By BILL BARLOW/Special to the Sentinel
UPPER TOWNSHIP – Ezekiel is one busy dog who is about to get even busier.
The 7-year-old white boxer is a therapy dog, a member of the Upper Township Rescue Squad and has multiple certifications. This spring, he is set to work with young athletes in the multiple programs presented through the Upper Township Recreation Department, helping players deal with the emotional impacts of COVID-19.
“This whole COVID thing has been rough, especially on our kids,” said Committee member Kim Hayes, who recently announced the initiative. “You really do see the negative impacts that it has on them. I think it’s going to be fantastic.”
The plan is for Ezekiel to attend practices and games, just to help cheer up the participants. He already attends community events and there are also plans for him to regularly visit the Upper Township Senior Center when regular programing returns there.
His owner, Mary Lyons, had reached out to discuss getting him more involved in community events, Hayes said. He will be available for participants in each of the township recreation leagues. The dog has already visited children at Upper Township Elementary School and attended Little League games, Lyons said.
“The kids are tired of being home. They’re tired of being isolated,” she said. The dog will attend wrestling, basketball and football events and others, “just to kind of make them feel a little better.”
She got Ezekiel when he was about five weeks old. He’s deaf, and she was told he was set to be euthanized if she did not take him. But at the time, her husband, John, was going through rehab with cancer. It was a crazy time in their lives even without a puppy.
“My husband said, ‘I need him,’” she said. “We knew there was something really special about this dog. I don’t know where my husband would be without this puppy.”
Because the dog cannot hear, she gives commands in American Sign Language. When Ezekiel was about 2 years old, they began getting him tested to work as a therapy dog. She said he’s been certified with the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, Canines for Christ and multiple other organizations.
John and Mary are members of the rescue squad. Mary said she had Ezekiel sworn in as an associate member as well. She had trained him to lift a front paw as if to give a high-five, but in this case he raised the wrong paw.
“He goes to drills. He was at one last Tuesday, when we practiced getting someone out of a vehicle,” she said.
He also responds to calls involving trauma, being used at times to comfort adults or children who have been involved in traumatic events. Lyons said she is the EMS crisis response person and the chaplain for the squad. Ezekiel’s main title is a crisis response therapy dog. She said he could be called to respond to major events.
Sometimes, the dog also offers comfort for members. Mary Lyons said she could not go into detail because of patient confidentiality rules, but she said rescue crews had multiple calls involving trauma. They asked for a visit.
“Whenever they need me and Ezekiel, we’re available,” she said. “He makes you laugh. He puts smiles on faces.”
Ezekiel is not a small dog. But she said no one seems scared by him.
“I haven’t come across anybody yet who’s afraid of him. He’s 93 pounds and he’s a lap dog,” she said.
Ezekiel has his own Facebook page, she said, and is well known among children in the township. She described him as a friendly and affectionate dog.
“My husband calls him Zeke. I call him by his full name,” Lyons said. His name translates as Strength of God, or as Lyons put it, “God strengthens.”
Mary is a retired educator, who most recently taught at the Atlantic County Special Services school. Her husband continues to work as an electrician.
