By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Michelle Melaragno has it all planned.

Mystic, the gentle cat with the rumbling purr and a missing back paw, will soothe elderly residents in nursing homes.

Luna, the Portuguese water dog who loves to run, fetch and swim, will challenge any hyperactive boy.

Gump, a bottle-fed black sheep, will help teach troubled teenagers about responsibility.

Melaragno’s new business, Whistle Ridge Animal Assisted Programs, offers furry-friend therapy for a variety of human needs.

In her living room surrounded by guinea pig cages and pet toys, she says she knows it will work.

“The bond between animals and people gets us so much further than I think people realize,” she said.

For years, Melaragno managed an animal-assisted therapy program at a local children’s group home. She watched guinea pigs touch the hearts of troubled teens, and she saw how the unconditional love of kittens and puppies reached kids who seemed unreachable in regular therapy.

But Melaragno wanted to take animals to schools, rehabilitation facilities and other places that weren’t able to run their own programs.

Traditional programs offered only one or two types of animal therapy, but she wanted to tailor her program to each client – pairing an abused girl with a trusting guinea pig or helping an autistic man learn eye contact by letting him train a dog.

“The possibilities are really endless,” Melaragno said.

In December, she started Whistle Ridge. She shares her Auburn home with 20 therapists: 11 guinea pigs, three sheep, four cats, one horse and a dog.

One cat, Mystic, who was mauled by a dog when she was a kitten, has missing or deformed paws. Angel, a camel-colored guinea pig, is so sweet and charming that she earned the nickname Queen Therapy Pig. Many of Melaragno’s animals were abused or abandoned before she rescued them.

All of her animals help people, Melaragno said, but the rescued ones seem to have a special love for the job. Paired with the right people, they help change lives, she said.

“Change the world? That’s too big a goal,” Melaragno said as she stroked Angel’s head. “But you’ve got to start somewhere.”