When Bill arrived at Vintage Pet Rescue, his busy rescuers weren’t sure how to accommodate the 10-year-old blind pup’s need to be held all the time.
Then they remembered they had a life-sized human dummy.
It was the perfect solution.
This isn’t the first time the rescue has used the huge dummy, named FARC, as a means of comforting elderly dogs.
FARC was born out of necessity when rescue owners Kristen and Marc Peralta needed a way to deal with their senior pug Shorty’s separation anxiety. Everytime Marc was gone, Shorty would become desolate, missing his dad.
Then Joanne McManus, Kristen’s mother, had a genius idea: Why not put one of Marc’s shirts on a huge dummy?
It worked like a charm.
This isn’t the first time the rescue has used the huge dummy, named FARC, as a means of comforting elderly dogs.
FARC was born out of necessity when rescue owners Kristen and Marc Peralta needed a way to deal with their senior pug Shorty’s separation anxiety. Everytime Marc was gone, Shorty would become desolate, missing his dad.
Then Joanne McManus, Kristen’s mother, had a genius idea: Why not put one of Marc’s shirts on a huge dummy?
It worked like a charm.
“We thought it would just kind of be a funny photo opportunity at first,” Kristen Peralta told The Dodo. “But it actually worked, and the dogs loved it!”
Now whenever a pup at the shelter needs a little extra attention, FARC comes to the rescue. Though a real human has to get up at some point, FARC is happy to chill indefinitely — much to the delight of the dogs in his loving, plastic arms.
“We’ve used FARC over the years whenever we had a new dog with separation anxiety or stress,” Peralta said. “It’s really quite incredible how the dogs react.”
Since Bill is an especially anxious boy who doesn’t like to explore or be on his own, FARC has been a perfect way to keep him calm and happy during moments when rescue staff aren’t available to hold him themselves.
Obviously we would love to be able to hold Bill all day, but there’s always a lot to be done here at the rescue,” Peralta said. “As long as he’s comfortable and happy — that’s all that matters.”
After weeks spent in FARC’s caring-yet-inanimate embrace, Bill was finally adopted into his new family. Now he has all the love he deserves from someone with plenty of time to keep him company.
