Faces of companionship

STORY BY BARRY KAUFMAN + PHOTOGRAPHY BY LISA STAFF

If there’s one thing that sets humans apart from other species, it’s the fact that we’re the only creatures on earth who keep other animals around. We probably had practical reasons at first, keeping livestock for food, dogs for hunting and cats for pest control, but eventually we figured out their true purpose.

The animals that we keep in our home and in our hearts are what make us human. They remind us of our own capacity for love. They are our truest companions, sticking by our side no matter what – particularly when it’s time to eat. No other animals on earth can understand the bond humans forge with their pets. 

This month, join us as we meet a few examples of that unbreakable bond with three local animal lovers.

Debi Lynes

This Hilton Head Island woman’s wild home doubles as a therapy center.

Those who don’t know Debi Lynes personally have no doubt still become familiar with her effervescent personality over the years. Whether as an emcee at a community event, a familiar face on TV, or a fixture at celebrations great and small, her presence in the Lowcountry is as pervasive as it is welcome.

But those who do know Debi Lynes personally will clue you into one of the most fascinating facets of her dynamic personality – the woman lives in a zoo. 

“It’s more of a curated zoo these days,” she said with a laugh. “A more therapeutically focused zoo.”

The tales of her collection of animals are legendary, from the raccoon she used to bring with her to parties to the often-foul-mouthed umbrella cockatoo, to the flock of chickens she raised in her front yard long before suburban farming began trending. And the wild home they all share – affectionately named Lynesland – has turned out to be far more than just a collection of animals.

Using techniques she’s honed as a licensed therapist, Lynes has found a way to use her animals to begin to heal the invisible wounds of her patients.

“We’re using them as part of therapy and as an interoceptive way of connecting. Most of the time when people are dealing with animals, petting or snuggling, the experience that the person is having is in their body,” she said. “When we’re petting a dog, we are getting a dopamine hit that can settle our amygdala down, which is kind of our fire alarm. We’re regulating our heart beat and lowering our blood pressure. This is real life evidence-based stuff and we know that it works.”

All around Lynesland these animals are helping clients find peace and growth. When an Americana chicken named Eleanor Gray broke her pelvis, Lynes had patients nurse her back to health, giving them agency in saving a life. A young man with ADHD gained skills in patience while negotiating his relationship with Cece the goat, eventually befriending the animal after fleeing from him every time they met. Even Jughead, the aforementioned foul-mouthed cockatoo, plays a role in Lynes’s inspired techniques.

“He initially provides a great source of discussion and how to interact, communicate and introduce yourself,” said Lynes. “Working with these animals is a wonderful way to build a sense of self-esteem and self-acceptance, because you are making an impact and getting immediate feedback. Some people are more than willing and want to participate with the animals. Some are very reluctant, but there are therapeutic moments in all of this.”

The saga of Eleanor Gray

While clients at Lynesland, the unique therapeutic practice of Dr. Debi Lynes, are ostensibly there seeking solutions to their own problems, it’s often in solving other problems that they find the solutions they need. 

A perfect example of this is Eleanor Gray, an Americana chicken who lived at Lynesland, who wound up breaking a leg and her pelvis while trying to protect her flock. Despite being told to put the chicken down, Lynes had a better idea: entrusting Eleanor’s recovery to her clients.

“Everyone came with what they’d researched, which included a lot of comfort and almost palliative care, if you will,” she said. “With intentionality, we found new and creative ways to keep Eleanor alive and thriving.”

Some clients researched ways to splint a chicken leg. One crafted a diaper for Eleanor, as the injury had caused incontinence. One young client sketched out and pulled materials together for a wheelchair-like wagon for Eleanor.

“Many of my clients feel as though they had an impact in helping her stay alive, and they did,” Lynes said. Sadly, Eleanor passed away just days after these photos were taken. Though she’s no longer with us, her memory lives on in the hearts of Lynes and many of her clients, ensuring she will never be forgotten.

Gentry Thames

This Ridgeland man has spent a lifetime perfecting the art of dog training.

As much as we may love dogs, they sure can make it difficult at times. 

Their natural instincts – to hunt, to seek prey, to mark territory – are often at odds with their modern lifestyle as house pets, which can lead to all manner of bad behaviors. Maybe that means digging holes. Maybe it means chewing furniture, leaving their mark on an expensive rug or stealing food. With some dogs it can mean all of the above. 

Working with those dogs, redirecting their natural instincts toward better behavior, is what Gentry Thames has done since founding Palmetto State K9 Academy.  But before he could teach dogs, he had to learn dogs, spending decades understanding how they think.

“I’m almost 60 years old, and I’ve been training dogs since I was 15,” he said. “This is not a business or a job; this is something I really enjoy doing. I enjoy watching the dog come in who has issues, working with it, then seeing the finished product, knowing I created a better relationship between a person and their dog.”

His own relationship with dogs started at just 3 years old. One of his first memories was playing with an entire pack of Labrador puppies. At age 15 he began training his own dog in the finer points of retrieving game and aiding in the hunt. 

