Animania Meets Critterish Allsorts - We Learn About Animals and the Healing Power of Pet Therapy

Me and Stoosh

As mentioned in my previous post Animania sponsors Critterish Allsorts I decided earlier this year to sponsor Critterish Allsorts through my new book Animania. Well last month we actually went to visit Dale and his critters to learn more about the animals and the organization. We had the best day ever and learned so much. It will be a day that none of us will forget in a hurry.

We were introduced to every one of the critters and had a cuddle with a few too. What amazed me was how all of them were more than happy being handled by complete strangers. It just shows how much time and commitment Dale puts into looking after and caring for his animals.

I wanted to explain in more detail what this organization is about, so here is an interview with the man himself.

Interview with Dale Preece Kelly, founder of Critterish Allsorts

How long have you been running Critterish Allsorts?

Critterish Allsorts was founded in August 2010 so a little over 5 years

What made you decide to get into pet therapy?

I got the opportunity to work inside a secure psychiatric hospital with people with severe mental health problems (like paranoid schizophrenia, psychosis, severe depression etc) with brain injuries and severe forms of aspergers and autism. I saw the difference my visits made to these people and had psychologists and speech therapists asking how it managed to get the responses it did. The fact I was helping people, well I was facilitating my animals to help people, made me feel very proud and fulfilled. It’s such a great feeling. I decided there and then this was the direction I wanted to follow with Critterish Allsorts rather than the traditional animal man route - this was a really special thing to do. So I set about researching everything I possibly could about pet therapy and realised that nobody else was using the animals I was using in this way, people were just using dogs cats rabbits and horses. That was in 2011, I am now recognised worldwide as a pioneer in the field

How do you become a qualified pet therapy practitioner?

At the time there were no college courses I could attend, no degrees to do, I was the only person doing it in this way with this range of species. I found an online course with the British School of Yoga. It was based around dogs and horses but the course materials and content were excellent. It taught me a lot - the history, techniques, counselling methods etc more importantly it taught me why and how it worked and allowed me to understand exactly what I am doing with my animals. At the same time, I taught the college a lot about using different types of animals in different ways - they were blown away by my assignments and case studies, using skunks and reptiles and insects. I won their student of the year award!! There is now a degree course at a university in Yorkshire, but that too is a distance learning course. A lot of universities teach about my work when students courses touch in animal assisted therapy, and every year I get approached by anywhere up to 30 students who want to do dissertations on my work or come and make academic studies of its effects. That’s a great feeling. I believe I am still the only "animal man"/animal encounter company who is qualified as an animal assisted therapy practitioner. Many companies offer pet therapy, but many give a type of animal assisted activity, they do not practice the therapy side, which has real identifiable and measurable goals. I do both working one to one with patients and mental health professionals, to give measured results to the patients. If it was not a successful treatment there is no way that we would have the contracts that we do with the huge public and private corporations that we do

How many animals make up the Critterish Allsorts team?

Somewhere between 50 and 60 unless the stick insects have babies in which case it can increase by more than a hundred!!

Can you tell us a bit about the healing powers of pet therapy?

There are so many. Animals don’t judge for starters, they expect nothing, they ask no questions. Animals just exude love and thats all that many people need. For psychiatric patients it offers a focus that takes their minds off everything else thats going on, to be able to just sit with their thoughts and feel loved and wanted by another being. The most profound thing I have had a patient tell me came from a paranoid schizophrenic who told me that when he was with my animals all of the voices in his head disappeared and he was free of noise. That made me cry, to think you have done something like that for somebody who has been plagued by voices for decades just blew me away. He was able to have rational lucid conversations with his doctors for the first time. For others its the only session they will attend because it offers them respite from the pressures. Patients who identify with snakes (each person identifies with a different animal as their therapy animal) get 4 dimensions and snakes do wonders for self esteem...imagine feeling really down about yourself and then doing something nobody else is prepared to do. Suddenly you feel like a hero and so good about yourself. I am currently developing a new revolutionary form of animal assisted therapy that will go into territory as yet uncharted but more on that when its developed (thats an exclusive)

What is the most rewarding part about your job?

