“It used to be you encountered other dogs mostly on sidewalks while you were going down the street,” said Morgan Watkins, acting president and chief executive officer of Guide Dogs for the Blind, which has campuses in San Rafael, north of San Francisco, and in Boring, Ore.

In this photo taken Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011, Cecilia von Beroldingen, a forensic scientist and director of the California Criminalistics Institute at the California Department of Justice, is seen with her guide dog, Neoki, in Sacramento, Calif

Nowadays, he said, a guide dog might encounter another dog in a supermarket aisle or at the mall or the dentist’s office, he said. There are few places pets can’t be found these days.

“We work very hard with the assumption that your dog can be distracted anywhere,” said Watkins, who started losing his vision at age 11.

Anything or anyone that keeps a guide dog from focusing on its work is considered a distraction — and becomes something the dog is trained to ignore.

But everyone can help guide dogs and their handlers avoid some distractions. One basic rule: Don’t pet a guide dog without permission.

Because the dogs are so highly trained and well-behaved, people want to touch them, Watkins said. Many times, he said, he has reached down to learn which way his dog Will is looking, only to find someone else’s hand already on the dog.

Another simple way to minimize distractions for guide dogs is to keep your own dog leashed.

But if a dog barks at Will, Watkins said he would probably keep moving. “Odds are he won’t flinch,” he said. Guide dogs are also not trained to fight. If a guide dog is attacked by another animal, handlers will drop the harness and call for help.

Another new distraction or hazard for guide dog teams is the electric car.

Watkins has excellent hearing and can usually make out the sound of an electric car, but it’s difficult at noisy intersections. That’s why guide dogs are taught intelligent disobedience — defying an order to keep a partner safe, Watkins explained. If Watkins tells Will to go and there is an electric car going through an intersection, he will not go.

When the dog disobeys, “I follow my dog. It’s part of the trust,” he said.

In addition to quiet cars, other environmental elements and distractions that have necessitated changes in guide-dog training include six-lane streets, traffic islands, roundabouts, cars turning right on red, wheelchair-accessible curbs, button-activated walk signals and even baby strollers using handicapped ramps and curb cuts, Watkins said.

Watkins got his first guide dog at age 40 and became CEO of Guide Dogs for the Blind after a long career in computer technology. Walking with Will, he feels through the harness when the dog turns his body, changes pace or cranes his head. “The dog isn’t making noise, the environment is making noise. He sees and leads. I direct and praise,” he said.

Cecilia von Beroldingen, who lost her sight as an adult, relies on all types of technology, from a talking GPS called TrekkerBreeze that tells her where she is and how to get home, to an iPhone app that audibly identifies currency, barcodes and colors.

But von Beroldingen, who runs a federal forensic training facility in Sacramento called the California Criminalistics Institute, relies on a guide dog in addition to the technology. The gadgets won’t steer her clear of obstacles like tree limbs or ladders or a forgotten child’s toy. They won’t find her a seat at the airport, help her board a bus or navigate an escalator. And when the day is done, no mechanical device can compete with the warmth of a loving dog at her side, a companion she trust like no other.

She got her first dog, Kola, in 1994. “She saved my life, she was my best friend,” she said.

Von Beroldingen got Kola and her current guide dog from Guide Dogs for the Blind. The organization breeds its own dogs, with puppies spending their first eight weeks at San Rafael, followed by 16 months with a trainer for those dogs that are suited for the program. After two or three months at a school, the dog teams up with its handler and is trained for another few weeks.

Watkins said the school pairs up humans and dogs that have the same personalities, same demeanor, even the same gait. If the blind person can’t afford vet care, Guide Dogs will pay for it, he said.

Most guide dogs work until they are 8 to 10 years old, Watkins said. When they retire, they can stay with their partner or Guide Dogs will place them in an adoptive home.

Guide Dogs for the Blind trained about 2,200 of the 10,000 guide dogs working in the U.S. and Canada today. September is National Guide Dog month and several groups are working to raise money and awareness for the cause, including Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance pet food, Petco and Independent Pet Food Stores.

Online:  http://www.guidedogs.com

Associated Press - Maryville College equine-assisted therapy instructor Kim Henry walks Jan. 14 in Maryville, Tenn.

The 18 students, from Maryville College, are getting hands-on experience on how horses can help with processing difficult emotions. That’s the purpose of the 5-year-old nonprofit, founded by Kim Henry and her late husband, Calvin.

