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P.O. Box 1353, Hockessin, DE 19707
(302) 351-5622
PAWSforPeople@comcast.net
Lynne Robinson, Executive Director
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Our dog’s reactions to visiting I know that Jordan likes visiting. Whenever we're getting ready and I tell her we're going to READ she cocks her head to the side and starts doing a happy dance. Then when we get to the site she races to the front door. --Megan Rys Hamilton and Jordan, Flat Coated Retriever As her fluffy tail wags and her smile expands - I know my Maddy Kay is happy while the boys & girls of Lancashire Elementary read fun and interesting stories to her. --Annette Krupnicka and Maddy, Sharpei I believe Titan enjoys visiting, because when we turn on to the road that leads to the Arbors he gets excited. It is almost as if to say, hurry I want to see my friends! --Andrea Muller and Titan, Rottweiler I definitely think Skilo likes visiting - when he sees me with the duffel bag I usually pack he waits by the door for his opportunity to slip out. He's gotten past me a few times but doesn't take off in typical husky fashion. He just hops right in the car and waits!
--Barb Ferrell and Skilo, Husky I think Maya enjoys her visits at Cokesbury because when we arrive she promptly leads me to the entrance. She's very relaxed during the visits and sometimes stretches out on the floor and takes a rest. She loves all the affection and treats she receives from her friends and always takes a long nap when we get home. --Regina Silverman and Maya, Spanish Water Dog I think Henry does enjoy the visits. Always when we enter the lobby, he starts this funny, cute howl, kind of letting everybody know that he is here and wishes to be petted. On the other hand, after approximately 1.5 hours he starts pulling towards the door, he is ready to go home. --Renate Maglione and Henry, Golden Retriever When Skye doesn't like something, she looks me directly in the eye with a long-suffering gaze, sighs heavily and lays down. This behavior has NEVER happened at school. Skye leads me quickly down the hallway, past all the other classroom doors, to "our" classroom. She goes immediately to the first child she meets in the room. There are plenty of pets and the constant murmur of "Skye's here! Skye's here!" It's a reciprocal love feast between dog and children. --Sharron Young and Skye, Sheltie If you know Corgis, you know they smile a lot when they are happy! Foxy is always full of smiles during our visits. Many of our therapy friends express concern over whether or not Foxy enjoys being with them. It is important for them to feel that Foxy likes them and enjoys their attention. We always tell them that her smile tells it all! And...you've never seen bigger smiles than when we take out our PAWS leash and our working fanny pack! If you say "visit" in our house, Foxy runs to the garage door! Foxy loves to work. --Mary Ward & Foxy, Corgi We think Maizy enjoys her pet therapy visits because when we announce to her that she's going to work, she gets very excited and does her Boston Terrier bouncing around and jumping into our arms. Maizy loves to give kisses and, when we do our visits, she gets to give kisses to almost everyone she sees. She also loves to do her tricks for them because she knows that treats follow tricks. --Ed King and Maizy, Boston Terrier Here are a few words about Annabelle. “Annabelle loves to visit the library. When she sees that I am packing her library bag, she begins to jump up and down and bark with excitement. She sits still when I attach her PAWS tags, so proud to know that she is going to work. Once we get to the library, she goes back and forth between her blanket and her bag to make sure that I have gotten all of her books and supplies out, and then she sits down and waits for her first child to read. She has truly found the purpose of her tiny little life!”--Deanna Pedicone and Annabelle, Pomeranian Tucker, who is normally quite a mellow fellow, runs from room to room and person to person with tail wagging and a big Golden Retriever grin the entire time. Then its home to the sofa until next week. --Rick Selwood and Tucker, Golden Retriever Marty is very laid back dog in the car and rarely gets up when we stop somewhere. He simply keeps relaxing in the back seat - except when we pull up to Lancashire. At that point, he jumps up, scratches at the back of the seat and definitely wants to get out - now! The sight of school buses sends him into a frenzy. So, yes, I definitely think he enjoys participating in the READ program. --Pat Beaumont and Marty, Beagle mix I do think Lillie enjoys the visits to Linden Hill. She is happy and excited when we get to the building and when we enter the room. She settles down quickly in the reading spot and seems very content when the kids interact with her. She is always very attentive to the kids and is not distracted by other activity or smells in the room. --Jean Western and Lillie, Yellow Lab Okay, so does Leo like visiting? He knows that we're going to work when his green leash comes out. He also tends to pull us in. And once he's in a room getting love he tends to tuck into the person petting him. But sometimes he's ready to leave before the person we're visiting is. Overall, I think he gets something out of it and we get so much he's stuck going whether he wants to or not! --Sue & Mike Samuels and Leo, Golden Doodle Jake definitely enjoys visiting the New Castle Library, especially Ms. Jackie and her dog treats! When we are getting ready to go, I'll ask Jake if he's "ready to go read?" and he heads for the door with his leash in his mouth! --Sue DiMascio and Jake, Vizsla Darwin loves visiting which is demonstrated each time he nudges someone's resting hand for more petting --Nicole Johnston and Darwin, Border Collie I think Cooper enjoys his visits at Millcroft because he always rushes to get inside the building -- maybe it is the scent he picks up since we arrive during or immediately following the dinner meal:) Also, after making the visits in the hallway and in and out room visits, he knows when we go to Mrs. Anderson's room there will be "siesta time". I actually think his head swells a bit because of all the fussing over him. At home he is just one of 4 dogs and 3 cats. --Brenda Mattern and Cooper, Sheltie I know Oliver enjoys his work by his excitment when I get his "special" collar and bag ready to go. When we get to Somerford, Oliver hurries over to whoever is in the main lobby and greets everyone one at a time. I know he especially enjoys visiting with Pat because his ears go back and his whole body starts to wiggle when he sees her. And you can plainly see the smile on his face. He even rolls over on his side and lets everyone scratch his belly. I can tell by the expression on his face that he is in heaven. --Kim Rimel and Oliver, French Bulldog Yes, Keeley DOES enjoy it. I can tell by her body language and when I tell her "we're going to the nursing home or to the library", she goes right to the door to leave. With other things, it takes me begging her to get up and go! When she sees "her favorites" at Preston, (some staff, some residents), she gets silly and her whole body wags. And she even gives chin nibbles to her favorites which is quite an honor coming from Keeley, she is not usually the kissy type. When they ask her to do tricks, she rises to the occasion with enthusiasm and loves to make them smile. I can see it in her eyes, her body language and her heart (we are connected you know), so I feel it in mine too. --Sandy Boyko & Keeley, Labrador Retriever
I know Ben loves to visit,as soon as I take the green leash down he gets excited. When we arrive he's still excited, as we visit with our first resident, he has slowed to his visting gentle ways. He's very calm and gentle while were visiting, like he knows exactly how to care for each person. When it's time to go, he acts like he doesn't want to go, he pulls back on the leash towards the residents. I have to carry him out sometimes.--Georgia Poliski and Benny, Boston Terrier |
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How We Were Named Maizy Mildred and I spent more time coming up with Maizy's name than we did for any of our boys. We had a list "a mile long." We decided on Maizy because both of our Mother's names were Mae/May and we sometimes referred to them as Maizy-Daisy. Maizy then seemed to be it. Her AKC official name is Mis Maizy Princess of Fithian. The Princess ties into our last name - King and Fithian is the name of our street. Mis is spelled that way because the AKC document allowed for only so many spaces. (Ed King) Dewey Dewey was named after the beach (Dewey Beach, DE) where my husband and I met and got married. (Shannon Metcalf-Slutman) Leo We didn't really give Leo his name. He came to us with that name. We held a naming contest within the family and the only entry was Mike's (jokingly, I think) to call him Muffin. So he stayed Leo! (Sue and Mike Samuels) Foxy We weren't very creative when it came to the naming of our pet. Not only does Foxy look like a fox, but her sire is a Honeyfox Corgi. Before we even brought her home, we decided to name her either Honey or Foxy, in honor of her sire. We wisely chose Foxy, after deciding that Honey would be too confusing, especially since "honey" is an endearment we use often in the house. If we had named her Honey, everyone would come running when her name was called! (Mary Ward) Ben When a friend called me to visit a Boston terrier in rescue, she had found this dog under her car. She was going to adopt him herself, but her husband said no more animals. When I went to visit, she had named him Ben. This was the perfect name for him, such a gentle guy. I couldn't bring myself to change it once I had adopted him. (Georgia Poliski) Stella I actually come up with names before I get my pups. I picked Stella's name (don't know how, actually, except that it was cute and different) and said, ok, we can get a black lab, as long as I can name her Stella. Kyle picked the pup- I picked the name. (Nancy Frey) Cooper I didn't name Cooper because he is actually my daughter's dog. ...the only way that I really came up with his name was when were coming back from PA from gram’s one time and I was still thinking about a name for him. I was looking at road signs and everything for different streets and towns and I saw Dunkin and liked that one, but I guess I