Pediatrics and Germany! What a Great Day!!

We had a Pediatric visit today, Saturday, January 23. But first just a quick note about the photo. This morning, Josie was lying on our guest bed looking out the window and the sun was shining in on her. And the contrast of the orange and pink against her black fur was just gorgeous. I tried to capture it with my camera, but I'm not sure I did it justice.

So back to our visit to Pediatrics. We had a visit at 1:30. It went very well. One little girl, Jennifer, really thought Josie's ears were the best. She just kept playing with her one "up" ear and giggling. Her mother is scared of dogs ( because she was bitten by a dog as a child), but Jennifer kept looking at her mother and saying "touch the dog, touch the dog" really slowly. It was funny. But her mother just kept looking at Josie and kept her distance. She warmed up to Josie at the end of the visit, but I kept Josie a safe distance from her to respect the fact that she had a fear of dogs. I had a really nice talk with Jennifer. She was a really nice, cute kid.

All-in-all, I believe we visited about 11 children. They were all very special in their own way.

The really neat thing about visiting the kids in Peds is that the child can be hooked up to all kinds of machines, but as soon as they see Josie walk in the room, they just smile a huge smile. A lot of times the child gets quiet and just bonds with her, but sometimes the child starts to talk a lot and gets really excited and we just talk about all different kinds of things. What they like to do, do they have pets at home, anything really. Like talking to your kid sister or brother or niece or nephew. And all the time, they are petting Josie. Then when we leave, Josie does her signature "good-bye wave". Everyone loves that. I can always tell when Josie is getting tired by how enthusiastic she is with her wave. It's my meter.

The visits to Pediatrics only happen once a week. The hospital has to have the parents sign a release form or permission form that the Therapy Dog can visit the child, since the child is under 18 years of age. Also, on any of my visits to the hospital, I am not allowed to take any photographs of the patients with Josie. I have taken pictures of Josie with Nurses and Doctors. But this Blog is more about how we cheer people up and about Josie than the people themselves.

I would like to post a picture of Josie in her little Therapy Vest though. I will do that soon.

Now about the Germany comment. And I've been meaning to talk about this. But I've just started this Blog and there is just so much to say, but just so little time to type.

We first started visiting the hospital back in October 2009. In November, We were in Oncology and visited a patient named John and his wife Gertrude, whom Josie and I got very attached too. We visited John and Gert almost every day until he left the hospital right before Christmas and went into a Rehab Center. John would ask for Josie almost every day. They are the most amazing couple. I will write more on them later. All I wanted to write today was that John got out of Rehab in January and I was able to go visit them at their house after the visit to Pediatrics yesterday which was really nice. I did so, because Gert's brother and sister-in-law and her cousin were in from Germany and I wanted to meet them. And they were leaving today. Like I said, more about them in another entry.

Spread the love! It's catchy! Oh tomorrow is Josie's birthday......