Thanks to the Doods, I’ve had a very busy social life lately.
ELBEE On her own, she’d be kind of a wallflower.
Recently, Resnick, the neuropsych institute at UCLA, held its annual wellness festival. It’s a very upbeat event with lunch, sometimes karaoke, games and an award ceremony, with surprisingly short, touching acceptance speeches. The dogs were invited as featured guests, so I got to go along.
Stanley and Gus have attended before but this year I brought Henry. I’m not sure why, but Henry hasn’t done much in the way of hospital room visits yet. He’s more of a special events kind of guy. Gus is his wingman.
Before heading up to the party, we stopped in the People Animal Connection office to pick up Jen the director. To put it mildly, the office is on the small side.
ELBEE We affectionately refer to it as the closet.
As soon as Gus and Henry stepped into the party, it was as if the sun came out.
ELBEE Well, it was outside.
I love how the mood brightened when people saw the dogs. They started smiling and nudging each other. Doctors, nurses, therapists, greeters, it seemed like everyone came over for some dog therapy.
I’ve been going to Resnick for years, so a lot of the staff have known the Doods, some as far back as Charley. This was their first meeting with Henry which made it even more special.
Speaking of special, Noel, who works in the NPI, and I have become good buddies and have developed our own special ritual. Somehow Noel found out about my bodybuilding past.
ELBEE Is there anyone who hasn’t heard about it?
As someone who works out, it inspired him, especially since I’m a senior. He jokingly began calling me Ms.Venice Beach. I told him it was “Grandma” Venice Beach. Then one day, not sure how it happened, we challenged each other to do pushups, agreeing on twenty.
There we were in a hospital corridor doing pushups. And yes, there we were at the wellness festival doing pushups. Strangely, no one seems to react and this is about our fifth time. Well, my daughters did say it was “horrifying” when I told them about it. I say, long live the tradition.
ELBEE Oy! She can’t help herself.
Seriously, I owe a debt of gratitude to Noel and all of the others we’ve worked with at Resnick. Everyone has always been so kind and helpful. Thanks to the staff, the dogs and I have had such positive interactions with patients of all ages. It was a pleasure to celebrate wellness with them.