Mane Support uses the hor-ses in “equine-assisted therapy” for adults and children, people grieving deaths, recovering from abuse, dealing with terminal illness, divorce and military deployments. School groups tour the stables; corporations learn team-building and communication skills.

But it’s the first time Henry and her horse companions have taught a college course. During Maryville College’s three-week “J-Term” between the fall and spring semesters, students enroll in a single “experiential education” course. Options this year included courses in ethics, environmental responsibility, social change, leadership, life skills, arts and two options for study abroad.

Mane Support’s “Hoof to Heart” class grew out of a partnership with the college’s equestrian program, said Henry, the organization’s executive director. Students spend three hours every weekday at the Davis Ford Road arena, learning what horses can tell counselors about the people they’re counseling.

Horses can read emotion and “mirror” it back, said Henry, who has degrees in therapeutic recreation and special education. A strong personality may encounter a horse who’s suddenly turned stubborn. Yet these creatures, who weigh thousands of pounds, turn gentle when they sense a person’s “broken,” she said.

“They give us a mirror image of the client’s feelings,” she said, “which helps us so much – not to have to guess what’s going on.”

Clients don’t ride the horses; they pet them, brush them, talk to them or paint on them with nontoxic, washable paint. For people grieving, the horse can become a “linking object,” standing in for someone important who’s left, Henry said.

Associated Press - Maryville College student Ashley Demarest learns equine-assisted therapy Jan. 14 with help from a horse named Skylar in Maryville, Tenn.

“A mane can represent someone’s hair, running their fingers through it,” Henry said. The horse’s movements can take on deeper meanings, becoming a metaphor for certain relationships and unlocking feelings to be dealt with before healing can start. Art, play and other types of therapy are used in conjunction with equine work.

“It’s all about the client doing the work, not us doing it for them,” Henry said. “It’s their process. We just get out of the way.”

That’s what the MC students have been learning: how to use the horses in communication and therapy exercises, then to process what they’ve seen in human-horse interaction.

Sophomore Erin Burns, a business major, admits she signed up because “I just wanted to pet the horses” but has learned “how to be quiet and let people tell you what they need to tell you, when they need to tell you.”

And sophomore Katie Rowe, an international studies major, said the experience should help her to “step back and listen” with different cultures, and learn that “my way is not always the best way, or the (only) right way.”

The 9-year-old Labrador retriever is one of several that will soon retire from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks canine program.

The agency is asking the public to donate dogs to be paired with two game wardens. Both will soon spend about two weeks in Indiana undergoing special training.

Associated Press - Allie runs with a rolled up ball of socks Jan. 1 in Reno County. The 9-year-old Labrador retriever is one of several that will soon retire from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks canine program.

“We’re looking for Labs around 1 year old and with good drive,” said Jason Barker, a game warden who helped start the program in 2003. “A lot of times that’s the dog somebody wants to give up because the dog’s always digging or chewing. It’s that drive that makes them trainable and good in the field.”

Game warden Brian Hanzlick, Allie’s handler, said she came from a Russell County home.

“She chewed up everything in sight and was really high-strung,” he said. “She just needed a job and she’s done it pretty well.”

The department made a similar request for dogs in 2003. The result was a starting canine force of five dogs. Financial contributions were also solicited to help fund the program and are still accepted.

Wardens say it has been well worth the time, money and dogs donated.

“They’re a great tool in the field that have helped us make hundreds of cases,” Hanzlick said. “They can do in a few minutes what might take us hours or days if we can even do it. I joke that if Allie could drive I’d never have to leave the house.”

Barker said dogs and wardens will learn to work together on tracking, wildlife detection and evidence recovery during their training in Indiana.

The two game wardens chosen for the program were picked from about seven applicants. Three dogs will accompany them to Indiana. The department will find a good home for the one not used, or return it to its owner.

Once trained, the dogs will be near-constant companions of the game wardens, riding in special compartments in the cabs of their KWPD trucks.

They wear a badge when on duty and have special protection under Kansas law.

“Ever since I’ve had her she’s had good manners in the house,” Hanzlick said of Allie. “She usually sleeps with one of our three boys. I think it’s a lot easier for a dog to bond with you when they’re laying beside the chair you’re sitting in.”

