Shelby's blog

Our visits to Memorial Hospital always start in the Intensive and Critical Care waiting rooms. These visits are very, very special. Many times we find families that have been there for 24 hours waiting for a loved one. We often spend 1 to 2 hours visiting these waiting areas.
During our last visit Shelby caught the eye of 2 nurses on duty that day. As Shelby visited with some of the visitors, one of the nurses said, would you be able to visits some of our patients in Intensive this morning. We told them we are only allowed in with the permission of a nurse or a doctor. 2 minutes later, we were in one of the Intensive Care rooms visiting a young man who had been in a single car accident and was awaiting surgery. We put a pillow case on the right side of the bed and laid Shelby right next to him. We told him let us when you’re tired and we’ll leave, about 5 minutes later we said goodbye and wished him well on his surgery the next day. As we got up to leave, the nurse said, hold on, don’t go anywhere, we have another patient for you to visit.

We were introduced to an amazing women in her late 80’s. As we brought Shelby into her room, her face lit up with a huge smile. We laid Shelby next to her and she reached down and started petting her. The nurse said, that’s the first time she had smiled since she arrived at the hospital. We were having a wonderful conversation, but within a few minutes, you could see she was tired, so we thanked her, gave her one Shelby’s autographed pictures and said our goodbye’s.
The nurse said, we have one more 1 more lady who would love a visit. We were shown into a room with a wonderful couple. The husband was there visiting his wife, she was sitting on a chair right next to her bed. We looked at all the equipment, wires, tubes and figured the best thing to do was put Shelby on HER bed. It took just a moment for her to reach out and pet her. Her husband was so tickled we were there, everybody had big smiles and we talked about their dogs at home. All the time we talked, she’s petted Shelby. We told them she looked so comfortable on the bed, we joked that we would leave her with them while we go out for some lunch! They were very happy to be able to spend some time with a dog in the hospital. They said it made their day. A few minutes later, we left the room and headed back out to the waiting area and Shelby’s wagon.
Shelby was pretty thirsty after all of those visits, so we put her back in her pink wagon and put some water in her bowl. While she was busy drinking, Cindi and I looked at each other, 3 great visits…in Intensive Care? Are you kidding me! We had only been allowed in there 3 times in 4 years!
As we headed to the elevator, a young man in scrubs came out of the Intensive Care area and told us what a great thing we were doing and how it really helped the patients and how does he get his Golden Doodle and himself qualified? We thanked him and Cindi and I told him what was needed and asked him where was he thinking of visiting.? He said, why, here of course. It would be so cool if I could bring my dog to work and we could visit some of my patients. Cindi asked what do you do, he said, I’m a doctor in the intensive care area and my office is right here. She said you sure look young, he just smiled and kinda laughed. I thought, heck, I’ve blue jeans older than he is!
We continued our visits on different floors and after a couple of hours, the 3 of us were done. We made our way out of the hospital and back to the truck. As I put Shelby’s wagon in the back, I turned and looked back at the hospital, looked at Shelby and Cindi and thought, that was so cool! What an amazing day! THEN, we went out for cheeseburgers and fries!!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again, we are so blessed Shelby came to live with us.