GOOD DOG

A neighborhood nonprofit helps a man and his pets stay together

Poquito, a 9-year-old Chihuahua mix, lives in an aging apartment complex at Northwest Highway and Abrams with his best buddy, Gerald Lowe, an avid volunteer, stroke survivor and admitted pushover. Poquito, warily eyeing his visitors, snuggles into a well-worn La-Z-Boy chair next to Lowe, who tells us how he and Poquito got themselves a cat (she made a brief appearance and is successfully hiding somewhere in the one-room unit). “She brought her kittens right up to the door,” he says, pointing to a shady front porch. “I went outside to see what the commotion was about, and there they were. I couldn’t let them die. What could I do? I told you I was a pushover.” Thanks to Seniors’ Pet Assistance

Lowe and other senior trouble, physically or for their pets, receive area resident Adelle SPAN a few years ago volunteers with older Dallas’ Senior Source financially strapped clients to give up their pets, their sole companions. there is a tremendous research showing that pets of ways, mentally and think of SPAN as not people helper, but also a better health,” she says. from a stroke a few struggles financially, participating in the Senior grandparent” program to work volunteering schools, when he learned help him. They found the litter of kittens mother cat, who Lowe Momma-psy (“a combination of psycho,” he says), spayed so that he could keep helps with veterinary care Poquito, who is a vital memhousehold. “He’s in charge. He the morning and tells something’s going on that is of says. “He might be just he’s a good guard dog.”

—CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB

LEARN MORE ABOUT SPAN by calling 972.655.8906 or visiting seniorspets.org.

Benjamin Hager