Like all of Kansas’ game warden/canine pairs, Hanzlick and Allie have logged thousands of hours afield.

Living near the Cheyenne Bottoms marshes, Allie has used her sensitive nose to find scores of ducks stomped into the water and mud by poachers who have shot more than their legal limit.

Hanzlick estimates the dog has found about 100 carcasses of deer shot by poachers. Evidence from the deer, such as DNA, has been used to help make solid cases.

Associated Press - Game warden Brian Hanzlick talks Jan. 1 to Allie, his partner in the Kansas Wildlife and Parks canine program.

Locating the empty cartridges from rifles used in poaching is another common job.

The dogs and handlers also work closely with other law enforcement agencies.

Allie has helped find weapons used in stabbings and armed robberies.

Another department dog tracked and found a drug dealer that was considered dangerous.

The dogs are not trained to attack people. In fact, their dispositions lend well to other important duties.

Hanzlick said he and Allie have done about 20 public demonstrations and programs a year.

At presentations, he often put Allie through her paces by hiding things like cartridges or things with human scent.

On things like a hidden duck or goose, she’ll retrieve it directly to her handler. If it’s something too small or too large to be picked up and carried, like a pistol cartridge or deer carcass, she stands at the spot and barks excitedly.

Hanzlick has taught Allie a few entertaining tricks. With his body movements he can get her to bark a specific number of times.

During a brief demonstration recently he asked, “Allie, what’s the limit on pheasants?” She barked four times.

“When I’m in the field somebody will say something about a limit of pheasants and I’ll ask her and she’ll answer with four barks,” Hanzlick said. “When I’m at a grade school I may ask her what is five minus two and have her bark three times. It’s pretty entertaining and people really enjoy that kind of thing.”

Hanzlick said he’s decided to leave the canine program so he can spend more time with his family.

Like most dogs retired from canine programs, Allie will stay with her handler.

“She gets to stay with me and my family. We’ll do some duck or pheasant hunting on our own for a change,” Hanzlick said. “I’ve (jokingly) told my wife I want Allie to be buried with me someday. We get very close to these dogs.”

She’s a Grow-a-Frog, bought about 10 years ago as a tadpole, who then grew into a frog as the children in class observed.

“She was probably as big as a quarter, but we put her in a bigger tank, and now she’s bigger than your fist,” said Lilly’s owner, first-grade teacher Liz Starnes.

“She’s ginormous. She’s been like a landmark here because everybody stops in to see her.”

Studies suggest that the use of live pets in the classroom contributes positively to increased empathy as well as socio-emotional development in students. Several local school districts have embraced pets, saying they help students learn characteristics such as responsibility.

“They learn compassion because Lilly doesn’t like it when you tap on her tank,” Starnes said.

“She’s the first thing they look for in the morning; they’ll say good morning to Lilly.”

Associated Press - Nicolle Stratton's fifth-grade class passes around the class pet, a guinea pic named S'mores, Nov. 30 during study hall at Riley School in Marengo, Ill.

At Riley School in Marengo, fifth-grade teacher Nicolle Stratton has guinea pig No. 5, named S’mores, who followed others named Gizmo, Snickers, Spike and Buttercup.

When she was a first-grader, Stratton’s classroom had a bunny. So when she decided in second grade to become a teacher, she also decided to have her own classroom pet.

“It teaches responsibility,” she said. “One of the jobs in my classroom each week is to take care of the guinea pig, make sure she gets her food and water and her hay.”

Allergies can be an issue, though.

“I’ve had kids who were allergic, but I just keep them on the opposite side of the room of the cage, and it’s never been a problem,” Stratton said.

Each weekend, S’mores goes home with a different student who has volunteered and received parent permission. There’s a schedule for when S’mores can be held, but she’s not really a distraction, Stratton said.

“I did have one where every time we did a spelling test, he would talk,” she said. “Our joke was he was trying to give them the answers.”

Associated Press - Wyatt Voss, 8, of Hampshire, Ill., peaks his head in the hermit crab tank Nov. 30 during class at Riley School in Marengo, Ill.

As S’mores isn’t the first guinea pig to grace Stratton’s classroom, there comes the inevitable time when the predecessor dies. By the time they’re in fifth grade, most of her students have had experience with losing a loved one, but they still hold a goodbye ceremony to remember the lost guinea pig.

Stratton said she also bought a new one soon after, and the students were excited about having a new classroom pet.

Dan Hamilton, owner of Petland in Crystal Lake, said teachers occasionally stop by for a young guinea pig that he got through a local breeder. He also recommends bunnies.

“Some will do reptiles, but you have to watch because of salmonella,” he said. “A lot of that depends on the teachers themselves and if they’re comfortable.”

Michelle Hazek’s third-grade classroom at Riley School has neither a mammal nor a reptile, but a crustacean – a hermit crab named Bob.

Hazek said she was allergic to guinea pigs, so those were out. In the past she had hatched chicks in the  classroom, but grown chickens can’t stay.

Although Bob can’t be held – he might be tiny, but if he pinches, it hurts – and doesn’t interact like a guinea pig, the students still enjoy him.

“We do talk about him pretty much every day, ‘What’s Bob doing now?’” Hazek said. “Some kids who aren’t academically strong, they know a lot about animals, and that’s their time to shine a little bit.”

When brothers Joshua and Jonathan Kobuszewski graduated in 2006, it was two-thirds women. The brothers, who have joined their father Mike in the Indian Creek Veterinary Clinic north of Topeka, bucked the trend.

Now the school is 75 percent women and some schools in the country are 80 percent women.

The reasons are as varied as the women who want to become veterinarians and the men who don’t.

When Litfin moved to Topeka 24 years ago she joined the small animal practice of Doug Jernigan, who had graduated from K-State in the early 1970s. His class was the first to have a female, Litfin said.

Ronnie Elmore, associate dean of the K-State vet college, said some theories that attempt to explain the trend can be dismissed.

For example, he said some people assume that women veterinarians go into small animal practices. But that isn’t true. A number of women vets go into large animal practices.

He said the key to handling large animals, such as cows and horses is to have the proper equipment and to know how to use it correctly. He said it is no easier for a 200-pound man to push around a big animal than it is for a 110-pound woman.

Discrimination likely was a factor in women not going into the field prior to 40 years ago, he added. As society opened to the idea of women being capable of doing most things men can do, women began moving into formerly male-dominated fields.

And then there are some psychological differences between men and women. Women may be going into the vet business simply because of their love of animals; whereas men may be seeking careers that pay better.

“Women tend to make decisions more with their hearts,” Elmore said.

Litfin agreed that women tend to have more emotional attachment to animals than men.

But economics are a big part of the trend, Litfin believes. Forty years ago veterinarians weren’t really paid very well in relation to the work involved in getting the degree — often earning starting salaries of $30,000 to $40,000 a year. That has improved, but Litfin makes the argument that veterinarians still aren’t paid generously considering the school debts they often have to pay off in the early years of their careers.

Men likely gravitated to other fields of study where the odds of higher income appeared more promising.
Jonathan Kobuszewski agreed in general with the arguments of Elmore and Litfin, but emphasized the need to recognize differences in individuals. He said he and his brother and a number of other males have the passion for treating animals and their owners and that is why they bucked the trend.

He agreed that, statistically, a higher percentage of male students may pick fields that produce higher income sooner. But he said his father often quotes something his father had told him, “Work hard and the money will come.”

“It isn’t one of those professions where you are going to go out and make six figures right away,” he said.

If it is true some males are forsaking veterinary medicine to make more money in some other field, Kobuszewski sees that as a good thing.

“It’s going to be good for the veterinary profession overall. You are going to have people there who really want to be there,” he said.

“It was pretty straightforward because I had four young children to feed. The vet said surgery was my only option. I did not want my dog to suffer,” she said.

Gates, 41, of Cotati, about 50 miles north of San Francisco, made that decision 11 years ago but said nothing has changed. She still couldn’t afford high-priced health care for her current pets, an 11-year-old cat, Cocoa, and an 9-year-old golden retriever Sadie. And Gates isn’t alone.

Money is a consideration for the majority of people when dealing with the cost of health care for animals, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media.

While most pet owners, 62 percent, would likely get vet care if the bill was $500, the percentage drops below half when the cost hits $1,000. The number drops to 35 percent if the cost is $2,000 and to 22 percent if it reaches $5,000.

Only at the $500 level are dog owners (74 percent) more likely than cat owners (46 percent) to say they would likely seek treatment. In the higher price ranges, the two are about equally likely to seek vet care.

