Profile by julianne wilson

It Started with a Minature H o r s e A Profile on Vicki Amon-Higa

by Julianne Wilson

icki

watched o n as the little girl played by herself in the dirt with her stuffed animals.

The nonverbal child had been coming to their house with her mother and sister for a while now, and had never showed interest in

the animals that were there for her enjoyment. Calling the little girl’s mother over, she handed her a rabbit and asked her to go sit with her younger daughter to see if she would become interested.

Vicki watched as the little girl looked up at her mother holding the rabbit. When she sat down, the child turned her head away, but gradually became more and more

interested in the animal her mother was holding. Finally, she reached out to pet the rabbit and smiled. Suddenly, an immense joy flooded Vicki as she watched the little girl grinning while petting the rabbit. This is Vicki wanted to do.

During the normal work week, you can find Vicki AmonHiga working at her fast-paced, high-tech job at Cisco. However, during the weekends, she is fully

dedicated to running a n d facilitating Animal Assisted Happiness (AAH). When not overseeing the construction of its new location at the Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, Vicki, a few volunteers, and the animals of AAH drive to different locations around the Silicon Valley, working with children with moderate to severe special needs. Through the efforts of Vicki and her husband, what started out as a small, personal

endeavor in their backyard has turned into a well-known, well-respected organization in the community.

C u r r e n t l y, the smile counter on their website stands at 20,096, and that number only continues to grow. By bringing the joy of new and unusual animals to those with disabilities such as autism, Vicki is providing an essential service to those in need.

Animal Assisted Happiness started out as an idea between Vicki and Peter in 2009 after they realized what joy their pet goats, chickens, rabbits, and guinea pigs brought children. Lollipop, Vicki’s miniature horse, was the original inspiration to start AAH. “...the big inspiration was Lollipop,” Vicki says: “We didn’t know that Lollipop would go into somebody’s house on a tarp, but she did. She just walked in the front door and went up to the little girl that was in a wheelchair and stayed there with her for about an hour and a half” (AmonHiga).

As word of Vicki’s work spread, more and more families started showing up at her house, hoping to have

their children spend time with her animals. Unfortunately, this popularity created some problems with the neighbors: “They were okay with us having the animals here until we started to share them, and then the neighbors all decided that maybe we weren’t in compliance with the city of Los Altos Hill ordinance, which we weren’t, and we readily acknowledged that:” (AmonHiga). Vicki, not ready to give up what she had created, rented a house for six months in Gilroy in order to keep Animal Assisted Happiness going and to continue to bring happiness to those in need. With most of their clients in the Los Altos area, this transition was tough on everyone. There was “the hardship of driving to Gilroy every weekend when we were already working full time outside the home…” (AmonHiga) as well as financial hardship that the family faced.

Even so, she persevered and found a permanent location in Gilroy to keep the animals.

“We want to encourage youth typical or special needs to learn to give back early and often and embrace diversity and the animals are the draw to get youth involved,” Vicki states about the importance of having different people involved in AAH. Currently, the farm is moving to Full Circle Farm

in Sunnyvale “[to] be closer to the kids we serve” (AmonHiga). It’s clear that while it may be stressful or hard on her and her family at times, the benefits far outweigh the costs when it comes to helping bring joy to those in need. Quoting her mother, Maya Higa states, “‘You have to find your pony in the pile of shit.’ That’s my mom’s thing, and she does that, really, really well, I know it sounds ridiculous, but she’s... really positive.”

For a while, Animal Assisted Happiness was confined to Vicki’s backyard.

What really inspired her to start taking animals out was her miniature horse, Lollipop.

It was unclear whether or not Lollipop would enter a house to visit with a sick child, but she surprised everyone. “...

[Lollipop] went to see a little girl that was sick and we didn’t know that Lollipop would go into somebody’s house on a tarp, but she did,” Vicki recalled. The little horse didn’t stop there, however, staying with the girl for another hour and a half before it was time to leave. “So that was, really, our huge inspiration… realizing that Lollipop could do more than just stand around in our backyard” (Amon-Higa).

Many people come and go through AAH, but some stick around for the long run.

“Jon started coming here when he was 9 with his family and I don’t think his family ever knew anything about goats and by starting to be here, he met goats, he decided he liked goats, he got involved in 4-H, now he is a teen leader for 4-H for therapy animals…”

(Amon-Higa). Nine-year-old Jon Coleman, diagnosed with high-functioning autism, first visited AAH at age nine with his mother. Jon was not in a good place, unable to communicate his ideas and feelings, and struggling with anger and frustration. Despite having

never really been around farm animals before in his life, he was immediately drawn to the goats – specifically, Vicki’s goat, Fro-yo. When I asked what his first memory with AAH was he quickly responded, “Seeing the animals at AAH, particularly the goats, they were my favorite; especially FroYo, which led me to make a lot of decisions with goats later” (Coleman). Now, at age 16, Jon is no longer a client of AAH, but a volunteer and a paid worker for Vicki, feeding and tending the goats on the weekend. When asked whether or not he believed that

“‘You have to find your pony in the pile of shit.’ That’s my mom’s thing...”

-Maya Higa

Vicki was accomplishing the main goal of AAH, he rapidly responded with a resounding “yes!”

It’s not always a one sided relationship between the animals and the people. More often than not, it is a symbiotic relationship, as such the case for Bear the Chow Chow and his young friend. [c]Bear was rescued after being

abus e d b y 4

his owner, and while it may have taken him a while to warm up to people, he eventually became so friendly his owners decided to train him as a therapy dog.

In his first session, he sat down with a little boy who didn’t like to talk or interact, but who soon became very interested in Bear.

Eventually it became clear that, “Not only was Bear helping to heal the boy, the boy was helping to heal Bear” (Therapy Pets). The same goes for the animals at AAH. Not only did goats such as Froyo help Jon become more comfortable, he is now giving back, and helping the goats live long and happy lives.

As progress continues to be made on the AAH

farm in Sunnyvale, Vicki is continuing to look into the future. “[Full Circle Farm is] a third [of an] acre, the animals are all there, they’re in good housing, but it’s not a sanctuary destination point.

Animal Assisted Happiness at Baylands Park will be a sanctuary. That will be a place people will love to go and interact with the animals” (Amon-Higa). Vicki is constantly evolving Animal Assisted Happiness to be a place for those with special needs to feel safe, welcome, and most importantly, happy.

If there was anything that Vicki would like the general public to know about AAH is that, “...we’re not a petting

zoo, and we don’t do birthday parties” (Amon-Higa).

Connections are made everywhere for Vicki. Whether at her every day job at Cisco, or watching the connections being created between her clients and her animals, she finds great joy in it. Does she believe what she is doing is noble? “I don’t know if noble, but it feels right, and everyone could do more and find a way to give back…

I have learned and so has Peter, a ton by being involved with Animal Assisted Happiness, things that I never knew. I have been blessed with meeting kids like Jon, that I want to help for the rest of his life… This is a very stressful Valley, so we can all learn things from the animals, whether you have

“I don’t know if noble, but it feels right, and everyone could do more and find a way to give back.”

-Vicki Amon-Higa special needs or not. What I love about the third part of our mission is to teach youth to give back early and to help you understand that although we’re all different, we’re all also the same and the animal is kind of the bond in between all of that” (Amon-Higa).

Scan code to visit the Animal Assisted Happiness website

5

Works Cited: 1. Crawford, Jacqueline J., and Karen A. Pomerinke. Therapy Pets: The Animal-human Heal-

ing Partnership. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2003. Print

2. Amon-Higa, Vicki. Personal Interview. 15 September 2015.

3. Coleman, Jon. Personal Interview. 17 September 2015.

4. Higa, Maya. Personal Interview. 8 October 2015.

5. Amon-Higa, Vicki. Personal Interview. 11 October 2015.

6. “Service Animals.” Animal Rights. Kim Masters Evans. 2009 ed. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Information Plus Reference Series. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.

Hayhurst, Chris. “Animal influence: from trained therapy dogs to common house pets, animals can help us in many ways.” Current Health Teens, a Weekly Reader publication Mar. 2012: 16+.Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 2 Sept. 2015

6