Episode Fifty-Eight: Interview-Pet Chaplain Janice Driggers

You know,

And I have this wonderful picture in my mind of when it's my turn to go,

Being taken to the door of the Rainbow Bridge and all of my dogs stopping and seeing me at the door and they all come running towards me.

Not just my personal dogs,

But dogs that I've helped by finding them another home and loving them until that happened.

Always joking,

Tell Jesus that he needs to have me a big old yard because it's going to be full of dogs.

So if it's my turn to go and my dogs aren't there,

He can just send me back because I'm not going where they're not.

When I tell people that I'm a registered pet chaplain,

They look at me like I have eight heads.

So the best way to help people understand and to make this more prevalent in society with the way that people love their pets is education.

To let people know that there are people like us out there and we have a heart for them and their pets.

And all the pet chaplains that I know that I went to classes with,

We all have pets and we all have lost pets.

People will laugh at this too,

But I'm a shy person.

But when people meet me and stuff like that,

I try and get out of my comfort zone and make myself meet people.

And when they ask me who I am,

I tell them my name and then they might say,

Well,

What do you do for a living or what do you do?

And well,

I say,

You're probably going to look at me weird,

But I'm a registered pet chaplain and I've worked in the legal field.

I did for the last 20 something years,

But since the pandemic,

I haven't been able to find another job.

And then I had a stroke and now I can't do that kind of work any longer because it kind of decided to rewire my brain a little bit.

So here I am today getting ready to finish up seminary and I will hopefully then be able to become not just a pet chaplain,

But a chaplain for humans.

One of the little foster dogs that I had was a little Yorkie and somebody saw somebody dump him in the woods.

And so she rescued him before he got out into the busy intersection and found out that he was blind and deaf.

And he was about 15 years old.

She was a friend of my groomer and the groomer posted about him on Facebook.

So I reached out and I said,

Look,

If she can't keep him,

If she takes him to a shelter,

They're going to euthanize him right away.

And I said,

I'll take him,

I'll get him vetted and I will find him a home.

So I met with the people and of course we didn't know his name.

So at the beginning I decided to name him Milo.

Then because he loved to eat so much,

You know,

If he could smell food in your hand,

He would practically take off your fingers.

I ended up calling him Munch.

After the vetting,

We found out that he had a lot of other issues too,

And he had a severe heart murmur and some kidney issues and liver issues.

So I kind of determined that he wouldn't be adoptable.

So of course,

You know,

Janice and her big heart and home decided to adopt Munch.

So when he was declining,

I had him for about two years,

Spoiled him rotten,

Even though he was a little devil,

You know.

But I took him,

I asked my pastor at the time,

Cause I knew nothing,

Didn't even know pet chaplaincy existed at that time.

She said,

Oh,

You love pets so much,

You should be some kind of pet chaplain.

And we both started laughing.

And I says,

Is there such a thing?

And she said,

Well,

I don't know if there isn't,

You can start one,

You can start it.

And I said,

Well,

Okay.

So I need to give a big shout out to Reverend Terry Stede Pierce,

The senior pastor at Joy Metropolitan Community Church,

You know,

Having that little bit of banter back and forth,

Because if it wasn't for her,

I would have never even went down this road.

I was going to ask,

How long have you been a pet chaplain?

Probably about two and a half,

Almost three years.

Do you advertise or how do people find out about you?

Pretty much it's word of mouth.

And I don't just do end of life ceremonies.

I do pet blessing ceremonies,

Like if somebody gets a new pet,

And so I will come and do a little pet blessing for that pet.

I have some oil that,

You know,

If it's okay with the pet parents,

Then I anoint the dog's head with oil.

I also am working on creating or finding some programs to go into the schools like K through 12,

And I may even start in kindergarten,

To teach about how to properly care and treat animals.

I want to make it my mission to teach these kids to grow up to be kind and loving pet parents instead of animal abusers.

If I can prevent even just one person from becoming like that,

Then I've accomplished what I feel I'm called to do as a pet chaplain.

