Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
Date: Monday, June 10, 2013; 6:15-7:45 pm
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| Barkley |
It has been some time since my
prior visit and as I came in, one of the residents Mary said that she had not
seen me in a long while. Jack, Jim and
Larry were gathered at their usual table and greeted me as well. I saw that Emma was sitting by herself and
went over to chat with her. She was
ready for Bingo and I said that I had heard she’s been winning quite a
bit. In her usual agreeable style, she
replied, “Oh Yes”. I told her that the dogs would be here soon
and she said that sometimes her daughter gets a dog and they all go around the
block for a walk. We chatted about the
weather and she said that it would be nice for the dogs when it gets warmer and
I replied that it would be nice for her as well!
Wilson was in attendance for the
Bingo and I went out to check on the pets.
I saw some new dogs, such as a ‘Golden
Doodle’ called Barkley as well as a small thing called Digby, who looked like an Ewok. There was also a 16
year old cat called Fluff, who looked very much like its name and who had found
a nice comfortable corner to rest in.
There were some other regular dogs like Bruce and June and Shane and
Chloe. Fran was there as well and I
asked about the WNBA basketball game that she was supposed to take the seniors
to. She said that of the 40 tickets that
she had, only 14 had been used, due to a poor turnout. The dogs were mingling with the Bingo crowd,
but soon it was time to get going for our program.
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| Digby and an Ewok! |
Sam, who was the Volunteer leader
this evening, paired me up with Barkley and his owner Betsy. This was perfectly acceptable to me since
Barkley was an adorable creature and I was sure to have fun with him. We started on the 3rd floor and
followed the usual drill, where I would go inside to check if the residents
wanted to pet a dog and while a few were pleased to see us, many said no. We reached Hannah’s room and while she likes
dogs, everyone knows that her real love is cats. I told her that a cat was amongst the
participants today and at this she pulled out the picture of her beloved cat
Johnny B. She said that about 10 years
ago somebody had broken into Hannah’s home and stolen Johnny B and held him to
ransom that Hannah eventually had to pay.
I said that to do that to an animal is sick and Hannah said that
eventually those criminals will have to answer to God. Speaking of whom, Hannah said that she was an
extremely spiritual person and mentioned about a time when she had asked God
for a sign. When asked what had
happened, she replied that a pillow had fallen down, though it is unclear to me from where and on whom.
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| Barkley was getting tired |
Other dogs had lined up outside
Hannah’s room, so we said goodbye and went to see Jerry, who is a big favorite
with dogs; and as is usually the case, Barkley jumped on his bed to play with
him. We then went to see Ruby, who was
looking quite weak, but still played with Barkley for a bit. Being just 18 months old, Barkley is still a
pup and thus quite energetic when we first started. But the heat was probably getting to him and
he was drinking a lot of water. In fact,
whenever possible, he was sprawling on the cold floor tiles. Betsy said that he probably wanted to be
taken off his leash. She was carrying
some treats as an incentive and made Barkley do some tricks like hi-five. We went down to the 2nd floor and
met Odelia, who is a regular stop for us and tried to see Gloria and Jean,
but they were both unavailable. We
stopped by Loritta and she talked with passion about her German Shepherds from
long time ago. She asked Betsy if
Barkley liked to take a bath and when she said no, Loritta mentioned how her
dogs understood the word “bath” and
how they had to literally spell out B-A-T-H in front of them. I told them about the dogs I had seen at the
PAWS walk yesterday and how they were playing in the doggie pool. Our next stop was with James and he gave
Barkley a good massage, but the poor thing was looking exhausted due to the
heat.
Seeing how he was tired, Betsy
left and I saw that the Bingo game was still on. I pulled up a chair and sat next to Jack, Larry and Jim, who were with Wilson and another volunteer, Jenny. On our table, both Jack and Jim had already
won prizes, but not Larry and he was looking grumpier than usual. Wilson told me that Emma had won a bag of
cheese balls, which was as large as her!
The various rituals were still in effect, such as Kenny leading a big
hum of 'Hawaii Five-0' when the number 50 was announced. The season was already over, but he was still
announcing the show times. Perhaps it
must be on re-runs! I had a card in
front of me and started participating as well.
Jack won another prize and I called it out for him. He took butterscotch candy saying that it
was delicious, though I would take his word for it.
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| I won! |
Larry came close to winning several
times but with no luck. In the
meanwhile, Emma won and this time took her favorite peanut butter sandwich
cookies. We were reaching the end of the
evening and the rapid-fire lighting round was upon us. I was concentrating hard because I wanted to
win for Larry…and it did happen. I called out
and asked Larry to pick a prize. He took
the butterscotch candy as well and then it was it for the evening. I helped Wilson clean and congratulated Emma
on her wins. The dogs were leaving as
well and I went to chat with Sam and Jess.
Chloe’s fur was feeling soft and Jess said that she had just had a bath
recently. Sam said that Shane had been
having difficulty climbing stairs and very soon may need a wheelchair himself
to go up to the 3rd floor. We
chatted for some more time before Wilson dropped me home. This evening had allowed me to participate in
both, ‘Pet Therapy’ and ‘Bingo’ programs and while poor Barkley
may have run out of steam, I felt energized for the very special opportunity
that tomorrow morning would bring.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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