Our first family dog was a cute black Taja. She was the best dog in the world, who accompanied our kids throughout their childhood and we’ll never forget her. When she was approaching her 14th year, me and my husband decided to take another puppy into our home and make the days for our veteran Taja a bit more interesting. One day we visited a dog exhibition and saw beautiful sighthounds and among them Italian greyhounds. We instantly fell in love with them and decided to take this breed into our home. We were lucky to find one breeder in Slovenia who was also expecting a litter at the time. When our Desert Queen Lucciola was born, we decided to call her Senna. Taja gradually became slower and slower, and her paws could barely hold her, so a week before Senna arrived into our home Taja said goodbye (aged 14 years and 3 months) and so Senna and she never met. We decided to never wait for another dog for so long.

Less than two years after that Aurika Brai Chmelnicki was born in Brno, Czech Republic. During the delivery her tail was broken and unfortunately couldn’t be saved, so they surgically shortened it. As she was unsuitable for breeding or exhibitions, the breeders decided to keep her, unless they found a suitable home where she’d be accepted the way she is. Our friend, who also has an Italian, found out about this and let them know about us. We were thrilled to hear they decided to let Aurika come to our home in Slovenia.

I can’t remember exactly in which newspaper I saw Dunja and Gaja. I read about people who deal with animal assisted interventions, visit various institutions and share happiness among people. I was enchanted. As I love animals as well as people I decided to give it a try. When Senna was old enough, I applied her for testing in The Institute PET, which she passed successfully. When our Valentina met Aurika, she suggested to have her tested and when her results were positive, I completed educational programme, internship and exam with both of them. This is wonderful for all three of us as we are inseparable and now we practise this wonderful profession with great joy.

I met a lot of wonderful, positive, heart-warming people and their pooches, which never ceases to motivate me and it recharges my batteries. I’d like to say that throughout the internship each PET member gave me a little bit of something, but all together they gave me a lot. I’m just so happy to be a part of this wonderful group of therapists.

Helena, Senna and Aurika