Cooperative Living June 2018 - 12

CoverStory | by Preston Knight, Contributing Writer
A Therapeutic Calling
T
SHENANDOAH VALLEY
COUPLE'S CANINES SPREAD JOY FAR AND WIDE
he sound of a locomotive comes
from the kitchen, which causes
Doug Peters to pop out of his living
room chair. It's his cellphone beckoning.
The ringtone is nothing out of the
ordinary, but still a bit surprising. If you're
visiting Peters and his wife, Lynn, specifically
to learn more about their dogs, and you
then get an hour's worth of pictures,
stories, and even pet trading cards, you
cannot help but assume that the phone
would produce a canine-related sound.
" Mine's a dog barking, " Lynn Peters
chimes in, laughing.
Of course it is.
You can roll your eyes, but no sooner
will you do that then will you find yourself
chuckling, too. A dog-barking ringtone
was invented for the likes of Lynn Peters,
whose affinity for showing off her two
golden retrievers, Skipper and Tucker, is
only matched by her willingness to have
other people benefit from their presence.
When her phone is not a topic of
conversation, the Frederick County
resident is putting smiles on faces young
and old by making community visits
through Pet Partners, a national nonprofit
therapy-animal registry.
" It makes me feel good to know that I
am helping other people, " she says.
Fit for All
Human Types
If you are a regular
reader of Cooperative
Living, Skipper and
Tucker may have
already touched you,
even if you have never
been within hundreds of miles
of them. Lynn Peters, a memberowner
of Shenandoah Valley
Electric Cooperative, has a
treasure trove of pictures of
her dogs wearing various
outfits that she regularly
submits to the magazine's
Say Cheese column.
" Whatever I can find to dress them up.
They have a whole wardrobe of costumes, "
she says. " I started doing it for the
grandkids and it just kind of grew. Once
we got dogs, our grandkids didn't want to
pose anymore. "
There is one photo with Skipper wearing
heart sunglasses for Valentine's Day, another
with Tucker as a sheriff, and then both of
them as pilgrims to celebrate Thanksgiving,
to name a few. They are all cute, of course,
but the images carry much more
significance because Peters will leave them
with nursing home residents she visits or,
Lynn and Doug
Peters pose with
their golden retrievers,
Skipper and Tucker. The
canines are renowned for their therapy-dog
work, and love to pose as various loveably
entertaining costumed characters.
when she meets elementary school
students, she will pass out trading cards
featuring the same decked-out Skipper
and Tucker.
" It's kind of her trademark. They even
have stats on the back, " says Doug Peters,
who adds he simply serves as " support "
for his wife's volunteer work.
Tucker and Skipper do therapy-dog work at Operation Purple, a camp for children with a parent in the armed forces.
10 | Cooperative Living | June 2018
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Cooperative Living June 2018

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