Therapy dog missing his rounds

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This article was published 12/04/2021 (1724 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RM OF OAKVIEW — The pandemic has affected everyone, and Grizzly, a 150-pound St. Bernard, has been no exception.

The friendly giant has been unable to visit patients and staff of Westman-area hospitals since the pandemic hit early last year.

He “absolutely” misses it, owner Mark Saler said of his therapy dog’s charitable work.

Whenever Saler has stopped by a hospital in his Jeep during the past year, he has left the back window open, where Grizzly watches him enter the building.

“He barks and barks at me because he knows that’s his place and he can’t understand why we’re not going in there,” Saler said, adding current health measures have disallowed such visits.

To help fill the gap, Saler has been purchasing stuffed animals of St. Bernards to be handed out at the hospitals they would normally visit.

These include hospitals in Minnedosa, Neepawa and Brandon, which until the pandemic hit Grizzly would visit once per week to brighten up the days of both patients and staff.

The effort was kickstarted by the Minnedosa Lions Club last year, when they presented Grizzly with a medal of hope and Saler a $500 cheque.

Although Saler was uncomfortable with accepting money for his volunteer work, which he’d never done before, the club insisted he accept it for gasoline costs and other expenses related to the duo’s travels to hospitals.

Saler sat on it for the winter and came up with the idea of purchasing the stuffed animals. He reached out to various businesses, which he said jumped at the chance to expand the project. Co-ops in Brandon, Minnedosa and Neepawa came on board alongside Integra Tire in Minnedosa and Westoba Credit Union in Brandon, raising $2,000 for the purchase of stuffed animals.

So far, 200 stuffed animals have been given away, and Saler said more are on the way.

Brandon Photographics and Lasting Image donated framed photographs of Grizzly for each of the recipient health-care centres in order to show people the inspiration behind the stuffed animals.

The Sun caught up with Saler and Grizzly at their acreage near Minnedosa on Sunday. Grizzly was seen playfully prancing along, graceful for a dog of his size and patient when having his photo taken.

Grizzly turned seven years old last week and has been with Saler since he was a pup of six weeks. He’s Saler’s fourth St. Bernard, after falling in love with the “calm, gentle, loving” breed when he got his first dog at a young age.

Grizzly is the first animal Saler has trained as a licensed therapy dog.

“We need more kindness and caring in the world, and Grizzly is a bit of a magician in how he can bring smiles to those people in desperate need of a smile,” Saler said.

“That includes patients and staff. I’ve worked with staff at the hospital before who have seen some traumatic things, and of course patients — sick children; terminal cancer patients.

“Anybody he senses that’s not feeling well or is down and out or crying, he will instantly cuddle up and get close to them — give them some love.”

The reaction among both patients and staff has been “unbelievable,” he said, with Grizzly making the trek out to hospitals for almost six years now — minus this past year.

“It’s always such an overwhelming response,” Saler said. “There aren’t many therapy dogs who are his size, so as soon as they see a 150-pound St. Bernard come around the corner that’s a therapy dog, it’s an instant smile.”

Grizzly has also become known across the country thanks to his annual appearances on Hockey Night in Canada, during the Winnipeg Jets’ annual Hockey Fights Cancer event. Grizzly and Saler are put on the air during intermission to share their story.

Although thrilled to brighten patients’ days during the pandemic, Saler clarified the stuffed animals are a stop-gap solution, and he will be joining Grizzly by visiting local hospitals as soon as possible.

They both miss it, and suspect patients and staff miss the St. Bernard’s visits, too.

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB