When a community's heroes and afflicted are unable to turn to therapy, friends or family for comfort in their trauma, who can they turn to? Okee, a shepherd and hound mix, is Bristol's – and Connecticut's – first fire peer support dog.
"Her training, besides your basic sit, stay and lie down; her job is to go around, if we're in a room and we're there for an emotional support reason, her job is to go around and make friends," said Okee's main handler, Bristol Firefighter Chris Hayden. "She has a command where she'll get up on your lap and let you pet her. She doesn't put any pressure on your legs. She takes that pressure and puts it all on her back legs." Hayden's stepson is a master sergeant at Southington Police Department and a canine handler. He heard about the idea of peer support animals from a local resident whose child had passed from suicide.