My mom took us to church,

Us meaning me and my sister,

But we weren't consistent.

We didn't go all the time.

My mom grew up Methodist,

And we started in the Methodist church,

And then we had some friends on our street who were Lutheran,

And they invited us to church,

And we really liked the pastor,

So we ended up joining Lutheran church.

I was actually baptized in the Lutheran church because I wasn't baptized as a child.

I was adopted when I was five months old,

And then my sister was adopted when I was a little over a year old,

And my dad didn't really go to church.

He would come sometimes with us,

And he liked our pastor,

But he was raised Southern Baptist.

I've learned so much about my spiritual journey and my spirituality from going to seminary at Ileth School of Theology.

It's not like a one-way highway for me.

I found out that it was okay to be what I call myself as a seeker.

I've learned to embrace different faith traditions into what I do,

Because not everybody that I'm going to come across as a chaplain for humans is going to be Christian,

But I'm a person who is a human being that has gone through the journey that they're going through or have gone through.

I've lost several pets,

So I know how that feels.

And hopefully I can share some of my experiences with them and give them some resources that can help them with their grief process that they're going through,

Or even resources to help them make the decision if they have to euthanize their pet,

Because that's never an easy decision to come to.

And I have this wonderful picture in my mind of when it's my turn to go,

Being taken to the door of the Rainbow Bridge and all of my dogs stopping and seeing me at the door,

And they all come running towards me.

Not just my personal dogs,

But dogs that I've helped by finding them another home and loving them until that happened.

I always joke and tell Jesus that He needs to have me a big old yard because it's going to be full of dogs.

So if it's my turn to go and my dogs aren't there,

He can just send me back because I'm not going where they're not.

I don't have any miracles like the dog was sick and now the dog's miraculously cured because I prayed over it.

I don't have that.

To me,

I think the miracle in what I do,

Even as we're saying goodbye to our pet,

Is that the pet is going back to the one who created them,

And we will see that pet again.

To me,

That's the miracle above all miracles.

People laugh at me sometimes because I'm a pet chaplain,

But I take this part of my life and my calling and my journey more seriously than anything that I have ever done.

I've been sitting in veterinary offices when people are grief-stricken,

Trying to make that final decision to let their pets go.

The vets who know that I'm a pet chaplain have come out and they have asked me to come in and see if I can help them or just be with them and assure them that what they're doing is something that is considered the most loving gift that you can give your pet when they're sick and they're hurting or they're so old that they can't get up anymore and walk because of arthritis or anything like that.

I think knowing that they have a presence like myself in the room with them helps make it more peaceful for them as well.

That's my mission.

I encourage all the pet parents that I have dealt with to stay with their pet until the very end because that pet is going to look for them.

They want to see their face as they take their last breath.

When you leave,

They're left with strangers,

Basically strangers.

If I can provide a little bit of comfort and peace for the pet parents and the pets themselves,

Then I've done what God is asking me to do.

There are still days that just got tears in my eyes because I missed my little Jackson so much.

His nickname was Baby Cujo.

If you've ever seen that movie,

Cujo with the big German Shepherd,

I think that was trying to kill everybody.

Trust me,

The vets called him Baby Cujo too.

Here at home,

If you're holding him in your lap,

He was the sweetest,

Most loving little Jack Russell terrier,

Who I called a Jack Russell terrorist.

Once you started poking or even me trying to look at his teeth to see if he needed a dental cleaning,

Oh no,

You had to count your fingers when you were done.

I remember laughing one time when he had an eye issue and the vet said,

Well,

You need to put these two different kinds of drops in his eyes like six minutes apart.

I looked at her and I said,

Have you met Jackson?

You try and do it.

She went and tried to,

I said,

And do it without a tech holding the dog,

Just you.

She tried to do it,

Oh no,

Baby Cujo came out real quick.

I said,

If you think for one minute that I'm going to do that,

You got another thing coming.

I said,

Because I need my fingers.

I find I need my place to be,

To stand in the gap for those people who can't do it so that their loved one knows that they're not alone.

And to do something like that to me is,

It fills up my heart.