“Grief gets complicated when we can’t do everything we would have liked to do for our animal,” said veterinarian Jane Shaw, director of the Argus Institute in the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo.

That’s especially true in hard economic times, when spending money you don’t have on an animal can have a lasting impact on children, the mortgage, grocery bills, heating bills.

Associated Press - This March 5, 2009, photo provided by John Eisele for Colorado State University shows Dr. Jane Shaw, assistant professor of clinical sciences and director of Argus Institute, with her dog Cliff, at the Argus Institute, Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo.

“Euthanasia is always sad but when finances have to be considered, when you feel there is a possibility you didn’t or couldn’t do the right thing, you feel guilty,” Shaw said. “We are at a point where we are talking about basic life needs or survival needs.”

Terry Cornwell, 55, of Newport, Ore., has had to put down a couple of pets, but none was harder than a dog that was diagnosed with cancer.

“My income decides a lot of my expenses,” she said.

So far, her current year-old cocker mix, Buddy, and her 8-year-old cat, Boo Kitty, have had few health problems. Cornwell would do everything she could, but if a vet told her surgery was her only option and she had to have the money up front, “I would be done. There would be nothing I could do about it.”

Cornwell does worry, though. So do one in five pet owners who said they fret a lot about being unable to afford seeing a vet. Dog owners are more likely to worry than cat owners, and women and low-income people are among the biggest worriers.

“If they start getting into expensive vet bills, there’s nothing I can do. I have no options. If you are talking about something like serious cancer, you’re putting the animal through a whole lot of stuff that’s iffy anyhow and it’s not fair to them,” she said.

About one in four people, or 27 percent, said pet insurance is a good way to save money on vet bills, though that’s five times the number who actually carry insurance on their pets.

Diego Negrete, 26, of Austin, Texas, has insurance on his 4-year-old fox terrier, Roxy, and his 2-year-old cat, Charley, but he’s in the minority. Ninety-five percent of those polled said they didn’t have insurance.

“It’s a nice cushion to have,” he said of the policy that covers all yearly shots and checkups for about half what they would normally cost. It also pays for part of the costs of different problems, he said, although he didn’t know all the details.

But Negrete doesn’t fear vet bills. “I’m not worried at all because the insurance would cover part of it and I am financially capable of covering whatever it costs,” he said.

However, if you are looking upward of $5,000, “something must be seriously wrong,” Negrete said. He would have to look at how much the animal would suffer through the problem, and how the recovery could go. And he would want some assurance the pet would have a good life later.

Negrete had a 14-year-old dog who’d had a hernia removed twice. When it grew back a third time, “he was old and about done and he was in pain, so we put him down,” he said.

Meg Fowler, 63, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., is a retired insurance agent, “so I know the risks.”

If something catastrophic happened to leave her 10-year-old cockapoo, Jasmine, in a lot of pain, “We would have to put her down,” Fowler said. “It would be much more humane. Jasmine is a huge part of our lives and we adore her. But she is a dog. It is hard to remember that, as much as I believe she has a soul.”

Before Jasmine, there was Max, another cockapoo. When he was 15, he got a brain tumor. Their vet helped them come to grips with a decision that no insurance could have cushioned — euthanasia.

For Fowler and her husband of 43 years, “It was the hardest day of our lives. We had no choice in that situation. There was no lifesaving surgery and the dog was way over his life span. It was a difficult decision, but it had to be done and we did it,” she said.

When quality of life has diminished and there is severe pain and suffering, the time has come to start making decisions, Shaw said.

In the final hours, it helps some people to share one last special time with an animal — a trip through a fast food drive-thru for a hamburger, a bath, a dish of homemade ice cream — something familiar to the pet, she said.

Some will take a hair clipping or clay pawprint to help build a bridge and foster the grief process. Others will arrange for euthanasia to happen at home so the pet can be surrounded by every member of the family, including other animals, Shaw said.

But nothing will completely ease the ache, she said, because guilt is part of the cost of caring deeply.
The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted April 7-12, 2010, and involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,112 pet owners nationwide. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

Links of Interest

www.petside.com/healthcare-poll

http://www.argusinstitute.colostate.edu

They converted their old Winnebago into a grooming salon on wheels and took to the streets, grooming every type of canine from palm-sized Yorkshire terriers to towering English mastiffs under the name TransFURmations.

