Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/hero-and-horlicks/
We all suffer from anxiety – some of us more so than others. Of course, for humans, that big spike in anxiety can sometimes mean that we need an emotional support animal.
But what about our animals? They are known to also struggle with anxiety. Apparently, they too, can benefit from having an emotional support animal to help them through the rough patches.
Take Horlicks the golden retriever, who is quite anxious – especially when he has to stay at home alone. In fact, the poor dog’s separation anxiety was so bad, that his owner was running out of ideas as to how to help ease Horlick’s troubles.
As his owner stated to The Dodo, “When he celebrated his birthday, I thought that another sibling is going to help him with all this separation anxiety.”
That led her to get Hero, a little kitten who was brought into the family to help Horlick feel less lonely. But it took some time, as their owner didn’t want to push either of them too far. So, it started out with a brief meeting. Then, Hero was allowed to roam the house and interact more with his new buddy, Horklick.
At first, Hero wasn’t too sure about what to think of the dog who was much bigger than him. While he was a little hesitant at first, Hero started to warm up to Horlick. Once the two of them got on, it was a best case scenario. Their owner shared photos of them on Instagram and it’s too cute!
Their owner shared with The Dodo, “Horlicks was able to say ‘hi’ and meet up with Hero. He then starts to realize that Horlicks is a gentle giant. And that’s when their relationship really picked up.”
They quickly became inseparable. The two buddies do everything together – they eat, sleep, and take walks together. Their bond got so strong, that their owner finally decided to take the plunge to test out leaving Horlick and Hero home alone together, hoping that Hero would be able to sooth the pooch’s separation anxiety.
She started off with small moments apart, leaving them home alone for just 30 minutes at a time. But it was enough for her to notice a positive difference in Horlick.
Finally – after a long time, she’d found the perfect solution for her anxious pup. She told The Dodo, “Hero is a very secure cat. They tend to influence each other. So I think Horlicks has now improved in terms of the separation anxiety.”
She then added, “You can see that they love each other. They have that strong feeling for each other.”
Check out the video below:
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How precious are these two? Does your dog have an emotional support pet? Let us know!
You can see more of Hero and Horlicks on Instagram!
Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog
