Tail Waggin' Wednesdays Spring 2015: Rascal

Rascal, an orange Australian Shepherd/Heeler mix, came into our life in fall of 2013 after he was found wandering in the country near our home, a very skinny, injured and mistrustful 6 month old. But now a year later he is a registered AKC Canine Good Citizen, a Pet Partners Therapy Dog, a R.E.A.D Dog and a Baylor Health Care System Animal Assisted Therapy Dog. In addition to his visits at UTA’sTail Waggin’ Wednesdays, Rascal visits with both adult and children patients on the floors in the Baylor System’s hospitals and rehab centers and fills in for his “fur brother”, Choco, in a local R.E.A.D. program.  However, Rascal still daily lives up to his name – not in a mean/ hurtful way but because of his ingenious ways of relieving his need for action/fun (think crunching up anything noisy, like plastic, encouraging the cars on the road outside our fence to move faster and demonstrating his heeling ability on the back legs of bro Choco). Rascal always brings a lot of enthusiasm into showing off his bag of tricks that bring “awes” and smiles, as well as “kisses” and cuddles, to everyone he meets.