When he joined the S.C. Department of Natural Resources in 1989, he realized he had a chance to take his dog-training skills in a new direction. 

“I started looking into what a canine could do in the conservation field for game wardens,” he said. At the time, only a handful of states were using dogs to aid in conservation efforts. Finding a program in Florida similar to the one he was hoping to start here, he trained with Florida Fish and Game. “These dogs were trained in the conservation field, so instead of finding drugs, they’d be finding hidden game, spent cartridges left by poachers or tracking people to find trespassers.”

Over two years the program he launched grew to a pack of eight dogs trained to assist SCDNR. He ran it for the next few decades, rising through the ranks to captain, overing the entire S.C. coast before he retired in 2020.

Today he applies those decades of training to his clients’ pets, as well  as his own dogs, a mother-and-son pair of Labs, a golden doodle named Tilley and a shih tzu-yorkie mix named Layla who is the boss of all of them. And even still, his training continues.

“There’s no one way to train a dog. There’s always continuous training,” he said. “I’m always looking for a new and better way to do something.”

Want to train your dog? Untrain yourself

With more than three decades of experience, Gentry Thames has worked with countless dogs – first training them to track poachers with SCDNR and now training them to behave themselves at Palmetto State K9 Academy. And if there’s one behavior that he’s found hardest to break, it’s not one that is any fault of the dog’s.

“The biggest mistake I see is owners spoiling their dog too much. Treating the dog as a person or a child is usually what causes most of the issues we see,” he said. Instead, he subscribes to what is known as “operative conditioning.”

“It’s not all positive reinforcement, and it’s not all harsh negative corrections,” he said. “The dog is rewarded for behavior we’re trying to modify so it will recur more often. And there are several different ways to correct any behaviors that we don’t want, from ignoring them to mildly correcting the behavior or creating an alternative behavior. You have to correct or reward a dog within a second and a half for the dog to understand exactly what it did wrong.”

Victoria Rapolti

This Hilton Head Island woman loves her pigs like family. 

Victoria Rapolti was just a young child growing up on her father’s farm in Romania when she fell in love with pigs. Like a scene out of “Charlotte’s Web,” her father’s pig had given birth to a litter, with a young runt named Toty being the odd pig out. 

“It was winter, so we had to keep it in the house. He became like a dog,” she said. “My parents couldn’t bring themselves to eat it, so we ended up selling it.”

Her fond memories of sharing her home with Toty stayed with her as she emigrated to the United States, settling in Michigan. And then one day she met Gabriel.

“I bought him when he was 4 months old. They told me he would be a maximum of 45 pounds. He’s now around 245 pounds,” she said. “I love him just the same, so it didn’t matter. They said it was my fault, that I was feeding him too much. But you can’t exactly put a pig on a diet.”

A year later she caught wind of a fellow pig owner who was being forced to give up his porcine friend during a move into a condo. And that’s how Victor entered her life. Despite the massive size difference – as a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, Victor tips the scales at a svelte 70 pounds – the pair quickly meshed as brothers. For better or worse.

“They both want to be in charge, and usually someone has to put the other one in his place. I think forever they are testing each other,” she said, “And Gabriel, he’s such a sweet little boy. When Victor tries to start a fight, Victor just looks at him like, ‘I could run you over like a freight train.’”

In Michigan the pigs were the stars of their neighborhood. “I would take them everywhere. A lot of times when I had them out walking, people would stop their cars and take pictures,” she said.

Moving from five acres of pastoral Michigan countryside to a quarter of an acre on Marshland Road has made it a little more difficult for Rapolti to take her pigs on their customary walk, but that seems to be just fine for everyone involved.

“They used to try and eat every flower bed we passed, but we are not walking on the leash anymore. After four years they didn’t want to do it anymore,” she said. “Plus Gabriel is getting arthritis in the back legs, so he doesn’t get up much anymore. He comes out about once a day to do his business and that’s it.”

At 13 and 14 years, respectively, these two pigs have earned their retirement on Hilton Head.

“I’m pretty much their parent. They lay down for me to scratch their bellies, and, only I can clean their ears. They’re used to me,” she said. “They’re my babies.”

Pig in a poke

Most people know that keeping up with their pet’s health is the hardest part of owning a pet – getting the right vaccines, grooming, heart worm pills, medications. It can be a lot. As you can imagine, when your pet is a 245-pound pig, that regimen only gets more involved.

“The hardest part is keeping up with the hooves. If you don’t teach the pigs when they’re small, it’s very hard to trim their hooves, and you have to do it twice a year or maybe more often. If they walk, they wear them down like a dog,” said Victoria Rapolti.

Thankfully, Gabriel, is pretty good about letting her take care of him. His sty mate, on the other hand …

“Victor, he fights me. He was already two years old when I got him. I have to give him a beer or two to mellow him out. He likes beer,” she said. “But then he gets feistier. He just picks a fight with Gabriel for no reason at all.”