Emotional Support--Not Small Potatoes

We recently received a message from one of my fans that illustrates beautifully how important an ESA can be: 

In 1996 I had a serious brain aneurysm. I spent a lot of recovery time at my parents house. My parents had agreed to raise a Jack Russell terrier which was originally a birthday present to me from my sister. . . .

Well after my aneurysm while at my parent's house Micha took a very keen interest in my recovery. She was always licking my paralyzed hand and arm and she always knew when i was having a seizure. If she could have she would have torn the door to my room down to be with me. I always came to with her giving me hundreds of kisses.

When Joanne and I go out people have a lot of questions about me as a service dog. When we speak to a group there's always a lot of interest in what service dogs are, how you get one, etc.  That's great, but service dogs are not what most people with disabilities need or want and only a very small minority of dogs have the temperament required to be a good service dog.  Emotional support animals (ESAs) are another matter entirely. 


Emotional support animals are simply pets who belong to people with disabilities. They need no special training and can be any commonly domesticated animal--not just a dog  (although I personally believe dogs rule as ESAs).  A cat, a bunny, or even an iguana could be an ESA.  Joanne's cat, Sibol, is an ESA. Since doctors generally agree that nearly all disabled people can benefit from the emotional support of a pet, ESAs are not limited just to those of you who have psychiatric diagnoses. 


The big advantage of having an ESA:  ESAs must be allowed in the vast majority of no-pets housing.  The Fair Housing Act and other federal laws require almost all landlords and condo/co-op organizations allow ESAs and forbid charging pet fees or deposits for them.


For more information about how to get an emotional support animal  or to have an existing pet made into an ESA (including links to detailed info about what housing must allow ESAs and to a sample doctor's letter) see this page on my website: http://www.servicepoodle.com/how-to-get-an-emotional-support-animal.