Ley-Anne Mountain has known about the therapeutic power of animals from a young age.
At the tender age of 17, faced with the impending separation of her parents and her upcoming graduation from high school, Mountain found solace in Cougar, a quarter horse she had received as a Christmas gift only months earlier when she was 16.
"He saved my life," she recalled of the experience. "He was everything. He was my best friend."
Mountain, the owner of Naturally Nurtured, recently welcomed a new animal to her roster of therapeutic pets. Einstein, a nine-month-old French lop rabbit, received his certification as a pet therapy animal from the Pet Therapy Society of Northern Alberta on May 1, following a three-month process.
Currently run as a five-week-long after-school program through her shop at 5036 - 50 St., Mountain hopes to one day expand the Naturally Nurtured program to local schools.
The program is a social and emotional learning experience for children that is based around animal interaction. It teaches children numerous life skills they can nurture, including compassion, empathy, and responsibility. Through their interaction with the animals, the children learn self-care.
"I learned all of this stuff through animals," Mountain explained. "The list is endless."
At present, only five children can attend the hour-long program. She also runs it one-on-one.
By expanding the program to the schools, Mountain said she will be trying to reconnect children with animals and nature. The skills the program teaches are currently being undermined by society's reliance on high-speed technology, she said.
If Mountain is successful in getting the schools to sign up, the program would be aimed at students in grades 1-3. She has already made a presentation at Chinook Centre School, where her daughter, Mackenzie, 7, is a student. Saying that she believes animals and nature are the foundation of life, Mountain said the program works to rebuild children's connection with them.
"I just think if we can give them these skills, then it will help them all through their whole life," she said.
The program features seven distinct units, or life areas, that support health and well being, Mountain explained, saying she hopes it will one day become part of the normal school routine.
"School's got the academic stuff covered," she said. "But socially, I would just love to become part of school."
Each unit has an associated story and craft, as well as an interactive group component. One of the units covers relaxation meditation.
"We do a meditation story so we actually guide the kids into what relaxed feels like, because a lot of people don't," she said.
"Society is just so busy that a lot of us don't know how to be quiet and comfortable with quiet."
Einstein joins a roster that includes Bert and Twister the horses, felines Ruby and Gusto, and Mountain's 13-year-old dog, Crash.
"They each have a lesson to teach."
As for the bunny's name, Mountain said choosing to name him after the legendary scientific mind was an easy decision.
"He's my hero," she said of Albert Einstein. "Not for the scientific stuff, but for the humanitarian that he was."
For more information, contact Mountain at (403) 227-8499.
