‘It’s Going to Be Ok’: How Pet Therapy Brings Comfort and Cheer to Veterans

Over the past five years, the duo has become a beloved fixture in the on-campus nursing homes, known as Community Living Centers (CLCs), where hundreds of heroes reside. 

CLC Recreation Therapist Raylene Armour leads these weekly sessions and sees Veterans’ reactions to Bella firsthand. “When Bella enters the room, she just brightens it up,” said Armour. “She just brightens the Veterans’ moods. They have an emotional connection with her, and she brings them joy when they’re feeling down.”

Army Veteran and CLC resident Darrell Langford has been visiting with Bella for over a year and describes her as “sensitive.” “One time I was sick, I wasn’t feeling well and she [Patricia] brought Bella to my room and Bella came to my side and comforted me,” said Langford.

Waldeck first met Bella nine years ago, when the pup was a six-week-old bundle of fuzzy black fur. “She was as cute as anything. I wanted to volunteer and also spend time with her, so I looked for things we could do together,” Waldeck said. 

While the two initially worked greeting travelers at Los Angeles International Airport, it wasn’t long before Waldeck discovered their true passion: providing therapeutic visits to Veterans. 

Bella and Waldeck are a certified pet therapy team through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, a certification required by VA. To obtain the certification, Waldeck had to pass a written exam and Bella had to undergo tests assessing her behavior in different environments, all of which she passed with flying colors, said Waldeck.

To start volunteering at VA, Bella and Waldeck also had to undergo a vetting process through the Center for Development & Civic Engagement (CDCE), which clears all VA volunteers. 

By definition, therapy animals are pets trained to provide comfort and affection to people in a variety of settings. Bella has always been a natural for this work, Waldeck said. “You have to wonder how she knows which Veterans to approach and which not to. And she’s never been wrong.” 

Pet therapy has a wealth of benefits for Veterans, said Armour. “It offers an opportunity to reduce stress and assist with the healing process. Some of the Veterans at the CLC are faced with significant health challenges. The presence of Bella provides a welcoming distraction from their pain, anxiety, and depression, and assists with decreasing their symptoms.”

Since animal-assisted therapy is considered a therapeutic intervention, these benefits are tracked by recreation therapists. Other benefits include improving communication skills, increasing movement in joints, stabilizing blood pressure and improving cardiac health, among others.

Army Veteran Lenardo Heath, another CLC resident, has been visiting with Bella and Patricia for several months. “It makes me feel lovely to see her [Bella]. She comes to my bedside, puts a paw on my chest. Like I’m rubbing her head right now … she loves that.”

Heath said that Bella brings him comfort and looks forward to future visits with her. I pray that this will go on for a lot of Veterans here and around the world,” he said.

Based on her experiences at VA, Waldeck thinks every hospital in the country should have a resident dog. “The employees enjoy it as much as the residents do,” she said. 

There’s also a pet therapy program in the Acute Rehabilitation Unit in Building 500 at West LA VA Medical Center, run by Sether Hills-Johnson, and another at VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Clinic CLC, run by Ramona Johnson-Hackett. 

Pet therapy contributes to the overall quality of life and health of Veteran residents, said Armour, and Veterans at the CLC greatly enjoy these weekly visits. Langford agreed that spending time with Bella is a joy. 

“If Bella could talk, she’d say, ‘it’s going to be ok.’”

*Communications Specialist Cara Deptula, Office of Strategic, Facility & Master Planning, assisted with interviews for this report.