Seeing what it does for people. When we are educating it’s how it affects the kids. The looks on their faces when they meet and interact with the animals and the interest they take. With the therapy work, its’ just watching in awe at how amazing my animals are, they seem to know what they are there for and act differently in both settings. They make me so proud, and the results that they achieve are phenomenal. Such a satisfying aspect of it. I also love that I am one of the only people in the world doing what I do the way that I do it, it makes me very proud of what I have accomplished. I’ve always said from day 1 that if I won the lotto or for some other reason became a millionaire, I  would continue to do the work but I would do it for free

What future plans do you have for Critterish Allsorts? 

Who knows what the future holds? I have never had a business plan, I just let the universe guide me (try explaining that to a bank manager) but its worked so far. I come into contact with people by chance and they change the direction of my life. I am a completely different person now than I was in 2010...better, more grounded, I have a better understanding of how all sentient beings work, I work personally on a higher plain than I did then (if that makes sense - I don’t mean I’m above anyone but that I understand more about life about what makes me tick and everything else...in the last 5 years I’ve discovered myself), I have also grown with my animals (I am connected spiritually with each and every one of them and we have a true relationship, they are not just my pets, they are my friends, they are my heroes, they are my equals, they are my colleagues, they are me we are one, they speak and I hear – that’s one of the most important and special things that we have and it’s what makes it work so well).....this possibly sounds like a really pretentious answer – it’s not meant to nor is it my intention but its honest. I have no plans for the future I take everything a day at a time, recent events have taught me that lifes too short to plan anything, you just have to live for the now because truthfully tomorrow is of no consequence until tomorrow. Makes living life so easy. I’ve also discovered a spiritual side in the past 6 months that I never realised I had and I am very much in touch with that, and I know from 4 years of believing the universe will see me right, that whenever I am in need the universe will provide (I could cite so many examples of when it has) so long as I lead my life in the right way and think in the right way too (if any of that makes sense)

You are also the author of the life changing book Organic Guniea Pig. Have you ever thought about writing books based on your animals?

Haha...many times Corrina, but I never thought I could write. Then I met Gerry Roberts when I attended one of his talks, completely random decision. Went on my own, took it all in, and got really excited about it. Went away and wrote that book in 3 months !! I am now working on my 2nd book "You Can" which will hopefully inspire people to follow their dreams as I have for the last 5 years - this one is taking me longer to write unfortunately, due to current demands on my time, but its all good it will be written. I also have another 6 which I have titles for. Now that I know how, nothing will stop me !! I love writing.

In terms of writing about my animals....there may be a book about my work at some point.  I did consider writing some kids books about the animals adventures and that would be really kewl, but I had no idea how to do it or how I would illustrate them - Success Skunks has allowed me to become connected with a few children’s authors and illustrators, but I think I'll leave the children’s books to the experts (hint hint!)

I wont write any kids books now, when I had the opportunity the time wasn’t right for me. If someone else wanted to write them, emphasising the great work they do, then that would make me very happy because they deserve the recognition and kids are always so interested in the idea of animal assisted therapy esp in the States. I visited a high school in Virginia last year to take part in a class and debate on the subject with a group of final year students. I became the mentor of the student who organised it all and she graduated with top marks

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Thank you so much Dale for such a fascinating and insightful interview. I am sure a lot of people will be enlightened and touched by it, I certainly was. I am also a great believer in the power of positive thinking and trying to live your life to it’s full potential despite what life may throw at you. I wonder if anybody else out there can relate to this spiritual side too. Do you ever feel that sometimes your life is mapped out? I do at times, you try and go down one path and then things happen forcing you down another. I see any failure or disappointment (and trust me, I have had a few !) on my part as a stepping stone to something better. I may not be where I want to be right now but I am quite content living in the now, even if it does get hard going at times. There is a lot to smile about and meeting Dale and his critters was an experience that my little brood will never forget.

I can’t explain why I was drawn to help Critterish Allsorts, I had never met Dale before, I hadn't even spoken to him before yet something touched my heart and I wanted to help. People didn’t get why I was doing it and it certainly raised a few eyebrows. I can’t explain it myself, it was never part of my plan… it just felt right and things just slotted into place naturally. Over the last few months I have got to know Dale well and we are very similar with our beliefs and outlook on life. He is one of the nicest and kindest people I know, it’s another example of how some people come into your life for a reason. 

I have no idea where things are going, Like Dale I am leaving it all up to the universe, yes I will work really hard but not a clue where it will take me. I am just looking forward to what other fun opportunities come up. For now I am really looking forward to Animania and Critterish Allsorts first joint school visit in October at my children’s school. I am sure there will be other collaborations between the two of us in the near future. I would love to think one day we can work on an animal book together, watch this space.