Associated Press - Transfumation Mobile Pet Grooming owners Jason and Melordy McCord groom Donna Garduno's poodles, Little Boy and Isabella, April 22 with a pawicure and a trimming.

“It sure beats welding fumes all day long, every day of the week,” said Jason McCord, a former diesel mechanic, as he watched his wife work on Isabella, a year-old standard poodle.

The McCords had pulled their Minnie Winnie into the Gardunos’ driveway in Decatur to work on the family’s three poodles: one small, one medium and one large.

“The big one, she’s kind of a hassle,” Alicia Garduno, 12, said of Isabella.

After a somewhat slow winter, the McCords turned their mobile grooming business into a full-time operation.

“The bigger the hassle a dog is to get to the groomer, the more likely they’ll call us,” Jason McCord said.

But the mobile-grooming business lends itself to a variety of needs, catering to those who don’t want to transport a dirty dog, those without transportation, people who live in rural areas and a variety of other stories.

On the scene, the McCords set to work making the pups feel comfortable and then get down to business, bathing and grooming them in converted areas of the RV. The couple also breeds miniature dachshunds, so they’re used to having furry, four-footed companions around.

Their very first customer was Friendship Hill Retirement Home in Lovington, where they bathed and groomed Oz, a Newfoundland mix that serves as the home’s community dog.

One of the McCords’ most loyal clients is Reilly, a golden retriever owned by Philip Smith of Casner. Reilly, whose full name is Radar O’Reilly after the “MASH” corporal, has a bad case of allergies.

One day, while Smith was out taking Reilly for a walk, the McCords stopped their car and handed him a business card, and he’s been using their service ever since.

“It’s so convenient because he’s a big dog, and to get him in the back of my van and get him into town and take him to someplace that would give a bath and pick him up (would be an ordeal),” Smith said.

The couple said getting the word out about their work has been the most difficult part, but clients talking among themselves has helped considerably.

Patricia Uicker of LaPlace bought a dachshund from the McCords and since has used their grooming services several times.

“When they told me they were going to do this, I thought ‘Boy, I can’t wait,’” she said.

Her other dog, Jackie, is very sensitive and scares easily, but Uicker said the McCords have a gentle touch that keeps her calm.

“She’s the best dog in the world,” Uicker said.

Uicker had used a mobile dog grooming service when she lived in Michigan.

“It’s great for me because the dogs are more comfortable, and they don’t have to leave their home,” she said. “They know they’re right here, right close to their house.”

Associated Press - Transfumation Mobile Pet Grooming arrives in its mobile grooming RV April 22 in the driveway oF Donna Garduno's home. Transfumation owners Jason and Melordy McCord, converted their old Winnebago into a grooming salon on wheels and have taken to the streets, grooming every type of anine from palm-sixed Yorkshire terriers to townering English mastiffs.

The dogs, as clients, are relaxing, the McCords said, and the ability to set their own schedule is an attractive part of the job.

“This has been a dream of mine for quite a long time,” said Melody McCord, who started off as a grooming apprentice in another shop.

This spring, the McCords received an offer to rent the grooming space at Ken’s Aquarium & Pet Supply on East Cerro Gordo Street. They quickly accepted and have been putting their personal touch on the space, changing the “Patti’s Pet Grooming” signs to reflect their presence.

For now, the McCords are parking the Minnie Winnie during the week, as they build up their clientele for the non-mobile business. They plan to hit the road every other Saturday, devoting the other weekends to working in the shop. The McCords said they will continue to serve their loyal mobile-grooming customers and some new ones by appointment as needed.

“I enjoy the people and the dogs,” said Melody McCord. “I think I enjoy the dogs a little more, but I enjoy it all.”

He’s not trotted on Beau yet. Or any horse. It might be scary, but he’s ready to try.

He was so excited, knowing he’d be coming to the L5 Youth Ranch, that he woke up early. He dressed in his ranch clothes — his L5 Ranch T-shirt and his new Wranglers, so big he needs a belt.

“He would have worn his cowboy boots to school if I would have let him,” says his mom, Shawn, smiling as she watches him lead the horse around the corral.

The 12-year-old has been coming to the ranch for three years. At first, he was too scared to ride, so he brushed the horses down. He finger-painted on them, too, to get use to the feel of their muscles and hair and size. Then he washed off that paint.

He learned to feed and groom the horses. The routine of the ranch helped him relax.

