Episode 14: The Art of Sending Comfort

Penny Layne, or Aunt Penny as she’s also known, is the force behind Pittsburgh Pet Prayer Blankets. She also runs her own grief companion program and does a wonderful job helping those who have lost a beloved furkid manage their grief.

Penny also owns Aunt Penny’s Professional Dog Training and is committed to providing the most effective, convenient force-free solutions for clients’ dog training needs, expectant families’ dog challenges, shelter/rescue staff and volunteer safety education classes, children’s dog bite prevention programs as well as first responders challenges with dogs they encounter on the job.

She brings a diverse background in canines and training through her work with service dogs for people with physical challenges, working in a vet hospital, owning a boarding, grooming, and training kennel.

Penny is a National Speaker, licensed presenter for the International Family Paws Parent Education programs (Dogs and storks and Dogs and Toddlers), as well as an Advanced Certified Pet Tech, a Nationally Certified Professional Dog Trainer, an occupational dog bite prevention instructor, a media consultant, and the first certified fear-free dog professional in Western Pennsylvania.

Penny and her husband Shawn reside in Irwin, PA, and have four adult children and four grandchildren. When not educating humans about canines, Penny enjoys her husband, grandchildren, their own nine dogs, two pygmy goats, and two betta fish.

This week, Jessica Wasik of Bark and Gold Photography in Pittsburgh interviews Aunt Penny about the Pittsburgh Pet Prayer Blankets and how they are sending comfort to ill or injured animals and their humans all around the world.

Find Penny

Pet Prayer Blankets

Aunt Penny’s Dog Training

Angela Schneider

Hi, welcome back to One Last Network and episode 14. 

We’re publishing this episode on Christmas Eve morning. The holidays can be exhausting and chaotic for many, and even more so for our friends and family who are experiencing grief.  

A first Christmas without a best fur friend or a loved one can be particularly painful. I know tomorrow morning isn’t going to be easy. It will be the first year I don’t have to call my mom and wish her merry Christmas, just like I’ve done every year for the last 20 or so years. 

I miss her. 

If you are grieving a loved one or pet, remember it’s OK to cry and it’s OK to keep telling them you love them. In fact, I will be calling my mom — sort of — and wishing her a merry Christmas. And telling her I love her. 

And if you know someone who is in grief, check in on them. They may not be OK. But all they might need is someone to hear them, someone to witness their grief, someone to show them they are not alone at a time when we may feel especially alone.  

In today’s episode, Jessica Wasik of Bark and Gold Photography in Pittsburgh interviews Penny Layne — or Aunt Penny — of Pittsburgh Pet Prayer Blankets.  

Aunt Penny leads a group of volunteers who create blankets and pray over them then send the blankets to ill or injured pets who may need a little extra comfort …  

Her group is 2,000 strong and in three years they have sent comfort to more than 10,000 pets around the world, as far away as Ireland. 

Let’s listen as Jessica gets Aunt Penny to tell us all about Pet Prayer Blankets. 

Jessica Wasik   

In this episode, I’m joined by Penny Lane, also known to many people as Aunt Penny. I’m going to need a big breath to list all the experience and wonderful things she’s doing because Penny is a nationally certified professional dog trainer, a certified Fear Free professional, a media consultant, an occupational dog bite prevention educator and the founder behind Pittsburg pet prayer blankets. Through her experience as a certified pet loss companion facilitating her own pet loss groups, Penny also merges all of these skills to help those working through the grief of losing their beloved pets. Penny, thanks for stopping by One Last Network. How are you? 

Penny Layne 

I’m doing wonderful this morning. How are you? 

Jessica 

I am great. Before we get to know a little more about you, I have to ask where did the nickname Aunt Penny come from? 

Penny   

Well, my nieces and nephews used to call me Aunt Puppy. Because I was always known to be involved with a lot of dogs. And so I decided for it to be more professional that Aunt Penny sounded better.  

Jessica 

Love that. That is so sweet. And I think it speaks to your love of animals. Just everyone around you clearly can realize how much that you care for these. 

Penny   

Absolutely. 

Jessica 

Tell us more about you and how you were called to start this prayer blanket mission despite all of these other things going on in your world. 

