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Pinnacle View United Methodist Church not only blesses people's animals, it also provides prayer blankets when pets get sick and condolence cards when they pass away.
The Little Rock congregation tries to make pets, and the people that love them, a year-round priority.
At 6 p.m. June 10, it is observing World Pet Memorial Day with a remembrance service in its back garden area. Participants are invited to bring a photo of their loved one and place it on a memorial table there. Everyone is welcome.
Later in the year, Pinnacle View will offer therapy dog training classes.
Its members provide canine companionship for school children and nursing home residents. They also bring doggy greeters on Sunday mornings.
Gayle Fiser leads the congregation's pet ministry.
Out West Veterinary Urgent Care in Little Rock has partnered with the church on the pet memorial. Stephanie Dungey, the clinic's practice manager, says the pet ministry is "absolutely" worthwhile.
The memorial service gives people "an outlet to celebrate" their pet's life.
At an emergency animal hospital, people frequently face "heart-wrenching decisions," Dungey said. "In a regular practice, you could deal with vaccines and puppies and kittens and the fun stuff.
"I deal with trauma on a daily basis," she said.
It can leave a tremendous void when a beloved pet dies.
"They just truly are members of the family," she said.
Duffy was Bernard "Bernie" Nelson's canine companion as he battled ALS. When he was in a wheelchair, the West Highland white terrier would hop in his lap and keep him company. When Nelson could no longer move or speak, Duffy would lie in bed just above him, nuzzling the top of his head and keeping him company.
Bernie Nelson died in October 2023; Duffy had died in January.
"It was just devastating to the both of us," said his widow, Rebecca Nelson.
The Nelsons were members of Pinnacle View, and the congregation was very kind during her husband's illness, she said.
And when Duffy died, the congregation gave the couple a prayer blanket.
"It was a difficult time, and it somehow let us know that other people understood and cared," she said.
"Duffy mattered ... That's what (the prayer blanket) said to us. That he mattered to us. And he mattered to people that cared about us," she said.
Martha Taylor lost her horse, Handsome, recently, and is still grieving.
"He died very suddenly on Mother's Day, and it was just one of those things that, no matter how much we tried, it was just insurmountable," she said.
Fiser was one of the first to reach out and offer support.
"She called and said, 'Can I bring a prayer blanket over for you?' and I was so very touched by that," Taylor said.
Members of the congregation's sewing team make the fleece blankets, which are red with an embroidered white cross. The congregation's pastor, Betsy Singleton Snyder, blesses them once they're done.
Taylor, who attends Highland Valley United Methodist Church, plans to attend the pet memorial service, and she's bringing a photo of Handsome with her.
"It's tough," she said. "He's just left a big hole."
This is the third year that the church has held a pet memorial service, with roughly 50 to 60 people attending in previous years.
Pinnacle View looks for other ways, as well, to help people cope in their time of loss.
"We have found that helping people write their pet obituary is very healing," Fiser said. "It's very healing if you're grieving."
Nationwide, 68 million households have a dog and 49 million have a cat, according to the American Pet Products Association, an industry trade group. According to its data, 10 million homes keep freshwater fish; 6 million have birds and 2 million have horses.
"Seventy percent of all U.S. households have a pet," Fiser said.
Fondness for animals may be baked into Methodism's DNA. John Wesley, the movement's founder, was a crusader against animal cruelty in his time.
"I doubt not that the Father of All has a tender regard for even his lowest creatures," he once said.
Wesley was particularly fond of the beast that carried him from town to town, enabling him to spread his message to every corner of England.
"He believed his horse would be in heaven with him," Singleton Snyder said.
Wesley believed kindness toward animals was biblical.
Old Testament law prohibited muzzling oxen as they tread on grain -- they were entitled to eat as they worked. In Matthew 6:26, Jesus suggested that God, though most interested in humanity, has a soft spot, as well, for animals, saying: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."
Fiser and Singleton Snyder have been involved in pet ministry for nearly two decades.
They're also dog people.
Singleton Snyder has a pointer called Nori and a golden retriever named Paddy.
Fiser is particular to Cavalier King Charles spaniels. She has one named Goodness Gracious ("Gracie" for short) and another named Winnie.
She brings them to Arkansas United Methodist Church's annual conference and elsewhere when she's trying to drum up interest in pet ministry.
The dogs are also a hit on college campuses.
Amy Shores, director of the Wesley Foundation in Conway, says it's a lot easier to set up a table and promote her work if there's a puppy in the vicinity.
"Sometimes we'll be on campus and we'll give out coffee or energy drinks or lemonade, but the dogs are always the biggest draw," she said. "It's a hit every time."
Jake Muse, a junior at UCA and a Wesley Foundation intern, said dogs from the Pinnacle View pet ministry visited campus for Halloween and for Valentine's Day and were a big hit both times.
The visits provide "a nice break from classes and the stress of normal, everyday college life," he said.