Boca Floppy Williams is first and foremost Ms. Alison’s pet golden retriever, but she also works as an emotional support and therapy dog. This means that she offers help to people who need it. She is really good at sensing when children are upset and she can help make them feel better. If you haven’t already tried it, try talking to her and she’ll answer you through Ms. Alison. (She needs Ms. Alison to interpret what she’s trying to say in dog language.) She even helps relieve pain when children hurt themselves, just by letting them stroke her. She helps children stop crying and relax so the pain goes away much faster.
She loves coming into school and listening to children read. You may have seen pictures of Boca in our Oxford Reading Tree reading scheme books. Look out for Floppy (her middle name) when you next pick up one of these books and don’t forget to come and read to her when you see her. (She really likes it if one person can rub her tummy while another one reads to her.)
Her favourite thing is chasing a ball that is thrown for her. She’s a natural athlete and she enjoys walking the beach, running, hiking in the Adirondack mountains, swimming and most ball sports. She has grown up for the last 9 years playing hockey with Ms. Alison’s son Josh, and usually plays in goal or defense, but she’s a bit of a puck hog and has been known to run off with the puck on numerous occasions. (Having two pucks or two balls really helps in these situations). She really loves playing pond hockey once she got used to the colder temperatures and sliding on the ice.
On Saturday Boca went to the Turks and Caicos dog show and although not able to show all her talents as a working dog, she was able to impress the judges enough to win second prize in “the dog the judges would most like to take home” category.
We are all very proud of Boca and happy that she won a prize. Well done Boca.
All in all, we think she’s an amazing dog and love the fact that she’s been coming into Provo Primary this term with Ms. Alison.
