The Beginning Of Paws 2 Care
By Sherry Anderson Our Founder;
About 20 years ago I was walking in a 10 acre pasture with my dogs and got down on my knees and asked God to help me find something to do with my dogs that would give back part of what I take out of this world. A few months later I heard about a therapy test that someone was putting on. I could hardly wait to go thru the test and took 3 dogs to be tested. Soon I realized that I didn’t have the temperament that I needed to do this and once again I asked the Lord to bring me the dog I needed to be able to do this. He brought me Summer my first Vizsla. She was the best therapy dog ever. I have a lot of stories about what she did to help children and adults that we visited and also how the Lord brought me other therapy dogs when I didn’t think I needed them.
The lady that tested me stop doing therapy a couple of years later and I found myself with a few friends that would like to get dogs thru the test but we didn’t have a testers in the area, so I did the paper work to become a tester and got approved. I have helped groups in NC. , VA , Spartanburg and Anderson get started and been a back up for anything that comes up that they need help with.
After several years I decided to give the group a name and started sending out emails about what everyone would like to call the group. We went back and forth with the logo and the group name for a year and half. We had so much fun coming up with the logo and name. Straw vote is how we came up with what we have today.
When we started in St. Frances almost 4 years ago I once again asked the Lord to bring me great teams so we could cover this visit. We now make up a big part of the volunteers going into the hospital. I love St. Frances, the staff, patients, families and the volunteer coordinator I work with. They are all so supportive and love seeing the dogs when we come in.
Paws 2 Care is the name of our local group. We are members of Therapy Dogs Inc. and this group is not about me or a couple of people. This group is about a lot of volunteers that make this group what it is today and how they bring so many smiles to all the people we visit weekly. You never know what the staff has had to deal with that day, what family members are dealing with and what the patients are going thru. Every volunteer in the group is as important as the next.