A woman, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease sat, staring blankly. Then Donna Honigman of Barnyard Buddies arrived and placed a fluffy lion-head rabbit bunny on her lap.

"She immediately started petting and responding verbally," Honigman said. "It was like a door that opened through the touch in her fingers. To me, those are wonderful things because you are seeing a person staring vacantly, suddenly come to life."At a senior center, Honigman scrambled, chasing a runaway Guinea pig that was outrunning her, dashing under the furniture and diving under the chairs. "The residents loved it," she said. "So, I asked a resident, 'Are you O.K.? Was it too much activity?'"The resident responded, "We need some life around here."Honigman worked with the challenged kids from Kids Peace. "We are not judgmental, or there to provide discipline. We were there to foster unconditional love that these children desperately need and to get it from our animals."With the animals, it was like a social tea," Honigman continued. "'Would you like to hold the bunny?' One big, buffed-up kid would ask another. It was hysterical. There was a kid that didn't want anything to do with the program. The animal would not leave him alone until he petted him. He would be the last kid to leave.Donna Honigman operates Barnyard Buddies, a subsidiary of the nonprofit ATEA, Inc., Animal Therapy and Education Associates. "Barnyard Buddies is a small, lap-friendly animal program," Honigman explained. "We bring animals that can sit on laps-bunnies, Guinea pigs, doves, and chickens. I also have a black Labrador Retriever, Life, but he's too big to sit on a lap."Honigman ventured into animal husbandry and education as a result of being a mom-raising ten children as a single parent. She was working nine to five as a cook. "With ten kids, you have plastic toys with parts all over," she said. "One day, I brought home a puppy, it worked, and didn't need a battery.""It was hard working away from home and taking care of the kids," she said. "So, I created a business with a flexible schedule where my children could work with me. Incorporating the kids, gave them responsibilities. They learned compassion through the years of working with a variety of different animals."She moved from Delaware County to a Bath farm, where, ten years ago, she began raising donkeys, lambs, miniature horses, llamas, goats, and petting animals for events such as live Nativity exhibits. Over time, transporting the larger animals proved too costly and dangerous, especially in winter weather, and she moved off the farm to a rural Franklin Township location, an area where she could raise lap pets, but could not raise larger animals.Even transporting her ten rabbits, ten Guinea pigs, four doves, six chickens, and her dog takes a truckload of space, so during winter months, she limits her presentations to within a half-hour of Lehighton.Honigman raises her animals for seniors, children above three years old who don't put their fingers in their mouth, and people with handicaps or learning disabilities. Because her audience might accidentally squeeze or drop the animals, she has raised them from birth to be lap-friendly."We raise them, and handle them-but we go beyond handling, we tweak them," Honigman said. "Someone of special needs that doesn't realize they are holding an animal might pinch or squeeze them. We do the pre-pinching and squeezing, not to hurt them, but if someone were to do it, they wouldn't bite them."We bring petting animals to adult day programs, special needs organizations, anyplace they think would benefit from having an animal program, whether it's for entertainment, backup therapy, or educational purposes."In schoolrooms, particularly if children are allergic to animals, she brings activity books, puppets, animal props, and hands-on projects.She has a large floor puzzle about building a barn together. "I did a career education program in Northampton Middle school," she said. "I'd talk about how I started my program. On a chalkboard I drew a barn, a pasture, and a tree. In the meantime, I gave everyone a big chunk of a floor puzzle. I said, we are going to build a barn together."We need a carpenter," she said. "I don't know how to build a barn. We need an electrician, and someone to transport my animals and take care of the truck. I need a landscaper because I might put the wrong tree in, and my animal eats it and dies. It all works together"Honigman enjoys working with seniors in Carbon County. "A lot of seniors lived on farms," she said. "They miss their farm animals that they remember having as pets. It stirs up memories. You can see their faces get color and their eyes start to twinkle."For information of Barnyard Buddies call: 610-681-4839, or email:

barnyardbudds@yahoo.com.