ended up seeing one with Cooper on it and I liked that. I think that's how it happened. (Brenda Mattern & Lindsay) Butler Butler's name is short for Captain Rhett Butler. When we got him from a lab rescue, we thought he was very handsome with his black hair and large ears - just like Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind. (Jane Paradise) Pearl Pearl because she is the color of a pearl. (Anna England) Darwin I named my dog Darwin because he is highly evolved- even more than some people that I know : ) I am a college prof and teach about Charles Darwin. In addition, I always take Darwin (the dog) to class with me - I thought it would be an entertaining combination. (Nicole Johnston) Biscuit My husband came up with Biscuit's name. He had just seen the movie Sea Biscuit and we all agreed to Biscuit. His AKC name is Honey Biscuit Blue. (Laurie Napolin) Finley Finley came with his name...we rescued him from Furry Friends Network out of PA in October of 2007 and they had named him Finley. The shelter had him named "Dolph" and Furry Friends thought the name was kind of dopey. They "finished" DOLPH (by making it DOLPHIN) and used the PHIN to come up with Finley. It's all very complicated! We just thought it was a cute name that suited him! (Kyla DeStefano) Brittany
My family is all "B's. Bob (me), Barb (my wife), Bev (eldest daughter), Bob (son), Beth (youngest daughter). Our dog must have a B name. Our last dog's name was Brandy. We simply liked the name of Brittany for our current dog's name. (Bob Fell) Abby Abby was pre-named from the rescue in southern Virginia. Sorry, it's a boring story! (Mary Perno) Brooke Liked the name “Brooke” for a daughter… and didn’t know if we’d ever have one… so, we used it! (Beth Trapani) Chester Chester's original name was Cherokee, but he just did not look like a little Indian to us. A friend lost a dog named Chester right around this time, so we thought we would honor her and also the pronunciation wasn't so far removed that Chester might not respond to it, since he was already 1 year old when we adopted him. (Brenda Yannuzzi) Trooper Trooper’s official name is Trooper’s Legacy. It was requested by his breeder that we use the name of her kennel which is Legacy. In looking through his lineage we found the name Trooper and felt it suited him. Whether on the farm or in the classroom, he certainly does live up to his name. (Patrice Madden) Brandi's original name was Brandy. We had just lost our beloved dog of 14 years (named Brandy), and I was still grieving her loss when Brandi came to us. I was having a difficult time "replacing" our original Brandy and our vet suggested we give her 2-names as they do "here in the south" (her words) like Brandy Sue. A friend used to call me Brenda-Lou and so Brandy became Brandi-Lou. It was far enough away for me, and yet closes enough for Brandi to respond to easily. (Jay Yannuzzi) Tokala Tokala means fox in Indian when we rescued her at 6 months she looked like a gray fox. (Becky and Will Anderson) Bella The way I came up with Bella's name is not too impressive. She was going to be Baily but once I adopted her she looked more like a Bella to me. Thanks. (Caroline McCahey) Trinity I had to put my beloved golden Jake down due to cancer. I was very upset. This was my second golden that succumbed to cancer. I prayed to find another golden breeder. I wanted to get away from all the cancer in the Golden line. I found that the English golden retrievers had less cancer. I came upon a breeder’s website that had English Goldens and this breeder was heaven sent to me. When the litter was born she said she hoped we would name the puppy an inspirational name as this was her "inspirational litter." Breeder had other litters that were named after different themes. Since Trinity was heaven sent we named her "Trinity's Grace." And even though she is heaven sent she still has a lot of "devil" in her! (Penny Taylor) Roxy Ever since I was a little girl I always wanted to name a dog Roxy. When I finally got my own dog, I was able to do this and did not have to think twice about her name! Simple as that! (Nicole Bosso) Snigglebutt "Snigglebutt" the name is derivative of the fact that he has such a small nub tail, that when he was a puppy and was learning to wag the above mentioned nub, his whole hind end moved with it, hence the name Snigglebutt. Although I don't actually know what a "Sniggle" is . . maybe I should look that one up!!!! I am a firm believer that you shouldn't name your pets until you get to know their personality, then just go with what come up!!! (Janet Austin) Chuck #1 dog, Chuck the Standard Poodle, came to us as a 2-year old rescue dog. His name was already established as “Charlie" (John Steinbeck's poodle's name). My kids enjoyed saying "up, Chuck" since we teach all our dogs to jump up on people or, at a minimum, dance with us... which he does. (Kandie Semmelman) Woody #2 dog, Woody, (Woodrow Wilson) is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, now sit down, this is a long one... We are 3 generations of University of Virginia grads- the Cavalier (not the dog) is their mascot, President Woodrow Wilson was also a Cavalier (not the dog), and he made Flag Day a honored day. Both my Dad (had) and my husband Andy (have) birthdays on June 14th- Flag Day. There's more. A "woody" is a golf club and we all play a lot of golf. No more "woody" jokes, I live with a house full of men. (Kandie Semmelman) Bogey #3 dog, Bogey, is also a Cavalier. His name simply means-"one over par" for a golf hole (Kandie Semmelman) Tramp "Tramp" was named by Delaware Humane before we met him because he had been left on their doorstep with a little girl dog, they appropriately named "Lady". Lady got adopted first and we got Tramp. However, he has surely lived up to his name over the years, and we couldn't imagine him with a different name. He's really just a little tramp. (Tracy and Sheldon Harder) |