Penny   

Well, my husband really is a huge part of this. And his name is Shawn. And we were … how this all started was we were fostering 17 puppies and two mama dogs for Pet Search. And 10 of those puppies, we were bottle feeding and we were bottle feeding them every two hours. And the one mama could not feed her babies because she had a medical condition. And the other mama had a broken pelvis. And we also had our own 11 dogs. So we had 31 little four-footed kids to take care of in the house. So we reached out on Facebook for some help. And animal lovers are everywhere. Fifty-four people came within 24 hours into our home, everyone got put on a schedule. And for the next four weeks, they circulated in and out of our house allowing Shawn and I to rest and we took care of all these babies and mamas together. And they were all successful. 

So what happened was when the babies and the mamas were ready to go to new homes, one of our volunteers decided to make some blankets for the babies and the mamas. So they went to their homes with these prayer blankets. Well, we found out shortly after one of the people that adopted one of the babies had another dog named Penny by coincidence, and that dog was identified to have an aggressive cancer, and she needed to have her leg removed, amputated. So we decided to give her a pet prayer blanket also.  

Well, when the news got out that one of our adopted puppies had a sister at home that needed a blanket, we then decided to all bond together because we were missing all of our fur babies that we had been taking care of. And that is how Pet Prayer Blankets was born. The group that came from Facebook of volunteers started making all these pet prayer blankets after all those puppies and mamas were … found their new homes. 

Jessica 

I think that name coincidence is amazing and almost not a coincidence. It’s just meant to be. 

Penny   

Absolutely that is what I’ve said is … no in fact, I have goosebumps right now. Because I believe this has all been … we’ve been led. We have definitely been led. And each one of these things that we have done keeps branching out in every night. My prayer is always lead me where you need me. 

Jessica 

Absolutely. So for someone who is not familiar with what a prayer blanket is, how would you describe one? 

Penny   

A prayer blanket is made with love out of fleece. It is … they pray over the blanket sometimes in groups sometimes while making them and then they are delivered by our volunteers. Some of our volunteers are bikers. We have men that are out there helping us, these wonderful bikers. Some of them are, you know, senior citizens. We have young ones, we have one volunteer who’s 8 years old, that has delivered blankets. He has also brought in like 300 yards of fleece, but these blankets are very soft. And the idea is to wrap the pets in comfort in prayer. 

Jessica 

That is beautiful. I think to, like, about the bikers that just speaks to how animals can draw that emotional connection out of our soul and bring about that gentleness and compassion that I think everybody can us,e no matter if their pet is not doing well or they’re just an animal lover. 

Penny   

And we ended up finding out that originally, the mission seemed to be, as I said, to wrap the pets in in love and prayers. And I didn’t realize how much we were going to touch the owners’ lives. A lot of them have given back, they’ve joined us, we are now over 2,000 volunteers, and this is our third year. And a lot of them, if they do have a pet that goes to the Rainbow Bridge, they have given back by either sponsoring a blanket for how many years their pet was alive, they’ll sponsor that many blankets, or they join us to deliver or to pray for the pets that we list on our Facebook page that need to be prayed for. So we have all ages working on these blankets. 

Jessica 

That’s incredible for someone who’s not local to the Greater Pittsburgh area, is there a way that they can get involved or just extend their support for you? 

Penny   

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, our blankets have gone as far as Ireland. That is the furthest blanket that we had. We have people who are online praying for animals, we have people online who some people have more money than time, some people have more time than money. And so it’s a great merging of everybody’s resources. And so they are … and they’re giving support because we allow the people who have any animal in the hospital to give us updates, let us know we’re here we’re praying for them, we want to know how they’re doing. And if a pet would pass, we allow them to share memories with us there because we consider ourselves all a family of pet lovers there. And we all understand so it’s a safe place for them. 

Jessica 

Yes, animals truly bring us together like nothing else. I noticed after our pet passes, that you have an option for someone to receive a keepsake pet memorial bear that you’ve made from those prayer blankets that were originally given to that dog. And I think that’s just such a beautiful way to carry on that legacy. And remember them, can you share more about that? 

Penny   

One of the things that we do is we have angel wings that one of our volunteers she makes, she takes a photo that they have sent to us and given us permission that they would like to honor their pet with angel wings. And she is artistic. And she puts angel wings on them. And then it looks like they’re at the Rainbow Bridge. And they have their wings on. And that way they can print those photos off. And they can use that whether they want to put it at their front door so that they can say, you know, good morning to their pet, or next to their bed so they can say goodnight to their pet. And this has been a wonderful, free offering that our volunteer gives so that even children want a little picture next to their bed. So they can still say hi to their pet while they’re while they’re grieving the loss of their pet. 

