Rachel Ferrara, a fourth year New Media Marketing major at Rochester Institute of Technology has had Kingston for almost a year. It took a year for RIT to allow Kingston to live in campus housing. The process included finding an off-campus psychologist to confirm Ferrara’s relationship with Kingston would indeed be helpful for her depression. “Medication can only do so much. Something I was struggling with was motivation. So by having to take care of him, the simplest things like getting out of bed and brushing your teeth become so much easier because I have to get out of bed and make sure he’s fed and he’s happy.”
Mary Therese Friel, business owner, philanthropist, and Miss U.S.A. 1979, is a handler part of Lollypop Farm’s Pet Assisted Therapy (PAT) program. Seven of Friel’s twenty personal pets, including her ferret, Marshmallow, are certified as PAT animals and accompany her to places like nursing homes and schools to visit people who can’t own their own ESA. She owns so many animals not only because of her love for animals, but also because of the personal benefits of those relationships. “When I get home and my pets hug me the world stops. With this crazy lifestyle, working seven days a week, eighteen to twenty-hour days, one of the reasons I [am part of Lollypop Farm’s PAT Program] is because I know the benefit. I’m trying to give people experiences through what I have.”
Robert VanWinkle is a U.S. veteran who sustained a life-altering head injury that has significantly impacted his memory, among other things. VanWinkle’s service dog, Fseries, helps him remember tasks like taking medication and turning off the oven. But VanWinkle has experienced the benefits of his relationship with Fseries in more complex ways, like her ability to give him the feeling of security. “I had a head injury that causes severe depressive moods, and since having her my mood has been better. I used to have night terrors every night, screaming. My children growing up would hide under their beds because they were scared. But now I’ve had maybe six in two years.”
Nicholas Cornish got Butterscotch as a family cat when he was a freshman in high school. Cornish had struggled with mental health throughout high school, so when he was preparing to make the adjustment to college life at Rochester Institute of Technology, his therapist approved Butterscotch as an ESA to help his mental health through the process. Besides helping Cornish with the stress of university life, Butterscotch has been instrumental in soothing the emotional stress of his physical transition from female to male and the dysphoria of experiencing a female body while being male. “It felt like my body was betraying me again. Having him there when I’m lying in bed, writhing in pain —just being there was really helpful. Because there’s someone who cares about me and wants to see that I’m okay. ”