Have you had any experiences with pet therapy or using the power of positive thinking? If so I would love to hear them so please do leave a comment below.

You can contact Critterish Allsorts via:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Animania goes live

Yay, it has been quite the journey but I can officially announce that my first book Animania is available in both print and as an e-book. I have inflated my arm bands, donned the flippers and ready to take that dip into the huge self publishing ocean.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Signed Copies

GIVEAWAY TIME

To celebrate this huge milestone I am giving away the following bundle.

Comprising of:

1 signed copy of Animania, 2 crochet mice, colouring sheets, an original sketch and some handmade cards. 

The winner will be announced on Sunday the 23^rd of August. To enter either visit my Twitter or Facebook page or subscribe to my blog so that I can contact you if you have won :)

What is Animania?

For those that don’t know, Animania is an animal alphabet book with a twist... the twist being that these are not your normal animals! This book shows the true essence of what my work is about and that is to create some giggles out there. 

An utterly ridiculous rhyming picture book aimed at the 4-8 year age range. The book is made up of short catchy 4 lined verses for each letter of the alphabet, and is full of characters that will leave a lasting impression, and hopefully give you and the little ones much to talk about.

I am afraid this is going to be a bit of a self indulgent post based on Animania. I have worked my socks off the past year to get to this point. There have been highs and there have been lows. It has been a roller coaster of emotions, and there were moments of “why am I doing this”. Seeing the reactions from the children so far has been priceless and to me the book is already a success regardless of whether it sells or not. So I shall continue my self indulgent journey in this post by sharing links to some of the guest posts and interviews I have been blessed to be part of during the last couple of months to promote the book. Thank you so much to everyone for the continued support.

The Fantastic Support Behind Animania So Far:

First up an interview that bought a tear to my eye, hosted by the lovely Nelson Ward at Inkspokes. 

Inkspokes is an online literary magazine that publishes articles on indie book trends, book reviews of independently published and small press works and author interviews. They also showcase some of the incredible work being produced by book illustrators, especially those working independently, and provide resources for indie authors and publishers to assist them in their writing, book craft and the publishing of their works.

Their goal is to build an inviting, supportive community where authors, readers, illustrators and other publishing creatives can make connections.

Chick here for Interview by Inkspokes

I am also proud to say that Animania has been given the Inskspokes select book award. Chick here for Review by Inkspokes

Chick here for A J Cosmo’s guest feature post 

A. J. Cosmo's stories are crafted to help parents teach their children simple everyday lessons in an easy to understand manner. By artfully marrying beautiful illustrations and language, children are challenged to explore his magical worlds.

Chick here for Mother and Daughter review

A mother-daughter team who love to read.  They have created a space where kids under the age of 13 (sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, grandsons, granddaughters, stepkids) and their grown-ups (mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, aunt, uncle, babysitter) can share their opinions about some of the books they’ve read.

Chick here for Interview by Stoosh and Skittles from Success Skunks

Success Skunks are an organization that helps inspire children globally. They interview a variety of people from different professions to show children, how they "Wished Upon A Time " and with Passion, Compassion and hard work created a life they can't wait to wake up to.

Here are some of my favourite reviews so far on Amazon:

A colourful and fun read

We love it! We are just starting to teach my daughter her phonics, so it is perfect as it is a cheerful way to remember letters and sounds. She loved Naughty Nipper and Inky Stinky. It is very colourful and creative. We played spot the mice and we talked about what the mice were doing. She found it highly amusing that the mice were using a flower like an umbrella to protect them from Booger Bat's runny nose!

I loved that it rhymes. A rhyming book is always a favourite for me I will definitely be buying copies for my friend's children.

Lovely book

This book is an absolute joy to read. The words and colourful illustrations are extremely well executed. It contains imaginative creatures and hilarious descriptions of what each letter in the alphabet stands for, in a way that's never been thought of before. My daughter and I were thoroughly entertained from the beginning to the end. I would definitely recommend this book to put a smile on any little one's face and adults of course. Excellent value for a lot of fun and entertainment.

Have fun learning with Animania!

What a wonderful children's learning book! Filled with a group of colourful and cute characters, Animania will make reading fun for youngsters (I'm sure it will make their parents smile too!). The rhyming verse compliments the illustrations very well and will allow kids to think of their favourite creatures when learning the alphabet. I’m sure this book would do great in any young class library, so recommended for teachers also. If you have young children, work in a school, or are just a big kid at heart, certainly give Animania a read!

