Pixie and her Therapy Dog Work

Pixie is doing a good job as a therapy dog.  We visit two different nursing homes, and her jobs are different at each place.  She gets a little confused.  At one nursing home, she visits the patients in their rooms.  At the other nursing room, we only visit with one patient and any other person who would like to come over and see her.  This does tend to be a little confusing to her, since she is ready to take off and go to the rooms at both places. 

As you know, Pixie and I are working with hospice patients.  I still don't know why we were contacted.  One day, I simply received a note from the director of volunteers at hospice asking if Pixie and I would like to volunteer with hospice.  I did do some thinking about, and I finally filled out all the paperwork and waited for us to pass the background check.  We did, and now the rest is history. 

Pixie brings a lot of joy to the people we meet in our work.  The majority of the people I see are very near death.  They are very old, and most are unresponsive.  However, the people who seem to love Pixie are the staff and patients who are still active and moving.  I see the smiles on their faces when they pet her or hug her and tell her how beautiful she is!  She loves this!  Pixie never tires of hearing that she is beautiful.  She never gets tired of getting those ear rubs either.  It makes me feel good that she can bring some of these very tired workers some joy during their day. 

The other thing that Pixie really loves is that after a long afternoon of visiting, we stop at the Dairy Queen and she gets a doggie dish of ice cream.  Nummy.  When we get home, Pixie crawls on the couch and she is asleep for the rest of the evening.  Working draws a lot of energy from her.

We made a visit today, and Pixie is still tired.  She didn't get a DQ today, but she will tomorrow!!!  She made a lot of people happy today!