Annabelle Grace She was meant to be "Annie" but was obviously a princess and needed a princess name, so she became "Annabelle." On her third day in my home, she got out of the fence and disappeared. I was frantic, placed flyers throughout the neighborhood and thankfully received a response a few days later from a neighbor who had picked her up within 15 minutes of her getting out. Because she was once lost, and then found, she is now "Annabelle Grace." (Deanna Pedicone) Oliver Being a French bulldog, I knew he would need a burly name. So, I named him Oliver after the actor Oliver Reed (his last movie was Gladiator). In case you do not know Oliver Reed, he was a big burly man and an actor I have always liked. (Kim Rimel) Gracie Lou Gracie Lou is the name of my Samoyed. Originally, I was just going to name her Grace, after my grandmother. I was very close to my grandmom and also have another dog named after her. (My black lab's name is Farley, which was her maiden name.) Shortly after I acquired (and decided to keep) Grace, my cousin came to visit me. Grace was VERY excited to meet her and on her way to greet my cousin with a kiss, Grace slipped. My cousin started to laugh and said that Grace's lack of Grace and the way she was flaunting her beauty reminded her of the lead character from the movie Miss Congeniality, Gracie Lou Freebush. My cousin adopted a line from the movie. There is a part where Sandra Bullock's character starts mocking her fellow officer saying, "You think I'm sexy. You think I'm pretty. You want to date me." Well, my cousin changed it to, "You think I'm sexy. You think I'm pretty. You want to pet me." So Grace became Gracie Lou. And it is so appropriate. She is beautiful. She flaunts it. But there is little grace about her! (Kathy Ward) MaddyMaddy (Madeline) was on her papers when she was given to me. (Annette Krupnicka) Henry Before I moved to the US, I lived in Berlin, Germany. The building where my apartment was in, had a very hip optometrist shop downstairs, owned by a young couple. Also to the store belonged a beautiful Irish setter named Henry. He would hang out there every day and great the customers. I always thought he was the coolest dog ever and I decided if I ever own a dog……his name will be HENRY. (Renate Maglione) Sadie Mercedes (Sadie) was the name of our 1st golden, who unfortunately lived only 9 months due to a liver disease, so we felt the name should be carried forward with our 2nd Golden, therefore Sadie lives on. (Alan Burkhard) Taylor Taylor was named after my husband, Brian's, favorite guitar. It is a Taylor Guitar, which is shown with Taylor in the attached photo. (Sandy Lantz) Toby It took me over a week to come up with Toby's name. We found him as an adult, running around the streets of Alameda Ca. with a belt around his neck. We found out that he had somehow managed to escape a very abusive household. He had been wandering the streets for who knows how long. He showed an urge for freedom and adventure, and I realized that he reminded me of the character 'Toby Tyler' from the old (original) Mickey Mouse Club serial films. Toby was a little boy who for (I can't remember why) some reason, ran away with the circus and after befriending a chimp had many crazy adventures. Toby's enduring (now joyful) quest for adventure to this day (8 years later) confirm that although we didn't know what to call him for a week, that I made the right choice. (Michael Collette) Teddy I looked at him and said "Teddy". That's it. It came from my heart, spontaneously, without any forethought. Teddy is a nickname for Theodore, which means "gift from God." Our family had been grieving for the loss of several family members and a close friend in a rather short period of time. Teddy, now 1 year old, has proven that his name depicts his calling. He has provided healing for us in many ways. (Elaine Siebold) Beethoven Beethoven was adopted on his first birthday – name came with him. The previous owners were inspired by the popular serial Beethoven movies. We strongly considered changing his name; but, so many children would say, “There goes Beethoven!” …even before they had met him. (Randy White) Elvis John and I were driving home with our new golden puppy and could not decide on a name. We went back and forth, and back and forth.... my husband was flipping through radio stations as usual, couldn't find a station, and turned on the CD player which happened to have an Elvis Costello CD playing. My husband said ELVIS - I said no - I guess you know who won. Looking