Jessica 

I’ve heard to keep talking to them even after we’ve lost our pets because they are still around us and they hear. So I think that’s a lovely way to just give that a bit of a tangible aspect to something that, especially for little ones, can feel so foreign. 

Penny   

Right. And we also, you know, we have a group, you know, our pet loss support group. And one of the things we like to say is, whatever you do is right for you. However you’re grieving, however you’re mourning. And also we suggest to people that, for children, especially go outside at night, and blow bubbles and those kisses go to heaven. 

Jessica 

I love that. Let’s shift gears a little bit to your work as a certified pet loss companion and what exactly that entails. 

Penny   

My husband and I are both certified for this, we did get certified by Coleen Ellis of … she’s with a pet loss group in Florida. And the reason for this was to give people a safe place where they can tell us their pet story. Tell us what their nicknames were, tell us about the chapter in their life that their pet was involved in because we want to hear that. And we want to hear about their memories. And we even work on people who have to make the choice to euthanize a pet. And as we say euthanization is a gift. It, it truly is a gift for someone to say, I need to do this. I can do this. And we’re there to support them through that. 

Jessica 

Exactly. It’s a hard gift. But I think it’s the most selfless thing we can do for them. 

Penny   

Absolutely, yes. And so we’re companions in their journey, you know, for as long as they need us. We are not counselors, but we are companions where we listen to what they have to say. And we guide the group, we facilitate the group to help them get through, because grieving and mourning are different. Grieving is their emotions that they’re feeling. Mourning is actually what they’re doing with those on the outward expression of themselves. So we help them come up with ways to honor their pets. 

Jessica 

And what are some of your favorite ways that people can do that? 

Penny   

I love, like, if it I used to go to the dog park, I love if they want to take tennis balls, to any kind of ball and they have a bucket and they put their dog’s name on the ball. And then they go up maybe on the dog’s birthday every year or their gotcha day or the day that their pet passed. And they refill that with balls for the other dogs that are there. That was one of my very favorite ones that that someone had done. A lot of people have a table as they enter their house, and they taken the food bowl that might have had their pet’s name on it and they filled it with dirt and a plant. And then they have the dog’s collar sitting on this table and their angel wing photo also right there. So I love that.  

Another thing that we do in our pet support group, when we have everyone there is I give everybody a little heart that you can squeeze one of those squeezable stress balls that looks like a heart. And I tell them, I say, some people just don’t understand how close we are to our animals. And some people don’t understand that this is a family member, that we feel we have lost. This heart is to put in their purse or in their pocket. And if somebody would, that didn’t understand happens to make a comment that they don’t like so much, squeezed the heart and know that they’re loved by us. That gives them something to … to understand that they’re in this group of animal lovers. And not everybody understands how attached we are to our animals. 

Jessica 

You know, there’s a discomfort or almost a stigma that surrounds talking about grief and loss in general, even anticipatory grief, especially when it involves an animal. What advice would you give to someone who might be struggling with finding support or just working through those emotions and challenges? 

Penny   

I think that, you know, the first thing to do is to reach out to someone that you feel understands what you’re going through. They can certainly reach out to us through pepper blankets. This is a free service that we give, we want everybody to be able to grieve and mourn the loss of their pet. That is very important. And so my husband and I have decided this will always be a free service, whether you know, it’s a couple of group sessions that we have during the year, or if they need us immediately on Zoom or on the phone, we will help them. We can also help them with resources for books if they’d like to read or to journal or anything like that. So and there are counselors available, they can look online, or we can help them find one since we are companions for their journey, we will help them find counselors also. 

Jessica 

Wonderful, how can we best support one another in times of grief, especially when you don’t know what to say or what feels appropriate? 

Penny   

Sometimes it’s just being there, it doesn’t mean that you have to say or do anything. A lot of times people just want to be able to tell you about their pet. They want to be able to tell you what happened on that last day. They just need some ears to listen and a heart to have empathy. 

Jessica 

And that’s very important just to be there and not in a judgmental way listen. 

