Ice Cream & Greyhounds

Mobility is very important. Whether you have two legs or four, if it's difficult for you to get around, it makes it difficult to enjoy life. After our pet therapy visit this weekend, it totally reinforced this truth.

Seka loves to go on pet therapy visits. At one time she was TDI, Inc. certified and we made lots of visits each month to nursing homes, assisted living facilities and the children's hospital. She enjoyed getting love, exploring new places and if mom turned her back and a nice lady gave her chicken from her lunch tray that was okay by her too. I enjoyed visiting with the residents and learning about their former pets and hearing about what they had for lunch or who cheated at cards that day. But unfortunately, my work schedule took over and I was traveling too much to have time to continue our visits and keep her certification up.

But now, we're back in the saddle and making visits again and working toward getting re-certified. This Saturday we made our first visit to a nursing home in over a year and I think we both forgot how much we enjoyed it. We joined Amy with Amber Opal and Lauralee with Charlie at Summerhill Senior Living Community (doesn't that sound nice?). Seka sported her Thera Paws on her back feet so she could tolerate the hard floors (stupid corns). She walks really funny when she only wears one, but when she has both of them on, there's no change in her gait. Really, Thera Paws have changed our lives around here.

The activity of the afternoon was entitled "Ice Cream and Greyhounds." Now I'm not sure how the two go together, but it worked. The common area had several residents waiting to see the pups when we arrived. I always get a little tickled by a few of their comments or actions. Here are a list of my three favorite questions from our visit:

• Do they bite? Yes, we are bringing three biting dogs for a visit just to see how fast you can walk/wheel/power chair yourself out of this room. We're here to keep you on your toes. I'll say that at least she asked before she reached out to pet. The other person that asked this, did so while encouraging Seka to kiss her in the face.
• Is there a reason they are all girls? Well, yes. Girls are better. I think she thought that boy greyhounds were bad, mean or they killed them at the track or something. Bless her heart.
• I bet they eat a lot. Now I find this interesting since most people think they are way too skinny and need to eat more. Maybe because they are big dogs they think big servings. I did hear her say she had on new glasses.

It was an enjoyable hour, but of course because Seka had to stand for more than 15 minutes, she was tuckered out and she couldn't wait to find a place to lay down. The closest place for a doggy nest was the pine straw in the flowerbed just outside the front door of the nursing home. She was just overcome with love I guess.

All I can hope for is that when I get to where I can't get around by myself that I find a place to take care of me that brings in greyhounds to love me on a regular basis. Better yet, maybe by then there will be a greyhound/human retirement community where we can both retire in peace and quiet. Until then, Seka and I will just keep visiting as often as we can.