![Cherie Mossing and her therapy dog Lexi join Cheyanne Leeds and her beagle, Tiana, for a photo in an emergency shelter at San Diego's Balboa Park on Feb. 4, 2024. The shelter temporarily housed 270 people displaced by intense flooding in San Diego. [Cherie Mossing]](https://cdn.petnews2day.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Local-Lion-dog-assist-in-San-Diego-flooding.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&quality=64&webp=50&avif=38&sharp=1&resize=696%2C423&ssl=1 "mossing-021524-therapy-dogs-maricopa-lions")
Province resident and Maricopa Lions Club member Cherie Mossing, 71, and her remedy canine Lexi are a few of Maricopa’s top-notch fur-st responders.
The remedy canine staff was deployed to San Diego lately for emergency help following weeks of intense rain and flooding, which displaced hundreds throughout California.
It’s the farthest the Maricopa Lions have ever gone to do service — earlier than, nobody ventured farther than Gila Bend.
Mossing, Lexi and one other staff from Paradise Valley spent three days working the crowds at shelters and incident command facilities to offer a small little bit of respite from the stress.
For Mossing, it’s a part of her calling.
“That’s part of what Lions do,” she mentioned. “Our motto is we serve, so in every project we do, we serve our fellow man. That’s who we are.”
A once-in-a-millennium occasion
Several large storms slammed California over the previous couple of weeks, inundating the state with months’ price of rain in only a matter of days. It additionally introduced floods, mudslides and hurricane-force winds to cities up and down the coast.
At least one climate station recorded a foot of rain in a 24-hour periodwhich meteorologists known as a once-in-a-millennium rainfall occasion.
The January storms alone broken greater than 800 houses, closed dozens of roads and displaced greater than 600 San Diego County residents, in accordance with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
Meet Lexi
Lexi, an 8-year-old golden doodle, has been working as a licensed remedy canine for six years. She supplies mild consolation, affection or distraction for folks going through a disaster or who’re experiencing misery.
![Lexi, an 8-year-old therapy dog, rests between shifts at a shelter in San Diego on Feb. 4, 2024. The therapy dog works with Province resident Cherie Mossing to provide comfort, affection and distraction to people facing a crisis or who are experiencing distress. [Cherie Mossing]](https://cdn.petnews2day.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/1708274007_805_Local-Lion-dog-assist-in-San-Diego-flooding.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&quality=64&webp=50&avif=38&sharp=1&resize=300%2C225&ssl=1)
“We really focus on the mental health of the people we’re meeting,” Mossing mentioned. “There can be a lot of people crying, a lot of people depressed.”
Encountering these eventualities is nothing new for Mossing. She beforehand labored as a nurse in hospital trauma facilities for a number of a long time earlier than retiring. But she couldn’t discover herself staying away from offering aid for lengthy.
“Being able to give them a little bit of respite from their struggles, it’s satisfying and rewarding,” she mentioned.
Opportunities to assist
Mossing mentioned the Maricopa Lions Club presently has three remedy dogs and one disaster response canine. However, they’re searching for two extra remedy dogs.
While volunteer work often means embarking on deployments to emergencies out and in of state, in addition they present consolation for kids in colleges and libraries, in addition to for first responders.
Teams have to be members of the Lions Club, have an obedience-trained canine and cross a background test. Interested events can contact Mossing at 602-828-8312.
