Jennifer Ward

Mental Health and Animals.

Randomly watching TV one morning we saw the adopt a pet segment and fell in love with a toy Pomeranian. We found out that he was about 8 years old and his owner had passed away.

That day after jumping through some hoops we adopted Koolaid.

Up to this point, I honestly thought "emotional support" animals were simply pets.

Dogs were not allowed in our apartment but we were able to get a letter from my daughter's counselor that supported Koolaid being her emotional support dog.

Up to that point I had no idea what the signs of depression and anxiety were in my daughter.

Little did either one of us know how much of a support Koolaid would become.

Mental health has been a subject not many talk about in our society.

It's through several personal experiences that have caused me to become so vocal and bring awareness to this topic.

My daughter's anxiety would cause her to miss hours at work, cause extreme stress, and I saw tears often.

Koolaid was such a loving animal. He would lay in front of the door waiting for my daughter to come home from work.

Koolaid provided comfort that would ease my daughter's anxiety and provided her unconditional love that eased her stress.

Koolaid has since passed but continues to be a support in our lives.

I am passionate about the CFC for many reasons but most importantly because it has affected my life!

My causes are Mental Health and Animal Welfare.