Invite Rodney
to those who
need him. 

Rodney is a 7-year-old border collie, labrador mix. He is a rescue, having been surrendered 2 times before he became my dog. He was received by the rescue, Friends of the Animal Community (FOAC) in Tuolumne County and was placed at Sierra Conservation Camp where he was trained by inmates. His trainer was a 57-year-old male who was doing a life sentence with no possibility of parole. He was there in 2020 during the height of the Covid outbreak. Because of the restrictions of Covid the outside trainers were not allowed into the prison so the training was done entirely by the inmates. Because they were not certified to certify, Rodney had no paperwork to attest to his level of training. 

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When I first picked him up in September of 2020 he was known as “Dipper”, I believe due to the white tip on his tail. After just a few days of bonding with one another and his personality starting to show, I renamed him Rodney after a friend that served at Jenny Lind Fire District by the name of Rod Greenough. Rod passed away in April of 2020 and had an incredible personality and a love for people, just as Rodney does. I asked the family permission to rename him after their husband/father and was told “yes”, so Rod Greenough lives on in our community as a four legged personality.

 

I was made aware of a local trainer in Milton, Ernie Barrera, who agreed to train him to the American Kennel Club (AKC) Canine Good citizen level. We trained 2 days a week for one year after which we tested and were certified as a Therapy dog through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, a nationally recognized organization. While we were engaged with our therapy dog training, Rodney seemed to notice when I would return from a bad chaplain call and he would meet me at the front door, even at 2:00 a.m. As I continued to experience more and more trauma and I began to struggle with the effects of it, I visited with a therapist to try to understand some of the issues I was having and she diagnosed me with PTSI and recommended that I use Rodney as a psychiatric service dog, a role that he now fulfills, as well as a therapy dog for others.
 

We serve at Mark Twain Medical Center as a chaplain and therapy dog and wherever we are called to, both within Calaveras County as well as Sacramento and the bay area where we have been involved in some difficult assignments. As we served others, it became obvious to me the value of therapy dogs and the effect it can have on people who are stressed. Because of that, we have formed a non-profit organization called “Paws of Love” where we hope to continue to serve others locally, throughout the state, and hopefully in other states as well. We presented at the Federation of Fire Chaplains conference in Tampa Bay Florida last October on “Therapy Dogs and Chaplaincy”. It was quite an expensive undertaking for us, but we were supported by many folks who underwrote about 90% of our costs.  It is my hope to be able to qualify for grant funding to help with the cost of this ministry.