Joy Hunter checked the windows were down, sprinkled a snack of apples in the car and laced up shoes on her, “Puppy,” before setting out on their road trip around Nanaimo Wednesday.
Puppy isn’t what you might think. The little guy has four legs and loves to feel the breeze on his face. he is a horse.
“His name is ‘Puppy,”‘ said Hunter, a Nanaimo resident and owner of the horse.
“He’s wonderful. He really is.”
The miniature horse likes to take car rides. But recently, his job as a therapy animal in seniors’ long term care homes was cancelled AS COVID-19 closed the facilities to visitors.
Hunter is still occasionally surprising fellow drivers in Nanaimo or workers in drive-thrus.
“Puppy’s just a very little horse, with a very big heart,” said Hunter.
When Puppy, jumped out of the car at the feed store Bosley’s on Wednesday, he did so in his shoes from Build-a-Bear. So smiles, children and cameras weren’t far behind.
“This is the first horse we’ve had,” said Bosley’s Steve Edgar. Puppy was able to walk around the store to say hi to people.
It’s all in a day’s work for the little therapy animal.
Skye Ryan
