We’ll be at the hospital at 10:30 Saturday morning.
During all of the other Pet Assisted Therapy visits we’ve made, we pretty much understood what to expect and how to talk and act. My teacher say’s visiting the folks that were injured in the war at the VA Rehab Center will be something totally different. She told me that some social/therapy teams only visit once and never go back. I’m trying to prepare myself by expecting to see and hear things I’ve probably never heard or seen before. She said the hardest thing for some volunteers to get past is how young some of these vet’s will be.
What has driven me to persue the visits with the vet’s is I want them to know we care. I don’t understand what they have been and are going through. I don’t understand the pain and the frustration, I don’t understand how they get up and keep going to rehab. I hope I can keep the conversations easy but not trite and I hope that seeing Shelby and learning about her past and how she has accepted what was given her and gone on to lead a very rewarding life might help in some way. We have a ton of autographed pictures of Shelby in her wagon that we’ll take along with us and hopefully she’ll bring a smile or two to a vet and/or their families and friends.
Please do us a favor and think some positive thoughts for us on Saturday morning and we’ll let you know how the visit went. Thanks.
By: jerry on November 3, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Shelby and Co., we are in awe of your courage, and send lots of pawsitive energy your way. This will be a tough visit but those vets need you more than anything, even if they have a hard time expressing it at first.
Your Tripawd strength will get you through this, and enable you to reach out. Just be yourself and your intentions will shine through. You are irresistible.