She caressed her hands over the thick gray fur, then Ruth’s (60) eyes watered: “I have to think about my childhood. When I was six, I rode a donkey just like this one. But it was much wilder, not as sensitive.” He looks at the donkey lovingly: “I would like to possess you.”
Ruth lives in the Bru nursing home and nursing home in Grandson VD, a place for the elderly and people with psychosocial or physical disabilities. Shortly before Christmas, Ruth and her roommates are visited by Ticoeur and Pipo. Two donkeys are accustomed to being held with wrinkled hands. “But you have your own will, you don’t have to do anything,” says Florence Scheidegger (56). Pipo and Ticoeur regularly visit nursing homes and nursing homes within an hour’s drive, so they don’t have to travel too far. The two donkeys fit particularly well. “They’re pretty small and used to dealing with very different people,” says Scheidegger. “Above all, they are not afraid of wheelchairs and walking sticks.”
Donkeys trigger emotions
It has been four years since Scheidegger took Pipo to his father’s house. “When I first saw the emotions it triggered, it affected me so much that tears came to my eyes.” Why do donkeys have such an effect? “It’s that calm they radiate,” she says. Also, donkeys have been socialized over the years. “Of course the character also has a role. Not every donkey is suitable for this.”
Before the encounter between humans and animals begins, donkeys are dressed in a “work suit” consisting of a wooden saddle with cross straps to attach a saddlebag or place a child on it. “Anyone who isn’t very good on their feet can hold it,” explains Scheidegger. But this uniform is also important for donkeys, so they know that the task is about to begin: “They adapt when they are around frail people, that is, the elderly, the disabled, or small children. Donkeys always know who they’re dealing with.” Outside of such groups of people, they’re more idiosyncratic, according to the owner: “They use all sorts of distractions to eat with me.”
Stoic patience has its limits.
About twenty people gathered outside to welcome the four-legged visitor. Some observe from afar, then suddenly there is a rattle made of longing hands and fluffy fur. “We initially tried to configure it more, but I prefer to adapt to the situation,” says Scheidegger. But the patient patience of donkeys also has its limits. An hour later at the latest is enough, then the animals move to the small meadow to graze until they can get home again in the transport vehicle.
One person particularly affected by the visit of animals is Raphaël (60). Luckily, the resident of the house celebrates his milestone birthday on this day. It couldn’t have been a better gift for him. “It’s been 15 years since I loved an animal like that,” he says quietly. With it, emotions overflow with eye water. He tells how he used to live on a farm and how much he misses his bond with the animals.
Contact with animals opens the heart
Are there no permanent four-legged residents in the house? “We have a cat,” says Michaël Schöpf, 48, head of the household “accompanying” department. “But it does what it wants.” Our own cinema and garden, where our own vegetables are grown, and various workshops provide socialization in daily life. For the first time coming an animal visit, this is organized as part of the “Grizzly” project of the Swiss Animal Protection (STS). “We stay in different nursing homes and nursing homes about every two weeks,” says Fabienne Häberli (42), the person in charge. In addition to donkeys, dogs and alpacas are also used.
Regular contact with animals is extremely valuable and beneficial for older people, especially those affected by dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Informed: “They usually respond very well to this and are often better able to open up to an animal than to their fellows.” Therefore, it is also important for seniors to take their pets home as much as possible. According to a survey by STS, 83 percent of nursing homes and nursing homes are willing to have a pet as a roommate. Cats are the most popular, followed by fish, dogs and birds. News: “You bring a piece of your own home with your own pet. This is emotional support for the elderly. Animals are good for the heart, provide intimacy and add structure to daily life.»