Pets praised in essays

Saturday, Dec. 31, 2005 | 7:45 a.m.

After suffering a major stroke a little more than a year ago, Las Vegan Doug McIntosh felt he had little left to live for.

Then in October, a certain canine came into his life.

"Before Bailey came along, my life was getting up in the morning, eating breakfast and sitting on the couch all day watching TV -- just waiting for the time to pass by," McIntosh, 41, said, "Now I play with him and keep an eye out for him. He's my constant companion."

Bailey is a 1 1/2-year-old, 50-pound, mixed-breed retriever -- an abandoned and abused puppy McIntosh got from a local nonprofit animal rescue group.

The story about Doug and Bailey by Doug's friend Kassie Benoit of Las Vegas won the "Most Touching Essay" in the recent "What I Am Most Grateful to My Pet(s) For..." national essay contest that emanated from Las Vegas.

McIntosh is a former casino floorman who is on Social Security disability because of paralysis from the stroke. He got Bailey from Heaven Can Wait, which has plans to create a Las Vegas animal sanctuary and was one of the pet essay contest's sponsors and beneficiaries.

"We have a house full of animals, and Doug loves animals, so we figured he would do better if he had a pet of his own," said Benoit, a mother of two teenagers who, along with her husband, Jim, has looked after McIntosh during his recovery.

"We looked at the biographies of available dogs on the Internet and we both thought Bailey was the best choice. Bailey was a little timid at first because he had been abused by a previous owner. But the two of them soon hit it off."

Benoit wrote in her winning essay: "Doug feeds him, grooms him, walks him and plays with him every day ... Having a pet of his own to care for keeps him physically and mentally active ... It warms my heart to see these two together."

Four of the top five prizes in the essay contest were won by Las Vegas residents, said Bill Hall, managing director of the local Liberty Realty office, who along with his wife, Stacey, organized the contest that drew more than 150 entries from across the United States.

Stacey Hall said she was powerfully moved by Benoit's nine-paragraph essay about McIntosh suffering a stroke on his 40th birthday in November 2004 and how Bailey has aided in his recovery.

"All of the essays touched my heart in one way or another -- they either made me cry or laugh -- and all of them showed the depth of emotions people have for their animals," she said.

Stacey Hall said the contest was conducted in the wake of -- and because of -- Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast in late August, killing nearly 1,400 people and leaving thousands of people homeless and thousands of pets abandoned.

But the Halls, who plan to continue the contest next year, said they also wanted to draw attention to efforts to raise funds for Heaven Can Wait; Noah's Wish, a nonprofit group that concentrates on animal disaster relief; and the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which operates a local no-kill shelter and animal adoption service.

Winning essays in other categories can be read online at onestoplasvegashomes.com.

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or at koch@lasvegassun.com.