A dog is helping Florida communities affected by Hurricane Milton in a heartwarming way.
A golden retriever named Ben is owned by the Chase family.
Olivia Chase and her daughter Charlotte Chase thought that Ben, a retired therapy dog, would be able to help people who lost their homes during the storm.
Olivia said her family’s home in Vero Beach, Florida, was spared during Hurricane Milton, but she wanted to help. “We thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve found a way that we can do something different that I don’t think anyone else is doing right now,'” she said.
Ben is 10 years old and was a therapy dog for five years before he was retired in 2020, Olivia said.
His journey to becoming a therapy dog took time, as he went through a lot before he was adopted by Olivia and her family,
Olivia said it took six months for Ben to reconnect with his family after being rescued by a foster family from euthanasia at an animal shelter.
Olivia said that after Chase adopted Ben, they decided to train him to be a therapy dog.
In his career as a therapy dog, Ben has helped all kinds of people.
Olivia said he met soldiers who were returning or deployed, he went to hospitals to visit patients and now, after retirement, he is helping his family.
Charlotte said one of her favorite things about Ben is his fur.
“His fur and all his love,” she said. “He helps a lot,” Charlotte said.
Bringing them out of retirement was tiring, but also rewarding, Olivia said.
He said everyone knew Hurricane Milton was coming, but no one expected the tornadoes the storm would bring with it.
“It was very significant and absolutely devastating,” she said.
“There’s that adrenaline rush, like, ‘Come on, let’s get out, let’s help,’ and I wanted to teach Charlotte a good lesson too, like this is what we do, if we can go out and help, So we do this,’ said Olivia.
