This past week, all sorts of things seemed to go wrong.
ELBEE Maybe Mercury was in retrograde. Hey, I dabble
First, Gus and Stanley’s visit to UCLA Powell Library was cancelled. The dogs are wonderful stress busters for the students during finals but there was a one day strike so they couldn’t go in.
Next the low tire pressure light in my car came on which drives me crazy. The alarm in our house began acting up and my emails wouldn’t go through Then in some sort of weird sign from the universe our TV suddenly went mute and had a purple film over the picture.
ELBEE Sadly, she doesn’t make this stuff up.
On Wednesday things began to go in a more positive direction. Thanks to Gus, what could have gone terribly wrong, went right. We were heading up for our regular visits in the Resnick neuropsych units when I was warned that there was a hospital inspection going on.
That made me a little nervous but once we sat down with the kids, it was all about them and Gus. He was at the top of his game, doing tricks, cuddling, rolling over for belly rubs. There was so much positive energy, so much laughter and joy that I forgot about anyone observing.
The week ended on a “high note” with caroling at UCLA.
ELBEE That should have been my line.
About twenty PAC teams in Christmas attire met in the lobby of the hospital for the annual event. Most of us can’t sing, but fortunately, we had some ringers with beautiful voices. We broke into groups and went from floor to floor bringing a bit of the holidays to the patients and staff.
On pediatrics, I stopped to visit with a few of the nurses. As we talked, they 
shared that it had been a very rough day. They really needed the dogs. We ended up sitting on the floor in deep conversation with Gus sprawled out for more belly rubs.
For a few moments we were all so connected that I forgot about the event and didn’t even realize that our group had moved on. Gus was offering and receiving pure love which is the true heart of the holiday season.
ELBEE This was a win/win. Gus was bringing joy and no one had to listen to her sing.
