kindness
Synergy the mini pig calms rooms just by walking in
A therapy dog was the obvious choice. They picked a pig.
Synergy, a mini pig, spends her workdays visiting people experiencing homelessness in Washington, DC, where she is a trained crisis-intervention therapy animal. She wears a small harness. She knows a few tricks. Mostly she shows up and lets people sit with her, which turns out to be the point. Therapy dogs are common in this kind of work. A pig is a harder sell, at least until people meet one. Handlers report that Synergy tends to calm a room simply by walking into it, snout down, unbothered by the noise or the crowd. People who are wary of talking to a caseworker will talk to a pig. She does not take notes, and she does not judge. She just leans into whoever needs leaning on.