An incredible and marvelous book for all ages!

Whimsical does not begin to adequately describe this beautiful book. Author, artist Corrina Holyoake has created a wonderful book for boys and girls that may well be one of the best children's books of all time. I would go so far as to call this fine work unique within the genre.

The author's art is amazing. Her highly creative story and characters from A to Z are simply brilliant and dazzling.

ANIMANIA is the whole package for children, parents, and grandparents of all ages.
Looking so forward to seeing more works in print by this author.
I love this book!

What happens next?

Right now I am still at the beginning stages of marketing Animania, so that is taking up all of my free time. I have so many fun things happening in the background, here are just a few of the things I am most excited about.

17^th August         Interview on the Ron Shaw Show on the Artist Finder network

25th August       I am meeting Dale from Critterish Allsorts and his 65 critters. I can’t wait to finally meet Stoosh and Skittles. Animania is sponsoring Critterish Allsorts and I am donating a percentage of my royalties to them so I am really excited about this visit. More details about the sponsosrship can be found here:  Animania sponsors Critterish Allsorts

September          Date to be confirmed for a book signing and press release in Chichester.

October 13^th       Author school visit with Dale and a few furry friends

The next priority is to get a colouring book published, where kids have the chance to colour in their own copy of Animania. I am aiming to get that published for my school visit in October. Once Animania calms down then I will think about the next book. It will tie in with Animania, but how is something I have yet to figure out. I am hoping this is the start of many more silly books from yours truly. I have no idea where this little journey of mine is taking me, but one thing’s for sure, there is never a dull moment!

Animania sponsors Critterish Allsorts

I have been itching to announce this and now I can, woohoo! Over the last month I have been liaising with Dale Preece Kelly, founder of Critterish Allsorts about this exciting little partnership.

I have always wanted to give a little back with my work and now that I am self publishing Animania it seemed like the ideal opportunity to do just that. 

I was introduced to Critterish Allsorts last year through Paul Cody (co Founder of Success Skunks). I was fascinated with the concept behind pet therapy , so I watched a tv documentary based on one of Dale’s visits to a nursing home to give me a better understanding of what he does. I was so touched to see the joy that his visit and the animals bought to these people, their faces literally lit up as soon as they held the animals, it was so lovely to watch. I have since been following his work and seen him go all around the country visiting the elderly and people with mental health issues not to mention the numerous school visits to educate children on the importance of animals. I think what he does and what his organizations stands for needs to be shared with as many people as possible so I wanted to help. I have decided to donate half of all e-book sales to Critterish Allsorts to help Dale continue to grow the business and reach as many people as possible.

To learn more about the organization and the powerful healing properties of pet therapy then contact via:

Website Facebook Twitter

This is a video clip of the episode I watched...

I am planning to visit Dale this August, with my son Dylan at his soon to be Critterish Cottage, I will share our experience with you all. We are both very excited to be able to meet these 65 plus critters that he lives with and I thought this would be a perfect bonding experience for me and Dyls. He is going to high school in September so my baby boy is entering that next chapter of his life and turning into a little man, bring on those mood swings!

I am so pleased to be a part of this and I hope I am able to help, as they say every penny helps, so let’s hope Animania can pull a few in for them. 

Please show some support by following Dale’s work and you can now also purchase the e-book of Animania for $2.99 or £ 1.99 at:

Buy E-Book at Amazon UK 

Buy E-book at Amazon US

Dale is also co founder along with Paul Cody of Success Skunks. Stoosh and Skittles the skunks are the mascots for this group and they interview people who Plant Passion in Kids for the Arts, Music, Writing, Science, Business, Sports & Life! I was honored to have been interviewed myself last year. You can read the interview here:

Interview with Success Skunks

Another great group who’s aim is to educate and inspire children. You can follow success skunks at: Website Facebook Twitter

How to involve children in your creative process

Do you ever have writer or artists block?... 

I know I do!! Not so much with thinking up illustrations but the times I have tried to sit down and write a story I am as much use as a chocolate teapot. I used to love writing as a child so you would think this would come naturally but I find it very hard to get that initial concept for the story line down. Once I have it then it all flows but getting it is the tricky bit! I tried writing my first book around five years ago and I really struggled. 

