Mocha Latte, a Cane Corso, inspired a writing contest at Drexel.
Dog: Janine Erato
As a therapy dog in training at Drexel, Mocha Latte has ambitions of helping exam takers alleviate stress and anxiety. But when a cohort of MFA students on the cusp of graduating sought an audience with the Cane Corso, Therapy Dog Program Coordinator Janine Erato saw an opportunity.
Erato agreed to the meeting and then invited the students to submit stories that would explain the braces that Mocha Latte wore on her front legs to a writing competition.
Unaware that the dog’s braces made up for malformations in her limbs that resulted from a virulent infection that had gone undiagnosed and nearly killed her, 10 students let their imaginations run wild.
The winning entry, “The Dragon Casts,” came from Nicholette Guy, MFA ’23, who wrote that Mocha Latte defended Erato from a dragon — clearly not Mario — and injured her front legs while holding the beast’s jaws open so that her handler could escape. Guy won $25 for the story, which was written from the dog’s perspective.
“They were all great stories, so I looked at certain things we had asked to be in the story to help narrow it down,” Erato says. “The way she described Mocha’s personality and our bond was very true to us. It may have been completely unintentional, but it really hit home for me.”
Guy couldn’t have known that her story, which ends with Erato telling Mocha Latte that “we’re going to make it through this,” would prove prescient. The dog recovered her ability to walk and, as of June, had outgrown the need for one of her braces.
Mocha Latte was welcomed into Drexel’s pack of therapy dogs in 2022, joining her cousin Java, her aunt Espresso and grandmother Chai.
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