Pet Therapy Dog
Bodhi of the Rockies
The mask mandate is over! Some of the staff still wear masks, but visitors and the dog therapy teams are not required to. It is so nice to see people smiling and I think Bodhi enjoys it more too. I could always see people smile with their eyes before when they saw Bodhi, but the joy seems even greater now.
Little Glimpses of Joy
We stay with people usually for a few minutes, or as long as Bodhi wants to stay, so we don’t have long stories to tell about them, but we get little glimpses of joy:
- A patient said it was very special that Bodhi visited that day since he it made his discharge day extra special. He has owned three Goldens but doesn’t want to go through the heartache of losing one again, so he doesn’t have a dog any longer. He said it was very special that he got to pet a Golden today.
- One of the nurses said “Petting Bodhi is a great reason to come to work!”
- One room had a family of 10 visiting their mom. They were all really grateful to see Bodhi and I could tell that he reduced their stress. I think the mom was grateful to have something else they could talk about instead of her health problems. Everyone remarked how calm and beautiful he is, and they took pictures too.
- We went to ER for the first time in a while. Most of the staff were too busy to pet him, but one nurse said he really needed to pet Bodhi that day and appreciated his visit.
- The nurses tell me if they think certain patient would like a dog visit. They asked us to see one young woman across from the nurse’s station, and the nurses were really happy to see the patient smile so much when she was petting Bodhi.
- We also visit a lot of the “short stay” rooms where the nurses watch the patients on the monitors in a room across the hall. They always remark that they love seeing the patient’s reaction and smiles when Bodhi walks into the room.
- Most everyone is glad to see Bodhi and many people say he made their day. But one man in a waiting room told us he did not like dogs and then proceeded to talk about his cats. That’s ok, we have plenty of dog lovers to visit! So we moved on to the next woman who was super thrilled to see Bodhi and took photos for her husband in surgery.
I know Bodhi’s visit help patients who are away from their own animals. One woman had been there for five days and she said she really, really misses her little Lhasa apso, and so appreciated getting to pet Bodhi. Some people ask if they can have family smuggle up their own pets! Sorry no, but the dog therapy teams help.
We are happy to help spread the joy to all the patients, family, and staff, and have a new motto:
Every little pet helps.