When a golden retriever named Pax met Teresa, a convicted felon, there's no way she could have anticipated how he would have changed her life — nor how she would change his. An investigation from the Wall Street Journal chronicles Teresa's relationship with Pax in the moving video below.
Pax had been placed on death's row before being rescued by Prison Pet Partnership, an outreach program that partners shelter dogs with inmates at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor. Led by founder Sr. Pauline Quinn, the program has proven an invaluable asset when preparing both the animals and inmates for their journey to recovery.
"When you study dog behavior, lightbulbs start going off in your head about yourself, and about your family, and about everything that applies to everything on this planet." She adds that in order to train the dogs for adoption, incremental weaning of problematic behavior allows inmates to reflect on those same behaviors in themselves.
And programs like this one at the Washington Corrections Center for Women isn't unlike others around the country — many of which have proven effective in aiding rehabilitation and therapy. We've reported before on similar programs in North Carolina and Virginia, as well as an equine therapy program in upstate New York.
"Once you show a dog, this is what I want from you, they want nothing more than to do that," says Teresa. Tearing up, she adds, "I want to be like that one day. I want to be that."
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