Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Date: Monday, May 06, 2013; 6:15-7:45 pm
I arrived at Lakeview Nursing
earlier than usual and mingled with the Bingo crowd while I waited for
the dogs. I saw Petunia, with whom I
had worked yesterday and asked about the bracelet that we had made, and she
said that it was safe in her room. Maureen,
who was leading the Bingo project tried to recruit me to join her
activity, but I said that I was looking forward to spending some time with my
four-legged friends this evening. I said
that she should have a full house in any case since Monday night Bingo is one
of the more difficult programs to get into.
Maureen said that more often than not volunteers fail to show up, which
is sad, because it denies other folk an opportunity. Chicago Cares is however clamping down on
this behavior and is instituting a ‘Three
strikes and you’re out’ policy, where if you fail to take yourself off the list three
times within a certain timeframe, you will be barred from any Chicago Cares
project for the duration of six months.
Excellent, I say.
.JPG) |
| Molly |
The dogs arrived and while Shane
and Chloe were missing, we had Sloopy, who I had seen earlier as well as some
new ones like Dallas and an absolute cutie called Molly. Molly was a tiny furry creature who was
wearing an adorable pink colored bow like thing and I was delighted when the
Volunteer leader Maria paired me with Megan, Molly’s owner. As we walked upstairs, Megan told me that she
had adopted Molly, who is 5 years old, from a shelter in the suburbs almost 3
years ago. It seems that the cops had
found Molly roaming about in the streets, lost and afraid, and had taken her to
the shelter. I mentioned to Megan how
calm Molly was and she said it’s because Molly, having been homeless, is now
grateful for all the love that she was receiving.
.JPG) |
| Sloopy |
Our first stop was to see Ruby,
who adores dogs, but I saw her sleeping and we moved on. We stopped at Odelia’s room and she was
excited to see Molly. We told her Molly’s
story, something Megan would have to repeat every time. Odelia was watching ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ on TV and I even tried to guess a word without
success, not impressing anyone, least of all Molly! Next stop was at Alan’s room and I had not
met him before. He loved dogs and said that he had 2 Fox Terriers in old days,
one of whom ran away and was later found on a running board. He was watching the
TV as well, but in his case it was the ‘Food
Network’. I endorsed his choice and
said that it was the only channel that I would watch. Next we met with James, who said he loves dogs
and gave Molly a good petting, which she undoubtedly enjoyed. We asked if he ever had dogs and he said yes, a
Golden Retriever, whose picture he had on the wall. One of the fun things of this program is
seeing dogs do tricks for a treat and over here, Molly showed off her paw shake.
We then went to see Loritta, who
I knew liked big dogs and Molly could never be mistaken for being big. But what Molly lacked in size, she made up in
cuteness and Loritta was more than happy to play with her. Loritta told us that her grandson was
graduating with a PhD soon and I asked if she would start referring to him as ‘Doctor’. This led to one of the funniest incidents of
the night where Loritta proclaimed that she would continue calling him the
same thing as ever and something tells me that it may be unprintable over
here! We left Loritta and visited
Gloria who has an adorable room with pink everywhere and it’s not hard to
guess what her favorite color is. I
suspect Molly – with a pink bow herself - liked that and thus was very excited
to meet Gloria. We spent a lot of time
here and Gloria kept saying how happy and well-fed Molly looked, something
that wasn’t true when Megan had found her.
Megan said that pink is indeed Molly’s favorite color and she has two
jackets, one of them being pink, boots that are pink and two other pink
bows. Molly has a bed which she rarely
uses and while she gets along well with other dogs, her real pleasure is in
sleeping. I asked Megan about Molly’s
hair and she said that Molly needs a haircut every 6 weeks or else the poor
thing will be unable to see. She doesn't
like a bath from Megan, but loves it coming from the groomers. “Must
be a bubble bath there”, I said.
.JPG) |
| How can you not love this face? |
Our final stop was with Jerry and
Molly enjoyed herself, as does every other dog visiting him. Jerry said he was missing his glasses and after
a bit of searching, I found them under his bed.
His glasses returned, we called it a night and walked down. Megan said she had enjoyed herself thoroughly
and would definitely come back again. After
they left, I stopped by in the Bingo room and saw Emma clutching a dollar. Jim,
the Bingo caller told me that Emma had won 4 times on the same board – a feat
never accomplished before at Lakeview Nursing!
I dropped her off on the 2nd floor and said that I would see
her soon, at which she giggled like a young girl. I came down and chatted with some of the
other residents, especially ‘Bulls’’ playoff
hopes. After some other conversation
with Wilson and Fran, I left for home. I
had loved spending the evening with Molly who had won my heart. Megan said that one of the best things about
having Molly was when she comes home and Molly runs to the door to greet
her. “Must
be nice to feel welcomed like that after a hard day’s work”, I had thought aloud, not necessarily referring only to dogs.
But one of my friends always says that sometimes the more one meets
people, the more they want to be with pets.
While I am not so sure about that, having someone like Molly would be a
wonderful start.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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