Penny   

Exactly, to feel … to feel safe. Because some people have thoughts that other people might think wow, that’s, that’s crazy. But we don’t. We don’t think anything is crazy. We think that you’re telling us from your heart. This is how you felt. If you saw your animal after it passed away, how wonderful that your pet visited. There is no judgment whatsoever.  

Jessica 

Yes, that is what makes what you’re doing so special. Before we wrap, are there any final words of wisdom or anything else you’d like to share with our listeners? 

Penny   

Well, you know what? I would I would like to tell them about a couple of these blankets where they weren’t because they’re not just for dogs and cats. Our most unusual one was a kangaroo from Kansas.  

Jessica 

Wow.  

Penny 

Yes, one of our volunteers made a fleece sack because this little guy … it was through a rehabilitation rescue. They had to have a sack to attach to their door so that the little kangaroo could feel comfortable. And so instead of a blanket, he needed something he could hang in. So we have some very talented volunteers and so Denise was able to make that that sack.  

We also have a volunteer who makes pet bears. So if a pet has passed away, she makes … takes their prayer blanket and turns it into a bear and she has a little pocket on it. So if they want to put the ashes or some hair in there, they can do that too.  

We do group type things also and we made 110 guinea pig tents for a guinea pig rescue in the Pittsburgh area called WEEK, so that was, that was really a lot of fun. They had little fringy forests, we call them so that they could hide and then poke out, peek out whenever they wanted to. And like I said, our furthest blanket that went out it went to Ireland, we do ship our blankets also. But here’s the big thing that I want to share with you. Do you have any idea how many blankets this group has made and delivered? 

Jessica 

I would guess, several 100. 

Penny   

Let’s go with 10,236 to this day, 

Jessica 

Oh my goodness. 

Penny   

In our third year. So this is quite the group they give them to shelters and rescues that are local, and then to any owners anywhere in the United States or another country. So yes, 10,236 was a number this morning, and I couldn’t believe it. We passed 10,000 without me even noticing until I looked at the numbers. So that’s a lot of blankets. And what’s so exciting about that is we also have a sister group in Florida. So we have a group called Blessing Blankets in Florida. And that is run by Trudy Downes and she had reached out to me and she’s originally from Pittsburgh. And she said, would you help me get one started in Florida? And she said I don’t have the group that you have. Well, she is probably very close to the same number of blankets. And all of their blankets are going to local shelters and rescues. So she has got quite the group down there in Florida also. 

Jessica 

Unbelievable. How does someone go about getting a blanket? 

Penny   

On our website, it’s petprayerblankets.com. And it says how to request a blanket right there. You hit that button, send it over to us and, and you can do it anonymously for somebody else, you know, or you can get one for your own pet and all these must be sick, sick, injured, an animal that’s at a local rescue. We’ve done military dogs, police dogs, search and rescue dogs. Any animal that is out there is … is able to receive a blanket. 

Jessica 

Penny, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day and this selfless work to chat with me. If anyone wants to get involved with this project or just follow along with what you’re doing. Where can people learn more? 

Penny   

Oh, please go to the website, petprayerblankets.com or find us on Facebook. That’s where we’re really chatty. Over there, we have all the pictures of the blankets and the people that are getting these blankets and their animals so that if you search for Pet Prayer Blankets, or Pittsburgh Pet Prayer Blankets, you will find us on Facebook. 

Jessica 

Thank you again so much for the resources and the compassion that you’re offering so many people and for this great conversation. 

Penny   

Thank you for your time to and your love of animals. 

Angela

Incredible. 

It’s just incredible the work that is being done by Aunt Penny and her amazing volunteers. 

When our furkids are sick or hurt, we want to give them all the comfort in the world. But we need comfort too and I’ve no doubt the pet prayer blankets make the humans who receive them for their pets feel a little bit less alone too. 

Oh and I was cruising Aunt Penny’s Facebook page for her dog training business and I saw her pay tribute to a big white floof named Journee who left her physical world seven years ago. 

Knowing she understands the magic of being owned and loved by a big white … well, that just makes me like her more. 

Next week, I chat with my grief coach Cathy Cheshire about the power of holding onto our memories and stories and how we can use them to move forward in our grief. 

Until then, everyone here at One Last Network hopes you have a peaceful Christmas holiday.