So what did I do….. I asked my son Dylan who was five at the time to come up with a story. It took him seconds to come up with an idea and went something like this….

“ so there’s this penguin who wants to fly but he can’t…. so he travels to the jungle and meets a peacock and he teaches him how to fly”

My initial thoughts were…. Okaaaay!... that was a pointless exercise!  But at the time Dylan had a fascination with peacocks and I couldn’t find them as a character in any picture book out there so I sat down and I started writing and you know what.. we came up with a really cute little story called Flic’s wish. It’s a book I would still like to illustrate one day. That was my first attempt at writing as a grown up and I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed it but full credit goes to Dylan as I would never have thought the initial idea up in a million years.

It’s a similar story with my latest book Animania. The original idea is something Dylan came up with a few years back. We were having one of our nonsense chats on the way to school and he mentioned how strange it would be to mix animals up. So we landed up discussing what animals we could make up, what we could call them and what they would look like etc We came up with characters such as the prickly python, antosaurus and fluffa fish.  A little light bulb switched on flashing "picture book" So I was going to write a story based on that idea but after doing some research I noticed that there was already a book out on the market like that…typical!. So I have now gone with a rhyming animal alphabet book with a twist. Making it a fun educational tool, if anything I actually prefer this concept so it was  a blessing in disguise.

My daughter Felicity aka Flic also has her characters included which are the tickly bears and hefty weirdos. These names came up when we were reading one of her bedtime stories. I can’t remember the exact wording but the characters were a hippo and a panda. She muddled her words up some how and came up with the names hefty weirdos and tickly bears. I fell in love with them and they have been used many a time ever since. So when Animania came up it was only natural that they were to be included.

My children are a massive part of my inspiration, I very much doubt I would have thought of these ideas up myself and I am sure my illustrations are influenced a lot by them. So how can you too gain inspiration from the little people in your life….

How to get children involved with the creative process

Have brainstorming sessions

Children love being part of the creative process and they have the best imaginations in the world. Make the most of this and utilise it. If you have absolutely no idea of a concept then ask them to come up with a story, simples….you will be very surprised with how quick they can do this. Or start off with a main character, discuss what they should look like, do they have any special talents? What kind or personality do they have? What do they look like? What do they love doing? etc From there you can start to build a story. You will be very surprised how a little brain storming session like this can open up a floodgate of inspiration.

I tend to have our little "chats" on our walks to and from school or while they are having a bath etc. The key is for them to enjoy the experience so by turning it into a “game” you will most probably find the best ideas come up. I find this works better for us rather than sitting  down with a notepad and pen and quizzing them, this turns the experience more into a homework session, and that is a big no no with my lot. So try to make it as relaxed as possible, and keep mental notes that you can jot down after.

Turn it into a game

One of the games my children enjoy is making up a story by taking it in turns  to come up with the next scene in a story. So for example I will say “Once upon a time there was a little mouse called tufty who lived with his mum dad and sister in an old abandoned farm”

Then they would then continue with the next scene …. “ Tufty loved going on adventures with his best friend Chip, one day they decided to go to the seaside.

You get the jist. More often than not the stories just get ridiculous and make no sense whatsoever but you will be surprised how they might just trigger something off for a concept.

All children will enjoy doing this, they don’t have to be a budding author or illustrator. Dylan doesn’t enjoy writing but he has such a good imagination on him and is a fantastic story teller so if you see this in your child please encourage it. If they aren’t a keen writer then play games like this to feed their imagination.  

Photocopy your sketches to use as colouring pages

Some children enjoy drawing more than others. Flic loves drawing and painting and will more often than not sit with me while I am painting. I let her colour in my sketch book so when I have my pencil draft I will transfer it over to my heavyweight paper and work on that and she will sit there and colour in my original sketch. 

I also try and get photocopies of my initial sketches as they make great colouring in pages. Their friends often ask if I have any of my colouring sheets to use so if your child has an interest in drawing this would be a great way to get them involved in your creative process.

I always feel guilty when I am working on a  book that I am not spending enough time with the children but by doing things like this you are making the whole experience more interactive, they get a bit more mum time and you in return are rewarded with the best inspiration available out there!

If you don’t have children then there are plenty out there you can borrow he he! Nephews, nieces, cousins, everyone must have  a tiny person somewhere they can reach out to. Now go out there and get inspired!

Have you involved children in your creative process? Perhaps you have a game or tips you would like to share. If so please leave a comment :)