back, I think it was a great choice and it fits his personality very well (Luann D’Agostino) Skilo My husband had always wanted to name our first dog D-O-G (DiOhGee), but we discovered we weren't as original as we'd hoped. Instead, we named our dog "dog", in Greek - "Skilo." We get some strange looks from Greek friends! (Barb Ferrell) Leo Leo came to us with a prechosen name. We polled the kids and nobody had a better offering than Leo, so we accepted it and went about integrating him into our family as Leo. (Mike Samuels) Sam Sam was the only name hubbie and I agreed upon plus there was a link between Sam and Diane and the TV show cheers. (Dianne Galleshaw) Candy Sure, we knew just what to call her... She's a Chocolate Lab mix who is as sweet as... CANDY! (Charles Baluk) Boo Radley Because Boo came to me with the name of Boomer and because I didn’t really like that very much, I tried to change it to several high falutin’ literary names. He didn’t answer to anything besides Boo---- something. Then I remembered a great character in one of my favorite novels to teach To Kill a Mockingbird and decided to name this huge, quiet, loving dog Boo Radley. It works. (Lynne Robinson) Calli Calli is named after a woman who lives in a healthcare facility I’ve been visiting for almost 5 years. The woman’s nickname was not acceptable to other members in my family, but we could all agree on shortening her last name of Calloway to Calli. She loved the idea and was thrilled to have a young pup named after her. (Lynne Robinson) Myah Myah was named after her mother, Mya. I added the "h" to the end because I wanted her to have the same amount of letters as my other dog, Kiah. I also like the fact that their names rhyme. (Melinda Baluk) Gracie Gracie was already named by her breeder. We didn't have the heart to change it because she knew her name so well. She still wiggles her entire body when you say her name. (Melinda Baluk) Birch Birch's coat is a swirl of brown and black that looks like birch beer and his cream colored tail is the froth. (Karen Brubaker) Grace, Mercy Here's how we came up with names for Grace and Mercy. I've been using up all the names I didn't choose for my children - Grace was the last one on the list. Also, I decided this was the only way I'd have any Grace! We like the combination of Grace and Mercy (since we knew they would be therapy dogs), so Mercy's pedigree name is "Mercedes" - the only way we'll ever one of those too! (Sue and Tom Good) Casey Casey was adopted by another family (who could not keep her) from the SPCA so she already had her name. The family origins are from Ireland and her name is reflective of that heritage. We call her Queen Casey around our house! (Gina Kylen) Jaeger Our dog was a stray and we didn't know what to name him- my kids just start calling out different names to see if the dog responded. Finally my husband said in passing conversation that the dog reminded him of an old friend's dog named Jaeger. With the mention of the name the dog looked up and wagged his tail - and so he had his name. (Donna Hendrie) Shilo SHILO is named after the beagle in the movie & books of the same name. (Marianne Hitchens) Morgan Morgan is part of my next generation dog family. My other dog family passed away, they were a group of 4, Aaron, Noel, Sandi and Thunder (and so "ants" was formed). With my next generation dog family, it will be M&M (Morgan and Molly). Molly is a bit in the future, though. (Darlene Cole) Keeley Keeley - the name was a character in a Nora Roberts book I had read in an Irish Trilogy series where the primary female character was named Keeley. I always liked the name, and so when Keeley came into my life and I was trying to come up with a "not so common" name, Keeley was a no brainer. This idea led me to her registered name, St. Albans Irish Rose. I know, too much info but there you have it! (Sandy Boyko) Petey Petey was named after a dog on the Our Gang TV show. Spanky had a dog named Pete with a black patch over his eye like my Petey. (Billy Cycyk) Jordan We got Jordan as a 12 week old puppy. We had a hard time agreeing on a name. We were playing with her and noticed that she had a hard time walking a straight line (as most puppies do). Instead of walking she tended to jump. So, we named her after one of the greatest sports jumpers....Michael Jordan. Which is funny considering that basketball isn't either one of our favorite sports. (Megan Hamilton) Gracie Grace/Gracie is the name I would have given my fourth girl child if I'd had another. So my little furbaby gets the honors. (Phyllis Fleischmann) Divot Divot was named "Divot" because I am a golfer and the way he is my shadow, I wanted my best friend to be with me - even on the golf course. So, he became my "Divot." I have a lovebird whose name is "Bogey" - another golf term. (Christine Lewandowski) Maggie Maggie was a Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivor in New Orleans, LA. someone found her swimming in the flood. Unfortunately they "saved" her and abused her. When I adopted her in January, we renamed her Maggie because the first 3 months that we had Abby, my daughter called her Maggie. (Mary Perno) |
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