June 3, 2013

Dog in Broomtown community really is "all that Jazz"

By SCOTT WRIGHT


GAYLESVILLE — It seems safe to estimate that a vast majority of folks in Cherokee County consider themselves country music fans. Last week in the Broomtown community, however, we came across a little Jazz that will absolutely warm your heart.

Jazz is a 12-year-old whippet. This breed of dog—similar in appearance to a greyhound, though slightly smaller—seems out of place scooting across a shaded, straw-covered yard in Cherokee County, where pointers, retrievers and plain old mutts might more typically roam.

Then again, uniqueness abounds inside the Heath household.

Steve and Christine Heath are transplants from Nashville, by way of Pensacola, Fla. They moved here seven years ago due largely to Christine's love of water—and her aversion to too much of it falling in sheets for days on end.

“We went through a couple of hurricanes in Pensacola and I really like water, but I didn't like hurricanes very much,” Christine says. “Steve found Weiss Lake with a Google search, and we came up to see it and we loved it.”

After initially settling in a lakeside camper the Heaths eventually upgraded to a log cabin near Gaylesville, in northeast Cherokee County. And they brought their most therapeutic “music” with them.

“Jazz and I had already been doing a lot of pet therapy in Pensacola, and we both missed it,” Christine says. “We went looking to find someone who liked pet therapy dogs and we found out there was no such program in Cherokee County.”

Christine and Steve actually own five whippets who, after an initial few moments of excitement, behave more like well-reared children than hyperactive canines. All are being trained to qualify as American Kennel Club -recognized “therapy dogs”—a distinction Jazz has already held for years.

Determined to put Jazz to work in Cherokee County, Christine quickly got in touch with the administration at Cherokee Village Assisted Living. Soon she and Majestic Jazz, CGC, RN, ThD (the dog's full name) were making regular “pet companionship” visits to the residents there.

“Jazz understands about forty words and can do tricks, so the visits at Assisted Living were primarily to cheer people up, make them happier with their day,” Christine says. “A lot of people in those types of facilities grew up having dogs and now they can't and they miss it. So a visit from Jazz is a very nice thing for them.”

Christine soon sought to expand Jazz's usefulness to the community. In 2008, she reached out to the reading coach at Gaylesville School to see if there was any way Jazz, a certified R.E.A.D. assistance dog, could help elementary grade reading students.

“We talked with Deanna Murphy, and she and Mr. (Paul) McWhorter fell in love with the idea,” Christine says. “We set it up as a regular therapy session, and Jazz started off visiting with six children in the second grade.”

Christine explains that Jazz has a calming, soothing effect on students who need help with their lessons.

“The visits were actually considered therapy because Jazz helped lower the students' anxiety and turn reading time into a fun time, a time that they wanted to participate in,” Christine says. “When they were re-tested again at the end of the year, Deanna was amazed at the progress they had made.”

“Jazz Day” became a Tuesday staple for five years at Gaylesville and made a lasting impression on the children Jazz interacted with, Christine says.

“To this day, there are students in higher grades who beg me to bring Jazz back in to see them.”

Earlier this year Jazz, who is now “semi-retired,” was named the 2013 recipient of the American Whippet Club’s annual Willow Award as the nation’s top therapy dog.

“Jazz has administered his brand of love and service in many different places for the past seven years,” wrote award judge Holly Parker in a recent press release, “and deserves to be recognized as the 2013 Willow Award winner.”

Jazz, who is still waiting for his first-place ribbon to arrive in the mail, has handed off most of his therapy duties to the younger whippets in the Heath brood, Christine says.

“Jazz still goes to Assisted Living because they would all be heartbroken if he stopped,” she says. “But he tires easily now and prefers to curl up on the couch in his pajamas.”