Pets provide support for soldiers

Published: 2004-02-03

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (CNS) -- The visitor to Florence Blanchfield Army Community Hospital at Fort Campbell had special training in therapy, but was not a doctor, nurse or physical therapist. The visitor was a card-carrying, tail-wagging, licensed and insured therapy dog -- a 4-year-old yellow Labrador retriever named Athena. She was accompanied by owner Mary Lou Royar. Royar attends Immaculate Conception Church in Clarksville, Tenn., in the Nashville Diocese. "Athena's Catholic, too," she said with a smile as she walked into the Army hospital near the Tennessee-Kentucky state line. Athena has been a therapy dog for nearly two years. "Therapy dogs are specially trained to help people emotionally or physically," Royar told the Tennessee Register, Nashville's diocesan newspaper. "Studies show that when someone holds or pets an animal, their blood pressure is lowered, stress is relieved and depression is lessened. They're definitely therapeutic." The volunteer work that Royar does ties in with her life. Married four years to Maj. Todd Royar, a helicopter pilot, Royar was a captain serving as a lawyer, a position the Army calls a judge advocate general. With her husband deployed to Iraq, visiting soldiers in the hospital gives special meaning to what she and Athena do.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .