WALLY THE ALLIGATOR PROVIDES EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FOR PENN MAN
Emotional support animals, or ESAs, are amazing helpers for people for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways. ESAs are becoming ever more popular as well as common these days. Once they’re approved by doctors, you can take them almost anywhere. So how about most restaurants? You bet. Other kinds of businesses you might go to? For sure. But what about airports, bus terminals and trains? Yup. Those usually are just fine too. But people are starting to have ever more interesting kinds of animals as ESAs. So the classic golden retriever is still a mainstay. But for one Penn man, his ESA is Wally, a now 5-foot-long and 60 pound alligator.
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ALLIGATOR OR ANTI-DEPRESSIVES? THIS MAN LOVES THE ALLIGATOR
So who in the world wants and needs an emotional support animal like Wally? Joie Henney, a 65-year-old from York Haven, Pennsylvania. Wally lives in his living room, these days. But how in the world did this happen? Well, Henney had been suffering from depression. So his doctor was trying to give him anti-depressives. Henney said, “My doctor wanted to put me on depression medicine, and I hate taking medicine. I had Wally, and when I came home and was around him, it was all OK. My doctor knew about Wally and figured it works, so why not?”
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ALLIGATOR REPORTEDLY LIKES TO GIVE HUGS, NO THANK YOU
Henney said Wally likes to give hugs. I, of course, shudder just a little at the thought. I don’t discount that the two have some kind of connection, but alligators eat meat. And they don’t discriminate. But for Henney, Wally has helped fill a void that was a huge challenge for him. He lost three lifelong friends in just a matter of days and just couldn’t shake the depression that followed. The only help was… an alligator who made him feel happy and normal. Ironically, Wally the alligator does a life roll every day for Henney.
But these wild animals specialize in the death roll. So while this is… a very interesting story, I keep shuddering.
