Amie's Muttsy Mission
Reported by Erik Smith
Web produced by Rachel L. Miller

Fran Maiers holds a stuffed dog named Muttsy™.

More than four million Americans may be there now, a place where the familiar has become the unfamiliar, where the routine has become the difficult, where the recognized have become the unrecognizable. It is the heart wrenching world of Alzheimer's disease.

Fran Maiers is no stranger to this world. She watched helplessly as her mother's life and love gradually slipped away into the living limbo that so mystifies and terrifies us.

For a time before her death, Fran's mother called her Amie, which is not her name, of course, but a name she has taken to personify a special crusade, a crusade to, as she says, remember those who no longer can.

Fran's mission is to give every Alzheimer's patient a stuffed Muttsy™.

It's called Amie's Muttsy™ Mission. Its sole purpose is to place a soft, furry, lovable little stuffed dog named Muttsy™(manufactured by Gund) into the hands and hearts of those trapped in the grasp of Alzheimer's.

"I came to the nursing home to sing some Christmas carols to them and I came here," Fran says. "As I was getting ready to leave, I was packing up my equipment, and I saw a lady sitting in a wheelchair to the side, and she had an animal, laying on her lap, and she just kept petting it and petting it.

"So I went over afterwards and I put my arms around her and asked her about her dog and that image just riveted in my mind.

"I said when I left that day, 'Somehow, some way, I'm going to give those to all of my mom's friends.'"

Fran presents a woman with her own Muttsy™.

No team of psychiatrists, no gerontologists, no social workers accompany Amie's Muttsy™ Mission. It's usually just Fran and some caring volunteers and Muttsy™, of course, the little dog that seems able to bring a smile to a face that's misplaced that reflex or perhaps a sparkle to an eye that's been dulled by too many hours of incomprehension.

Fran says she doesn't know why Muttsy™ works so well.

"I'm asked that a lot," Fran says. "It just works. It's amazing, the response and how much they love him. One lady picked up a Muttsy™ and she said, 'Now I have a family.'"

Fran, the daughter whose mother last called her Amie, is trying to put a Muttsy™ on the lap of every Alzheimer's sufferer she can meet, free of charge.

"We certainly know we need more volunteers in order to get this organization to grow," a Muttsy™ Mission volunteer says. "We can't do it without more help."

"Sometimes there's private homes that have three or four Alzheimer's victims," Fran says. "We go there. We send them in the mail. (The stuffed animals) fit perfectly into a priority mail envelope and for $3.20, we've sent probably 200 across the United States."

Amie's Muttsy™ Mission is a mission that may never be completed, at least not until the dim pathway to cure is finally illuminated.

Click here for find out more information about Alzheimer's disease.

For more information, visit the Muttsy Mission website or contact:

Amie's Muttsy Mission
P.O. Box 220
Davison, MI 48423

Phone: 866-MUTTSYS (688-8797)
Email: [email protected]

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