Walking with the dogs, I saw this sticker on a car window.
ELBEE She got the photo off of the internet so that the people wouldn’t see her skulking around their driveway taking pictures.
It really inspired me. Right now, more than ever, we need to send each other positive messages.
Coincidentally, on the neighborhood page, which at times can be not so neighborly, someone had posted a photo of sidewalk chalk art that read, “thanks for the music.” It was to show appreciation for a neighbor who had to resort to front yard rehearsals during COVID.
The sticker made me think about how fortunate I am that good things happen to me every day when I’m with the dogs. Instead of guilt by association, I get “good” by association. With Gus and Stanley back to work, I feel the same overwhelming gratitude that I have each and every time we’ve returned over the past two years.
At the adult day health center, the man who only smiles when the dogs are there, met me and Gus at the door with the sweetest grin on his face. It’s almost like our little secret. He stayed with us as we made our way through the room and never stopped smiling.
Stanley was visiting the teen neuropsych unit at UCLA when a girl who was sitting on the floor next to me very quietly shared that he reminded her of Charley, my very first therapy dog. She had been a patient several years earlier and said that she’d never forgotten him.
At Tarzana Hospital, a nurse told she didn’t know how she’d have made it through the morning without some dog love. A woman outside a patient’s door just wanted to hug Gus. Her aunt was very ill and also had severe dementia so visiting her was extremely stressful. Gus gave her the strength to go back into the room.
Now I’m hopefully going to make something good happen to you by giving you a laugh.
ELBEE That terrible segue made me laugh.
Last week I wrote about the dogs’ quirks, including that Henry sprints across the yard after he poops.
HENRY Why is she bringing that up again?
Hearing the story, a friend told me an even better one. She had a Dachshund with a very strange habit. Every time it pooped, it would run three circles around it!
And how about this photo of Gus, who turns eight this week, playing peekaboo under Henry who is ten months today!
