxiety and fear of the un-known” when they start treatmentbecause they don’t know what to ex-pect. But human-animal interactiondeflects at least a little bit of that anxi-ety.

“When you’re with Frye, that hourthat you’re with him, you’re not think-ing about anything else except beingright there and present with the dog,”she said. “When you leave, you carrythat with you. For the next couplehours, you feel good.”

Pet therapy at the center, whichalso includes a visit from a volunteer’sgoldendoodle every second Saturday,is only one piece of the bigger picture,Blamer said. The center also offers yo-ga, Zumba, art therapy, music therapyand other activities.

“The idea is it’s not just, ‘Go playwith the dog,’ ” she said. “It’s thera-peutic because it normalizes people’slives again and gives them a better un-derstanding of the world aroundthem.”

For Phipps, all the work she’s donein treatment, plus the healing touch ofpetting a dog at the center, did a lot forher.

She put it simply. “It saved me.”

RecoveryContinued from Page 1A

When the visitor with velvety black fur and kind brown eyes ambles up to patients in the residential drug and alcoholtreatment program, some in the room relax. Some smile. Some reach out for the dog. PHOTOS BY SAM GREENE/THE ENQUIRER

“... That hour that you’re with him, you’re not thinking about anything elseexcept being right there and present with the dog,” a CAT manager says.

Therapy animals are not service animals. Service animals are trained to assistthose with disabilities. Therapy animals provide solace, sweetness, calm.