He learned that you always approach a horse with love in your hands.

He told his therapist, his doctors, some of the other kids at school, about the ranch.

Kaare is intelligent. He gets good grades at Pound Middle School. But it’s hard for him to make friends. He has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism that makes social interaction difficult. Kids with Asperger’s can have meltdowns and bad days.

The horses became his friends. So did the other kids who come to the L5 Youth Ranch. So did Matt and Daisy Langston, who started this ranch near Sprague four years ago, after feeling called by God.

The ranch serves at-risk and disadvantaged kids.

Matt wears a cowboy hat and Wranglers. He looks every inch the real deal.

He and Kaare have a routine. Before riding, they walk around the dirt inside the corral and pick up rocks, so Beau doesn’t trip. They brush Beau, put on his saddle just so. That’s their one-on-one time, when they talk about troubles at school or anything else.

Then Kaare mounts the horse and Matt leads them around.

On this recent evening, Matt has Kaare lift his arms straight out, then over his head. No hands!

His mom cheers.

“That’s really good!”

“He’s so much more relaxed,” she says. “Last year, if the horse sneezed, if he shook a little, it made Kaare very, very nervous. Last year, he would have a death grip on that saddlehorn, going around in there.

“And this year, you see how he’s much more relaxed.”

The first time he ever rode was on a horse named Maverick. He went just a short distance. But his mom was amazed to see him overcome the fear.

In the car driving home, she cried.

Nearby, in a smaller corral, Daisy Langston works with a 9-year-old girl who had a rough start in life. She was in foster care. She has anger issues. Her foster parents adopted her.

She has a knack for horses, her mom says, standing just outside the ring. She loves the ranch so much, she begged to come out last winter, just to pet the horses.

Beau. Mouse. Blue. Hershey …

They have not had it easy, either. Matt and Daisy rescued most of them from bad environments. Mouse came to them after an accident. He fell inside a trailer. Another horse stomped on him. His mouth didn’t heal properly.

That’s why it looks a little weird, Kaare says later, his boots planted back in the dirt.

“Oh. You might want to keep your hat away from Mouse,” he warns. “He steals hats.”

Some horses come in underfed. Some come with a look in their eyes that could only be described as dead.

The horses help the kids heal. The kids help the horses.

Matt taught Kaare how to rope using a plastic cow head. Kaare asked for one for his birthday last year.

Kaare wrote a poem at school last year. It was about how he dreams of owning a ranch like the L5 someday. How he dreams of owning a horse. How he dreams that people will treat horses right.

How he dreams Asperger’s syndrome will go away.

He’s an old hand at the ranch now.

And guess what: He and Beau recently trotted for the first time.

How did it feel?

“Not too good physically,” he says. “But pretty good mentally.”

By the end of this summer, he plans to be riding all on his own.

The airline said Wednesday it would let passengers bring along their small dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters or small birds for $75 each way.

That matches the price charged by another low-fare carrier, Southwest Airlines, which began allowing customers to bring small pets on board last year.

According to its Web site, Frontier charges less for some tickets for people, including travel between Denver and Albuquerque, N.M., or between Milwaukee and Indianapolis or Kansas City.

The pets must fit in a carrier that goes under an airplane seat and must have proper health documentation. Spokeswoman Lindsey Purves said customers should have their vet complete a health form for the animal within 10 days of the trip.

The airline lets bigger pets fly as checked baggage for a $150 fee.

Purves said the airline removed pets other than service animals from cabins in June 2008, requiring that they fly as cargo.

Frontier is a unit of Republic Airways Holdings Inc.

The Finney County Humane Society, with the cooperation of the Garden City Police Department, will be sponsoring free Parvo/Distemper shot clinics.  The last clinic date is May 22.

The clinic is scheduled from 1 to 3 p.m. in the garage area of the Animal Shelter at 124 N. Fleming (directly across the street from Pro Build).

The shots are provided free of charge to any resident of Finney County, and there is no limit on the number of dogs that you can bring. Litters of puppies are welcome. Owners need to be present with their dogs so that they can sign a release form.  Each dog must be on a leash or in a secure carrier.

These clinics are not meant to replace professional veterinarian care.  These clinics are aimed at meeting the needs of dogs that normally are not provided with professional health care.

The Finney County Humane Society also is in need of volunteers to help staff the event. Please contact them for more information about that.