Earlier this week, we had our "Dog Days of Summer" program - with real dogs!
We had a total of seven dogs present. They were all well behaved (only one accident), and they all got along with each other and the residents. The owners each talked a little bit about their dogs, and then all of the dogs visited with the residents. The residents loved it. The dogs loved it. It was a win-win all the way around.
After the visiting, I shared some amazing dog stories from this link: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/93101
These are really good stories. I recommend checking it out, even if you're not a "dog person."
This is one of our favorite family members (although, we don't play favorites), and one of our best volunteers, Sandy Waters. Her two dogs, Dakota and Montana, are trained therapy dogs and she brings one of the almost every day.
This is another family member with her trained therapy dog, Mardi Gras (center). Mardi Gras is a Standard Poodle - actually called a Parti Poodle because of its two colors.
This is Molly, a Shih Tzu. The dog behind Molly, on the screen, is Fala, FDR's dog.
This is Sam. Sam belongs to one of our Dietary Managers, Mary Stenger. Mary recently moved and couldn't take Sam, so Sam lives with me now. Well, Sam lives with me, my wife, our other two dogs Bailey and Buddy, and my daughter's cat, Mo (short for Maureen. My daughter was really into "Rent" at the time.) Mo actually seems to love Sam. Sam, however, does not reciprocate.
This is Oreo. Oreo belongs to one of out personal caregivers. Her name is Cookie. You can probably figure out why Oreo is named Oreo.
This is my dog, Bailey. You may remember Bailey from an earlier blog and subsequent news story. I took a picture of her sitting at a table during a Bingo game and put a Bingo card in front of her. I put it up on the blog (http://stonegardensmenorah.blogspot.com/2010/07/baileys-blog-brings-buzz.html) and the next thing I know two local news teams show up. I had to tell them that Bailey didn't really play Bingo, that I had staged the photo. They were already therem so they did the story anyway.
