Shelby's blog

How Saturday morning went at the Martinez Va Hospital

Posted by: jack crowder | November 8, 2009 | 2 Comments |

Howdy, I wanted to let veryone know how our visit went.

Shelby, AKA as the Petite Princess or PP, and I got up early Saturday morning and got ready to go to our 10:30 appointment at the VA Hospital in Martinez. We left in plenty of time and didn’t have much traffic so we were a bit early so we headed into the facility. We didn’t get very far when we met 2 Korean War Vets, one in a wheelchair and one “helping” his buddy move along. You could tell these two had been friends for a long time, that was just so great to see!They just loved Shelby and we talked for about 10 minutes and I gave them each one of her pictures in her wagon. What a great way to start!!!!

Going inside the building we signed in and headed to the Rec Room area, where we met several Vietnam era vets and again, they couldn’t have been nicer or any sweeter to the PP. We headed down the hall to one of the nurses stations where again they were really sweet to Shelby and made us feel as welcome as they could.

We met Cookie, who is the lady in charge, and she was as nice and pleasent as she could be. She let me know that she had brought her golden to work with her for 7 years but lost her last spring. She is contacting HBGRR and is starting the process of getting a new golden.

We only had one “incident” I was at one of the nurses station and one particular nurse just flat didn’t like us. So, as her tone of voice got a little more surely, my first thought was to mirror her attitude and tone of voice, but I just got sweeter and more pleasent as our “conversation” went along. I let Cookie know about it but she wasn’t concerned. She said some folks just don’t get it. I just chuckled and said I understand.

Next we ventured down to the rehab area where we met 2 young vets rehabing from the Gulf war. One was doing his best to get out of his wheel chair and walk out of “this place” and the other had a brain injury. We talked about football and when I learned the second vet was from Redding, I told him that we go to Redding quite often and while we were there one time I met Merle Haggard in a Mexican Resturant, we had made a connection!

We stayed for 2 hours and as we were getting ready to leave, the first two vets we met stopped by one more time to say goodby to the PP and when he reached out from his wheelchair for Shelby, he shocked her with a bit of static electricity, man, she did not like that and she was done and ready to go, right then. She almost drug me to the door. He felt terrible about it, he was crushed. I assured him she was fine, Cookie assured him she was fine but Shelby was not having any part of it.

We said our goodbye’s and started for the parking lot, but we met 2 more folks on the way.

We had a terrific time, met a lot of very caring people who were happy we came to see them. Cookie told me we were welcome to come back any time we wanted. It was a great first visit and my fears were put to rest.

Don’t ever underestimate “the power of dog”

under: Conversations with Shelby

Going to the VA Hospital in Martinez on our first social/therapy visit

Posted by: jack crowder | November 3, 2009 | 1 Comment |

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.

under: Conversations with Shelby

Sunday Morning social/therapy visit to the hospital

Posted by: jack crowder | November 1, 2009 | 2 Comments |

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.

under: Conversations with Shelby

A big Saturday coming up!

Posted by: jack crowder | October 30, 2009 | 5 Comments |

Howdy, the chauffer is taking Charlie and I to Petaluma tomorrow morning so we can visit our friends at the retirement home. Then we drop off ‘ol Charmin Chuckie at the house, then, I have to put on my Black Bling Harness and then it’s off to the humane society for a Halloween party from 1 till 4.

I think I’ll try the dunkin for hot dogs booth tomorrow, but I might get my black bling harness all hot dogged up, wow, it’s hard being a fashion plate. Oh what to do…what to do… I’ll have to sleep on it tonight.

Hope your Satuday is a great one! Take care, Shelby, the Petite Princess.