Shelby's blog

Howdy, my dad, our teacher, my wagon and I did our second visit to Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa.

We had to do everything right today, it was like a final exam, because if we did OK, we wouldn’t need to bring the teacher with us anymore.

We no sooner got in the hospital entrance when 2 families came over and started talking to us. They were so nice and asked if we could come and see their dad on the second floor? I said you bet, we’ll be there! My teacher arrived and we went to the second floor intensive care waiting room. It’s really hard to see people who are so concerned and worried about someone they love in the hospital. We went into the waiting room, man, it’s really dark in there, and as soon as we came in, people started smiling and the whole mood changed. We were there for about 15 minutes when the door opened and a friend of mine came in and joined the family. We are so used used to seeing our friend laugh and tell stories. Dad shook his hand and told him, you have our phone number, call if we can do anything to help.

 A short wagon ride later, we arrived at the critical care waiting room. They were watching the football ball game so the wife and mother of the family and I talked. She told us they were from Sacramento and I told them about the Homeward Bound Golden Retreiver Rescue up there. She said she had lived in Sacramento her whole live and never knew it was there. Then she said something that made us blush, If they have dogs like her up there, we’ll head over there next weekend and check out the place! I hope they do because if you go to Homeward Bound, you’ll find a new kid to bring home.

 Another short wagon ride later we ended up in the rehab area of the hospital. We checked in with the nurses and asked if they had anyone they thought could use a dog visit. They gave us 2 room numbers . The nurses and the doctors were so sweet to Shelby, everyone of them on duty in that area came over and met her. Everyone kept saying how soft and pretty my coat was, then dad told them that they take me to the doggie laundry for a rinse and spin dry before we come to the hospital, they all laughed… It’s not nice to let out one’s beauty secrets!  Then we met up with one of the families we met earlier and went into the dads room and chatted for about 15 minutes. There are so many things to remember, but the instructor said we did good.  

 We visited 2 other patients in their rooms and all of the study and all of the practice kicked in. We were relaxed, positive and continued to do everything pretty much right. We went back to the nurses station and signed out and headed for the parking lot. We had been there for 2 hours. On one hand we stayed a bit longer than I wanted because Shelby was so tired at the end but on the other hand we met some really nice folks and we brought some smiles and some good thoughts to some folks.

 As we left our teacher said we had passed, we had forgot some things, but we passed!!!! We go in Friday to have our pictures ID’s made and we can visit anytime we want! It was a lot of hard work but it is so worth it, we had a ball and can’t wait to go back! 

T.T.F.N.