Animals are amazing.

In addition to being everything from supper on the evening kitchen table to being man's best friend to giving us milk for our breakfast cereal, they can also being a calming influence. Yes, they can be therapy in a lot of forms.

I've seem stories of dogs who visit Nursing Homes and become life long friends with people who've lived, well, a long life. It might be a cat in a local business that knows everyone in town and expects to be petted every time you come in.

So now, let me introduce you to Frankie.

He's a pig. But not just any pig. Frankie is a therapy pig.

The Muscatine Journal reports this Iowa pig is special. An elementary school is using Frankie to calm down students that may have emotional distress. The student sits down, reads to Frankie for about 15 minutes (and I'm thinking there may be a little petting going on here too) and its proven to help students calm down and get back to the, uh, regular learning.

In fact, students are also given the task of feeding Frankie and caring for him, so Frankie isn't just providing therapy...he's providing friendship.

The Special Education teacher says, thanks to Frankie, her students are actually excited to come to school now.

So I guess sometimes a pig isn't just a pig. Sometimes a pig is a Frankie!

The Associated Press Contributed To This Article


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