So that's why I will continue to do what I do for pets and hopefully begin to do that for those who are sick,

Terminal,

Transitioning from this life to the next and hope that I am able to provide a little bit of peace and comfort for them and the family members who are going through this process of losing a loved one.

I was going to ask you for my own edification.

So have you,

So this could,

Because this has happened to me multiple times when I've lost a deer pet.

I call them my sweet little nuggets.

Have you ever had a dream afterwards where they've come to you and said,

I'm okay?

Funny you should mention that.

After I lost one of my little Pembroke Welsh Corgis,

She was eight years old and she was just a little spitfire.

I mean,

She wasn't mean by any chance,

But she was just,

Let's just say she was extra and you know,

And I wouldn't have had her any other way.

I called her my little pocket Corgi because she was only like 18 pounds,

You know,

So she was tiny and man,

She could run like a rocket,

But she was stubborn.

Let me tell you,

She was as stubborn as Jackson.

When she passed away,

I think she had some kind of heart attack or stroke or an aneurysm of some kind.

So I was going to have to get the vet to let her cross over.

And as I was holding her,

I remember holding her in my arms and whispering in her ear to go find Suri.

And Suri was my,

One of my other Corgis who had died previously,

Probably a couple of months and it's happened more than once.

I have felt something at the foot of my bed and that's where she always slept.

And before she would lay down,

She would walk around in a circle and paw at the sheets to make her little spot and then she would lay down.

So one night I felt this little jump onto my bed and my other dog who was one of Callie's,

You know,

Sisters,

She jumped up and she started looking at that spot.

And as I felt the walking around in the circle,

I said,

I go,

Okay,

Callie.

I said,

Thanks for coming to visit.

Find your spot,

Baby.

And as soon as I said that,

I felt something lay down at the corner of the bed.

And so I'm like,

I knew she was visiting and that let me know that she was okay.

I wanted to ask one last question.

What is the most unique animal that you have worked with?

Well,

There's one animal that,

Well,

There's a few,

But one animal that I'm not very fond of.

I know God created them for a purpose.

I can't figure out what that purpose is yet,

But I just believe in His wisdom.

Somebody asked me once if I would do a pet blessing on their snake.

I'm like,

I will do a pet blessing on your snake,

But I will not hold your snake or touch your snake.

You need to hold it and I will bless it from here.

I can do the sign of the cross as good as any pastor.

I've done pet blessings for ferrets,

For cats.

And I've had a few vets tell me after,

They said,

That is the coolest thing that I have ever seen.

I've never met a pet chaplain before.

And I said,

You probably won't because there's only about three or 400 of us,

I would say in the world.

It's something that I want to help change.

I want this to become as commonplace as having a chaplain in a hospice or a hospital,

Something like that,

So that people can feel calm and peace and at peace when they have to say goodbye to their pets or when they get a new pet and they want that pet blessed.

Thank you so much for listening to episode 57 of Bite Sized Blessings,

The podcast all about the magic and spirit that surrounds us.

If only we open our eyes to it.

This really sweet and very meaningful episode wouldn't have happened without pet chaplain Janice Driggers,

To whom I'm so grateful for being willing to have this discussion.

I also need to thank the creators of the music used.

Music L.

Files,

Chilled Music,

Winnie the Moog,

Frank Schroeder,

And Brian Holt's Music.

For complete attribution,

Please see the Bite Sized Blessings website at bite-sized-blessings.

Com.

On the website,

You'll find links to books,

Music,

Artists,

And change makers I think will lift and inspire you.

Thank you for listening and here's my one request,

And it's kind of a big one.

Without an animal,

Shelters are overflowing with cats,

Dogs,

Turtles,

Ferrets,

Any kind of animal you could imagine that needs a good home.

Especially right now during the pandemic and as people get back to work,

Animals are being left at shelters in record numbers.

Those sweet little nuggets need homes and love.

I know it's a big request,

But on this show,

We dream big.

Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you oh so very soon for episode 58.

Now run,

Don't walk to your nearest shelter.

I'll see you next time.