Charlie Johnson, a Vietnam War veteran, needed a companion dog. Aliana, a ROAR rescue dog, needed a job.
“Aliana has saved my life,” Charlie Johnson, a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War told Didi Tulloch and Mary Jo Duffy of ROAR.
“I’m just so down to my soul happy with Aliana you could knock me over with a feather!” he said.
Aliana is a Australian shepherd mix that ROAR provided for Johnson, who lives in Naugatuck. Aliana is the first companion dog the ROAR Donofrio Family Animal Shelter in Ridgefield has donated through the national Pets for Vets program.
“From the moment she saw Charlie, she just started licking him,” said Tulloch, ROAR’s Pets for Vets chapter director. “She knew he needed her.
“It’s like she needed a job and Charlie needed a companion,” Tulloch said.
“He told us we’ve saved two lives — not just Aliana’s, his.”
“Aliana gives me purpose now and has become a big part of my new life,” Johnson said in one his e-mails to the ROAR women.
“You ladies have not only helped with an adoption of a shelter dog but have saved a sheltered marine!” he said.
“I wonder if you two actually realize what you’ve really done? Years and years of doctors and medicine and nothing, but you two broke down a wall they could never have dreamt of penetrating. You both are to me my ‘Sisters in Arms’!”
In a telephone interview with a reporter, Johnson was no less enthusiastic
“I could not be happier with Aliana,” he said. “She is exceptionally smart, exceptionally affectionate.”
He’d reached out to ROAR on an impulse.
“I’d heard about the Pets for Vets program,” he said. “I moved into this apartment in December. I was kind of lonely and things weren’t going too good with my mental health…
“One day I just said ‘Let me Google it’ and I left an email with them, also left a phone call. It wasn’t more than four hours later that Didi contacted me.”
It took time. He got Aliana over Memorial Day weekend.
“She’s taken a big part of my heart, already,” he said.
“Some of my PTSD has definitely calmed down. Things are looking better.
The doctor agrees, thinks that she’s done a really good job so far. And I really love her. I’m very blessed,” he said.
“Didi and Mary Jo are angels — they really are.”
Ridgefield’s Everett Ray Seymour American Legion Post 78 likes the program.
“We’re supporting this,” said Post 78 Commander George Besse.
American Legion members ask townspeople for donations, then give out symbolic red lapel poppies.
“The townspeople support us during our poppy program. People always ask us: Where’s the money going?” Besse said. “We donate to a number organizations.”
The Legion supports: Homes for the Brave, a Bridgeport-based housing and rehabilitation program that helps homeless veterans; Fisher House, which provides accommodations for families that want to stay close to hospitalized veterans; and Veterans Landing, an assisted living residence for older veterans and their spouses.
With a $500 donation in late July, American Legion Post 78 added ROAR’s Pets for Vets program to its list.
“Its good to be able to give to something local,” Besse said.
ROAR is “incredibly grateful to George and the American Legion for their generous donation,” Tulloch said.
As a shelter, Ridgefield’s ROAR has long focused on saving dogs and cats.
In January, it began working with Pets for Vets with the goal of having some of its saved animals help veterans.
“We love our animals, and we want to thank our veterans,” said Tulloch. “We’re thanking our veterans for serving our country.”
After affiliating with the national Pets for Vets program, ROAR’s representatives went to the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Haven, met with psychologists and learned about working with people who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
Nationwide, Pets for Vets has 28 chapters, and ROAR is one of seven “shelter chapters” that house animals.
ROAR’s shelter has 12 kennels for dogs, a canine maternity ward, and also accommodates 10 adult cats and two or three litters of kittens.
“It’s great that we have the cats here,” Tulloch said.
“There’s going to be a veteran who can’t take care of a dog, but needs a companion.”
ROAR’s Pets for Vets program proclaims its mission as: “To help heal the emotional wounds of military veterans by using the power of the human-animal bond to provide a second chance for shelter animal by rescuing, training and pairing them with America’s servicemen and women who could benefit from having a companion animal.
“Both our veterans and shelter animals have been through traumatic events: together they can help each other heal.”
The operation is a bit like a vertical monopoly, starts with raw material and brings it step by step to become a finished product, ready for market.
“We rescue the dogs, train the dogs, we foster the dogs — the dogs are put in a home environment for four to six weeks before they’re given to the vets,” Tulloch said.
ROAR fund-raises to support the program because it helps the veterans with the cost of owning an animal.
“…We do not want to create an additional burden on the veteran; with each dog/cat match we provide all of the necessary equipment, food, preventative medications and training and support for them to start their new life together,” ROAR says.
“In addition, the pet will be healthy and up to date on all vaccinations. The cost for each veteran-animal match is $1,500-$2,000.”
“We’re a free service,” Tulloch said. “We set the veterans up with everything they need.
“When we bring the dog, if they’re crated we bring the crate. We bring the bowl. We bring toys, treats, pet beds, collars, leashes — everything a dog needs. Our veteran does not need to go to the store.”
The process is part match making, part job-training.
Vets are paired with a dog or cat “specifically selected to match the veteran’s personality,” according to ROAR.
Tulloch explained the process: “The veteran fills out an application. Then we meet with the veteran, and the trainer will access and determine what the best dog for the veteran,” she said.
Mary Jo Duffy has long trained dogs to take part in ROAR’s pet therapy program — in which animals visit nursing homes, and schools. She does the assessment. Duffy and Tulloch meet with the veteran, make a home visit, and Duffy chooses the right dog for the veteran.
“Between the home visit and the meeting, the trainer will find the best suitable dog,” Tulloch said. “Then the dog goes into foster care.”
Foster care is the job training that follows the match.
“Our experienced trainers will rehabilitate the animals, which may otherwise face euthanasia, and teach them good manners to fit into the veteran’s lifestyle,” ROAR says. “Training can also include desensitizing to wheelchairs or crutches as well as recognizing panic or anxiety disorder behaviors.”
The period of foster care is important to ready a shelter dog for living with a veteran.
“To acclimate to a home environment, to understand how it feels to live in a real home with furniture, and going outside to go to the bathroom,” Duffy said.
It’s not an easy job.
“We have about 30 volunteers in our program and three or four are foster volunteers,” Duffy said.
Not easy, but critical.
“Vets have enough stress,” Tulloch said. “Its our job to work out whatever red flags there are.”
When was ROAR was ready, flyers went up around the veterans hospital in West Haven, advertising what ROAR had to offer — dogs or cats that ready to become companion to veterans.
“We’ve had one match, and we’re working two other veterans,” Tulloch said.
It’s work the ROAR volunteers are happy to do.
“We know how much love and comfort our dogs give us,” Tulloch said.
“We know the power of the pets.”
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