Bailey's Story

Eleven years old border collie Bailey had been to the animal shelter already once before and was again looking for a new home. He is a sweet dog who was obedience, and crate trained and had great manners. Still he had only been gone 1.5 years before he was back at the shelter because Bailey's second owner could no longer take care of him. When Bailey was returned to the shelter he had a mass on his eye and a lump on his chest. The shelter vet cleaned his teeth, fixed his eye and gave him a new chance in life. My friend Sarha found Bailey at the animal shelter when he was recovering from his surgery. It was love at the first sight.   Six months later Bailey and Sarha did their first visit as a therapy dog team:

"Today Bailey had his first therapy dog visit at the nursing home. Wow, I knew he was a great dog but didn't know what to expect!  Bailey did perfect!  He loved meeting the old folks and getting pets and attention.  He would lay his head in their lap for them to scratch his ears.  He sure loved it. We met one couple and Bailey just loved the man. The husband is in good health but is there living with his wife, who has alzheimers. Very sweet couple.  Bailey let the man scratch him all over, wiggling his body in enjoyment.  He was just smiling the whole time. The husband loved Bailey and told me I could go but I have to leave Bailey. <g>  It was a very nice visit and I will be going back to seeing them again.  We met wit several other people too.

Then when we were getting ready to leave and a lady approached us and asked if I would come visit with her mom who was sitting at the park. She is in hospice care now but she said she had many dogs in her lifetime and knew her mom would just love to visit with Bailey. I agreed to go visit with her. We walked across the street to the nursing home's park. Very lovely area with a huge fountain and flowers everywhere.  She was covered up in a blanket and the woman told me that her mom was very cold dispite the warm sun they were sitting in. When we approached the woman she was shivering and looked 'asleep' with her head down. The daughter held her hand and said , "Mom.. look what I found" and the woman lifted her head and smiled. She said, "do you want to pet the dog? It is a border collie, isn't he beautiful".  And the mom said "yes"  so I walked closer and told Bailey "okay, go say Hi" and Bailey walked up to her and  put his head on her knee, she reached down and scratched his head.. Bailey just kept his head on her lap so I kneeled down so I could hear her (she talked very softly) and she said to me "Dogs are such wonderful creatures, you have no idea how much this means to me." By this time she had taken the blanket off of herself.  She just kept stroking Bailey and he just kept enjoying it , very calm and relaxed. A few minutes later, the daughter asked her mom if she was cold and she shook her head 'no'. We stayed for a few minutes longer and than got ready to go. As we were saying our good bye, she grabbed her daughters hand and said, "I'm very warm now." I was so happy I could cry to hear her say that.  Bailey had taken her mind off of how she was feeling and her body temperature went up. What a wonderful feeling that I could take 10 minutes out of my time and make someone feel good for the rest of the day. I couldn't be more satisfied and pleased. As we were walking away, the  daughter called me and said "My mom just said that Bailey is a beautiful dog and thank you for letting us visit".

As we were leaving the park, one of the patients we had visited before was being visited by (what looked like) his daughter and wife. He also had alzheimers and seemed not be aware of what we were doing there during our visit but he talked about GSD's that his daughter had. Well, on our way out we saw him with his family and his wife said "We heard ALL about you, he hasn't stopped talking about your visit with him, Thank you! ".  I talked with her for awhile about Bailey and what a great dog he is. She thanked me a million times for taking time to visit with her husband.  I was overwhelmed with emotions and gratification!
 I was chocked up as I walked away but not because I was sad... but because I was very happy and felt good that I could make a difference in so many peoples lives in one short hour of my day.
Even though it is sad to see people in these situations there is positives in doing therapy work and that is to give when people need to receive the most, putting smiles on their face, my face and Bailey's face."

Websites: 

Pet Partners http://www.deltasociety.org/Page.aspx?pid=183 Code: 4088

Intermountain Therapy Animals http://www.therapyanimals.org/ Code: 2506

No More Homeless Pets http://www.utahpets.org/nmhcms/  Code: 1032