photo by: JJ Cook

Leonidas the therapy dog eats a treat during his 14th birthday celebration.

Certified therapy dog Leonidas has comforted thousands of people over the past 12 years — at schools, churches, detention centers, veterans hospitals and other places where people can benefit from a soothing touch.

The 14-year-old dog’s latest job is a weekly session at Douglas County’s Behavioral Health Court, where he helps folks with mental health issues relax before they enter the courtroom.

Leonidas’ presence on those Thursdays helps folks appearing in court feel more at ease, says Jolene Cullen, the Behavioral Health Court’s supervision officer.

“Leonidas has been a breath of fresh air for the program,” Cullen says. “Guests enter the courtroom and he is right there to greet them … Leonidas shows us all how to keep being positive even when bad stuff happens.”

photo by: Chansi Long

Dawn Vandegrift stops to pet Leonidas the therapy dog before her Behavioral Health Court appearance Thursday at the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center in downtown Lawrence.

Leonidas is known around town as the Amazing Three-Legged Dog, a nickname that evokes an early trauma that led to the loss of his leg and other injuries. When Leonidas was 2 weeks old, some people reportedly dangled him at the top of a fence and instructed another dog to attack him. The other dog ripped off Leonidas’ back feet and most of one back leg. Two people who witnessed the event rescued Leonidas, who had been left to die, and anonymously turned him in to a Topeka animal shelter.

In 2008 Katie Barnett got a call asking her to foster him.

“At the time (that) animal shelter did not adopt out dogs that looked like pit bulls,” Barnett says. The shelter asked Katie and her now-husband, Anthony Barnett, to foster Leonidas.

Katie, an animal rights attorney and founder of KU’s chapter of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Anthony, who now owns Home Sweet Home Dog Resort in eastern Lawrence, agreed to take Leonidas temporarily. They planned to rehabilitate him and find him a home, but after some time with Leonidas they decided to keep him.

photo by: Shannon Wells

Leonidas the therapy dog

“We found he did not care about his injuries and he loved people and other dogs,” Katie says. “We thought he could make a good therapy dog.”

When Katie and Anthony decided to pursue therapy-dog certification for Leonidas, breed-restrictive laws targeting pit bulls were more common, making the therapy-certification process challenging. Not everyone was willing to give pit bull breeds the opportunity to be evaluated for therapy-dog status. Prairieland Visiting Animals Association agreed to test Leonidas, who passed that test and every subsequent test since.

Leonidas has spent a large chunk of his career with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Topeka, where he would regularly help teach a seven-week class on the human-canine bond.

“Leonidas is visibly scarred — and emotionally resilient; he always connected very well at the VA,” Anthony says. “One (veteran) wouldn’t come near my dogs because dogs had been used as IEDs (improvised explosive devices). By the end of our seven weeks he started petting him.”

Leonidas connects with people who’ve experienced physical and mental pain, Katie and Anthony say. He also bonds well with juveniles, and he inspires nearly everyone he comes across.

He “is such a great model for forgiveness and for just letting things roll off,” Katie says. “Kids absolutely love him, and trauma survivors can certainly relate to him.”

In October of 2020, Leonidas was diagnosed with lymphoma, and he underwent chemotherapy. Another therapy dog of the Barnetts’, Liam, was diagnosed with cancer around the same time and died.

“At his age you’d think (lymphoma) would take him,” Katie says. “He took all the treatment, we did a bucket-list trip, and he’s still here and going. It was like it was a little blip in his life. His zest for life has really kept him going … He’s completely bananas with happiness.”

After the cancer and the chemo, Leonidas did slow down physically, and he now requires some assistance in his old age. The Barnetts bought him a wagon to help move him from place to place.

“He’s had such a life,” Anthony says. “He survived that initial abuse, he’s in remission from lymphoma, and (he’s) weaker than he used to be, but he’s still the happiest dog I’ve ever been around.”

Leonidas does not appear ready to retire.

“I wish I could put a metric on the number of people he’s visited and the number of lives he’s impacted but it’s so many; It’s immeasurable really,” Katie says.

photo by: JJ Cook

Leonidas the therapy dog