Animal Therapy

The bell rang and I looked at my timetable. I had a drama class with year ten. It was their assesment day today. They had to do monolouges. I'm sure they were nervous, but I felt more nervous than I'd ever felt, and I wasn't even doing it!

Suprisingly, Grace volunteered to go first. Grace was a quiet girl with cerebral palsy, I suddenly realised. "Alright Grace." I said, patting her on the back as she passed. "Good luck." "Thanks." Grace whispered, continuing to head toward the stage at the front of the room.

There was silence for a moment. Grace took a breath and began:

"Many people think that physical therapy and medical treatments are the best ways to overcome a disability. But I believe in something else. See, I believe in the power of animals. Animal therapy. I've had three animals in my lifetime and all three have helped me in some way, shape or form.

The first was Champ. He was kind of like a guard dog. And a friend. He used to love it when I threw a ball for him and he loved being patted. But most importantly, he loved protecting his family. I can remember this one time, when I was really small, me and my Mum were outside when all of a sudden, a storm came. Thunnder crashed and lightning flashed. Champ sensed my anxiety and started racing around the yard, in search of what he thought was harming me.

The next dog I had was named Petal. She was quite old when we got her. Whenever I sat on the couch, a minute later I'd find her. She would have crawled into my lap. When I start stroking her, she starts licking in retuen. I could tell her anything. She was a great listener. That was the best thing about her.

The latest dog I had, my favourite, was Lucy. She was a mix of Petal and Champ with a little extra thrown in. Like Champ, she enjoyed protecting her family, and like Petal, she liked sitting in your lap. The extra bit was that she loved to play. She was like a bit of this and a bit of that with more added in. Well, all I can say is that in my opinion, animals are the best medicine for anyone with a disability." Grace finally finished.

What she didn't tell me or her classmates was that she made the whole monolouge up and that it was in fact, a true story.