Now that we’ve finished chronicling our journey to become a therapy dog team (click here for Becoming a Therapy Dog - Parts 1 through 6), we’d like to periodically share some of our special visits with you.  Every week, we meet wonderful people who inspire us with their strength and positive attitude, while dealing with some serious health issues.  We don’t know exactly what they’re going through, but since we visit patients who have been admitted to St. Vincent’s hospital we know that they probably aren’t feeling their best.

Last week we met an elderly gentleman from Long Island who has rescued over 300 stray dogs and cats during his lifetime.  Each time he brought a stray to a shelter he made a donation to guarantee that the animal would held for adoption and not be euthanized.  He gave us quite an education on the different shelters and rescue organizations in the area.  While we were enjoying conversing with a fellow animal-lover, Oscar also seemed to have a special bond with this patient.  The gentleman invited Oscar to sit in bed with him and Oscar immediately lied down flat against his side and fell fast asleep!!  Now Oscar has had the privilege of visiting quite a few patients in their beds and he has NEVER displayed this level of comfort so quickly.  It’s like he could sense how deeply this person felt about animals and their well-being and felt completely relaxed in his presence. 

We normally have very positive visits with pet owners or people who have owned pets in the past.  However, some of our most memorable visits have been with people who have never owned a dog.

One visit in particular sticks with me, even though it happened several months ago…

We were following our normal routine, going door-to-door asking if people would like a visit from the “therapy dog” and we came to the doorway of an elderly African-American man who was sitting up in bed with his feet on the floor. 

When we initially asked if he wanted a visit he said, “Oh no, I’m afraid of dogs”.  We said, “Okay, have a nice night.” and were about to move on when he spotted Oscar in the hallway outside of his room.  “That’s the dog?” he asked.  “Yes, this is Oscar.” we replied. 

Deciding that Oscar didn’t look very scary, he said, “Well, maybe I could say hi to him.”  So, we guided Oscar into the room.  Oscar casually walked over to the man and nudged his calf with his nose.  The man tentatively reached down and petted Oscar on the head.  To break the ice, we demonstrated Oscar’s “High 5″ trick and it was all over from there…by the end of the visit, the man was happily letting Oscar lick his hands and seemed to have lost all of his initial apprehension - he was laughing and his face was lit up with a huge smile.  Right before we left, he confided that he had been bitten by a dog when he was very young and had been scared of dogs his entire life.  It had been over 60 years since he had gone anywhere near a dog!! 

Gratuitous cute picture of Oscar…

Just yesterday we had another amazing visit with a woman who had never had a dog.  She was excited to see Oscar, but told us that she wasn’t a dog person.  She kept mentioning how tons of other people would just LOVE to meet Oscar….her sons, her neighbor, a friend she had known since “right after the war”.   Amidst her interesting stories, she would mention how one person or another would be so upset that they’d missed meeting Oscar.   Although she continued to pet Oscar and tell us how cute he is, we weren’t positive that she was really enjoying Oscar’s visit.

Then finally she said to us, “You know, you’ve made my day.  I haven’t had any visitors all day and I’m not expecting any.  You can’t imagine how lonely it gets.”  And of course that made our day!  What a wonderful compliment from a woman who was so focused on what would make other people in her life happy at a time when no one would blame her for just thinking about herself.

Well that’s all for now, we hope you’ve enjoyed the first installment of Oscar’s Therapy Dog Tales.  Tune in for more next time…