Pets Forever volunteers help seniors keep their pets

At 83, Rita Lopez of Loveland can't take her dog, Buddy, on long walks — it doesn't help that she has arthritis and polio and can only go a few paces out her door and back.

Buddy, a Chihuahua Lopez rescued a year ago, still gets 15- to 20-minute walks three times a week with the help of Colorado State University student Elida Muniz through the Pets Forever program.

"Sometimes I can't walk very well. To have somebody walk my dog is really important to me," said Lopez, who lives in low-income senior housing in central Loveland and raised 10 children, plus operated a day care and worked as a housekeeper, caregiver and volunteer.

Elida Muniz of Pets Forever offers Buddy a treat

Since August, Muniz, 21, has been spending 1 ½ to 2 hours with Lopez every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning to help with pet care and offer companionship.

Muniz, a fourth-year social work major and Fort Collins resident, visits Lopez and three other clients each week through a social work field placement internship at Pets Forever. She helps with dog walking, yard cleanup and pet feeding.

"I'm mainly there for client companionship, building up a relationship with them," said Muniz, who plans to work in the medical social work field in a hospital or nursing home. "We talk about their life, their history, their kids, their interests in Pets Forever. We usually use the pets as the focus of the bond with us. From there, the conversation leads to other things."

Pets Forever, a community service program housed in CSU's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, helps low-income elderly and disabled Larimer County residents maintain ownership of their dogs and cats by providing basic pet care and limited financial support for spay and neuter procedures, veterinary care and animal supplies.

Volunteers step in to do everything from dog walking to in-home animal care. They brush the animals, do yard and litter-box cleanup, deliver pet food and supplies, and give rides to the vet or groomer.

"We really recognize how much pets bring to people's lives," said Sarah Van Etten, program coordinator of Pets Forever. "The pet takes on an outsized role of importance in their lives. We feel like helping them keeps that relationship intact."

Pets Forever also serves as a shelter diversion program, Van Etten said.

"We become a part of that critical safety net in our community of keeping pets at home as opposed to having them go to a shelter where it might be hard to re-home them because sometimes the pets are older and maybe not in great health," Van Etten said. "By helping older pets stay at home with their families, we're providing a service not only to animal shelters but to the greater community as a whole."

Add captiRita Lopez of Loveland gets a kiss from her dog, Buddy, during a Pets Forever visit Oct. 24. (Shelley Widhalm / For the Loveland Reporter-Herald)on

The volunteers, called client service providers, are students and community members who provide the pet service and companionship. They are paired up with a pet owner, who typically is homebound and has limited social support, and come to the pet owner's home two to three times a week.

Students volunteer in multiple ways, such as through a three-credit service learning course that includes classroom time and weekly visits, semester internships of 10 to 30 hours of service a week and as university volunteers. There also are students who provide services through the university's work-study program.

"We diversified so we can serve as many clients as possible," Van Etten said.

The internship program is new and had six participants in 2017 and 17 so far this year.

"We're looking to expand that as a way for students to practice professional skill-building and get real-world experience with the population we serve," Van Etten said.

In spring 2018, Pets Forever began working with Shine LLC in Fort Collins, bringing teams of four to five adults with intellectual disabilities that are part of the day program to provide the service.

"It's a way for us to connect with different parts of the community," Van Etten said. "Pets Forever is looking for creative and innovative ways to build community and ensure sustainability of the service."

In 2017, 137 client service providers worked with the program, including 105 students, six interns and 26 community volunteers. They served 187 clients and 325 pets with 40 percent of the clients in Loveland and the rest mainly in Fort Collins and LaPorte. When the program was founded in 2008, there were 20 clients.

The human-animal bond

The service helps the pet owners preserve the human-animal bond, giving them the benefit of the comfort and companionship animals offer.

"Pets are a really important part of people's lives. They're their only companion sometimes," Muniz said. "It gives them something to take care of."

The pets provide the owners with physical, therapeutic and emotional support and help with things like lowering blood pressure and symptoms of depression and anxiety, Muniz said.

"Having that nonjudgmental companion that's with them throughout the day stabilizes them in their mood and emotions," Muniz said.

Pet Forever's services also benefit the animals, Muniz said. She sees Buddy become energetic and get excited for his walks, she said.

"Just being able to walk the dog further, you can see that in the dog's attitude and behavior," Muniz said. "They seem happier when they go further."

Lori Kogan, program founder and director of Pets Forever and a professor in the clinical sciences department of CSU's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, started the program when she learned about seniors and other local residents having to give up their pets because they couldn't physically or financially care for them. She tried to identify a service to help them but couldn't find anything in the Fort Collins community, she said.

"For a lot of these people, the pet is the only family member they have," Kogan said. "To keep those families intact felt really important to me. ... It's incredible, unconditional companionship. ... It's all part of keeping that relationship healthy and happy."

The program's funding

Pets Forever is funded through grants and donations, including the Animal Assistance Foundation, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and PetSmart Charities. The budget for the program is $170,000 year, which covers student and volunteer coordination and administrative and direct program costs.

In 2015, the program lost its main funding source, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and has found replacement funds since then.

Van Etten said it is continuing to build a base through the generosity of individuals in the community as well as foundations focused on helping animals and people. "We're looking at foundations interested in the idea of building communities within generations, connecting students and older adults."

Pets Forever aims to continue sustainability of the program by looking for additional funding sources, Van Etten said.

"We've been really incredibly grateful and appreciative for the outpouring of support we've been given by the community and some of these lead foundations, but we're always looking to grow and expand our community of support," Van Etten said.

For details, visit petsforever.colostate.edu. The giving page is at advancing.colostate.edu/cvmbs/petsforever.

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Pets Forever volunteers help seniors keep their pets