Although he retired almost a year ago and died of cancer a few weeks ago, there are still children who ask for Candy at the Bordeta-Magraners clinic. This primary care center in Lleida has the honor of being the first CAP in all of Spain to apply animal-assisted therapies to its patients. That’s what Cavalier Candy dedicated herself to for ten years, which many still miss.
She is especially mourned by the smallest and most fearful, who had irreplaceable support in this dog when facing difficult moments, such as visits to the dentist or blood draws. Candy, with whom they had played for a while before entering the surgery, would stand next to them on the stretcher and encourage them. Then she would give them the little leg so that the patients themselves could also put a Band-Aid on her.
Canine assisted therapies enjoy great health. Other specimens have taken over from Candy and those who preceded her, such as Dreik, Davor or Trevor. But there will be few dogs with his charisma. She was a flesh and blood stuffed animal, the reincarnation of the protagonist of Lady and the Tramp. Unfortunately, since she passed away, countless anonymous, wonderful and unrepeatable human beings have died out.
Such people will never have a memory on the pages of a newspaper. Many readers will think that dedicating that space to an irrational animal is an extravagance. After all, Candy was just a little dog. Just a little dog? She was a whirlwind, an awakener of smiles, a miracle. She would arrive at the clinic with her tail in helicopter mode, greeting everyone and wearing her work badge: “Candy, gossa de terà piaâ€.
Other more important centers have monopolized the spotlight when assisted therapies are praised. Among other well-established and applauded initiatives, it is worth mentioning those of the university hospitals of Sant Joan de Déu, in Esplugues de Llobregat (Barcelona), and 12 de Octubre, in Madrid. The first has created a canine intervention unit and the second has taken these therapies even to areas hitherto unthinkable…
The Sant Pau hospital, another beacon of Catalan and Spanish public health, has also welcomed a specimen of Labrador, Nikita, the eyes of Sabina and David. When they both became parents to her and her baby, Leia, had to stay in the neonatal unit for a few days, they went to visit her with her guide dog. For the hospital it was something extraordinary; for Sabina and David, no: “Nikita is one of the family,” say Leia’s parents.
Dogs like Nikita, Candy or Zenit (who has made history for being the first of their kind to enter an ICU, specifically on October 12) are also part of the great family of humanity. The prodigious abilities of these animals do not cease to amaze scientists. Well-trained, dogs can detect covid or alert their owners to the imminent onset of an epileptic seizure.
They can help defuse explosives. To rescue people from the rubble of an earthquake or high mountain avalanches. Or in the jungle. To fight against drugs, human trafficking, currency fraud (the incredible canine nose can smell banknotes) and the illegal trafficking of species, as the Jane Goodall Institute does in the natural parks of Congo to prevent pangolin poaching and other endangered animals…
And they also help kids like Nico, three, and Laura, eight, Candy’s last patients, to forget about hypodermic needles. It was September 15, 2022. Candy still dazzled, but the shadow of the falls was already visible in her eyes; and the threat of osteoarthritis, in her movements, which were no longer as fast as those she had when she arrived at the Bordeta-Magraners outpatient clinic, in 2012.
No one will ever be able to take away from this primary care center in the Segrià region its pioneering role in assisted therapies. Candy was a whirlwind, an awakener of smiles, a miracle. But for miracles to exist there must be people who believe. Candy was not a creature that did what she did out of infused science, a freak of nature. She was the extension of a human being, Dr. Maylos Rodrigo.
For guide dogs to exist, ONCE must exist. For a dog to make rescues between the ruins or the snow, there must be trainers from the Police and emergency services. For Zenit to enter an ICU, experts from the Psychoanimal Association are necessary. Or those of the Jane Goodall Foundation to protect the pangolin. And for Candy’s miracle, people like Dr. Rodrigo are necessary.
This doctor works at the CAP Bordeta-Magraners. Health and animals are her passions. Canine educator and member of the Ilerkan association, she trained Candy and was capital in the pioneering role of her outpatient clinic. Candy has already left, but she is still present in initiatives such as the Wow Project, which allows homeless people from Lleida to help specimens from the municipal kennel. And the eternal question: who helps whom.
