Local Comfort Dogs Return From Aiding Sandy Hook Students

BELVIDERE - A dog running around inside a church doesn't look all that normal, but "Kye" isn't a normal dog.  He belongs to Immanuel Lutheran Church in Belvidere and he's a comfort dog.  He and his trainers, all members of the church, just returned from helping comfort people in Newtown, Connecticut.

"It takes somebody with a heart to serve in the community and also the heart to want to help people and bring comfort to people," said Kye's trainer, Sue Piske. 

Comfort dogs were sent to Newtown immediately in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  The dogs were so well received, Lutheran Church Charities was asked to return with more dogs.  Kye and his trainers went to Newtown just after the first of the year in order to comfort the kids in Newtown at the start of a new semester.

"We got the call from Lutheran Church Charities," said Libby Robertson, coordinator of the Comfort Dog Ministries.

"They had been invited back again to be with the kids when they returned to the new Sandy Hook Elementary School and to be with the kids at the Newtown High School."

Robertson says the job wasn't easy, listening to the kids' sometimes heart-breaking stories.  But Robertson says having the comfort dogs there gave many of these kids the ability to talk about what was on their mind, sometimes for the first time.

"As they're petting them, they become more and more relaxed and when that happens they are able to open up, they can talk about what's troubling them," said Robertson.  "And in this case, in the Sandy Hook case, they had a lot to talk about."

The effect the dogs had on the children was profound.  Robertson recalls a student returning to the school; he came in to pet the dogs.  She says they always ask the students if they have a dog at home, and Robertson says this one student says he had one that died just the year before.

"He said, 'I think that probably my dog and my sister are in heaven together,' and that's when I realized that this little boy had lost his sister," said Robertson.

One of Immanuel Lutheran's dogs is still in Connecticut.  One year-old, Addy, was brought to Newtown as a comfort dog in-training.  Now she's ready to be on her own and she may end up staying in the Newtown area.  And even though Piske, her trainer, says she's grown attached to the golden retriever, she says she's happy Comfort Dog Ministries will be able to leave a lasting impression on the Newtown community.

"It makes me proud to be a part of it and I'm so excited I got the chance to work with her out there," said Piske.