Stephanie Poretz brings Sasha, her 13-year-old cockerspaniel, to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center twice a week. Mark Ferber comes in withhis beagle Miss Daisy. Beverly Byer brings down Brailley, her black lab who wasrejected from guide dog school because of her bad hips.
Since 1995, Jewish professionals have participated theirpets in POOCH, an acronym for Pets Offering Ongoing Care and Healing. TheCedars-Sinai program allows affectionate dogs to spend time cheering up sickand terminally ill patients.
“It’s very healing having a dog give you unconditionallove,” said Barbara Cowen, who coordinates POOCH with Sandra Colson and Terri Lukomski.”When the dog comes into the room, there’s a lot of physical and emotionalbenefits. It’s really healing for everybody involved, including the staff.”
Originally launched in Cedars-Sinai’s AIDS unit, POOCH nowfans out its four-legged friends to the cardiology and pediatric wards and the Thalians Mental Health Center. The dogs undergo an extensive screening process, and specialcare goes into making sure that the canines do not harbor germs.
“Dogs are bathed 24 hours before they come,” Cowen said,”and they have stool sample checks twice a year.”
For two years, Meagan Panzer has brought down Cosmo, her7-year-old Bijon.
“It’s an absolutely wonderful program,” Panzer said. “Youbecome an instant friend of whomever it is you’re introduced to. You’re nottalking about the illness, you’re bonding with them over dogs.”
She recalls one time when “a woman saw me in the hallway andbegged me to see her father in the Intensive Care Unit. He had had a terriblenight. They couldn’t calm him down. The minute he saw Cosmo, you saw his wholebody relax. He fell asleep with my dog [sleeping] in his arms. The familycouldn’t have thanked me more.”
Cosmo loves his tikkun olam work. But even for the dogs, theexperience can be emotionally draining.
“He’s actually exhausted afterward,” Panzer said. “Cosmocomes home and takes a really long nap.”
To learn more about POOCH, contact Barbara Cowen at (310)423-2749.
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