Tag: miniature schnauzer

April 14, 2009

Hi ya’ll.  I have gone and done therapy twice now at this Siskin Rehab Hospital place. You want to hear something funny? When Mom tells people what I do, sometimes they ask if I am getting therapy. And this is even after she has told them where I am doing it, at a people hospital. So she said next time, she will say, you know dogs can have health insurance now, so the hospitals have to treat them. It’s part of Obama’s stimulus plan. Then she’ll sit back and wait for them to get it. I they really thought I was going to Siskin to get therapy in the first place, I think Mommy is going to be sitting there waiting a long time.

I think she needs to say I am a therapy dog. That would clear it up right away. She thinks the other way will be more fun. Anyhow, I didn’t mean to go down a bunny trail. Although usually I do mean to, ’cause I can smell them. Since both sessions were really uneventful, Mom says I should tell ya’ll about the second session I did a year or so ago. It was at Siskin, too. There was this young fellow who couldn’t seem to move real well. I sat on a stool next to him and made him pet me. You know what I mean – I kept scooting my nose under his hand so he didn’t have much choice. Every time he stopped, I scooted my nose again. I did that for about 15 minutes, and would have gone a lot longer, but Mom said that was enough. As we started walking away, I heard the guy’s therapist say, that was really good – you lifted your hand! Wow, he must have really like me!! Keep barking! Lexi the Therapy Dog

March 20, 2009

I have started my work again as a therapy dog. Mom says I should tell about how my first session went almost two years ago. So here goes:

A big man who worked at Siskin asked if he could pet me. He pet me a lot, which I thought was the patients’ jobs, but he seemed to need that. When we walked away, I heard the boss tell Mom that this therapist had never before touched a dog there. Then another therapist, a woman, came up to us and asked Mom if she could take me over to her patient. As I was walking away with her, I could hear the boss tell Mom that this therapist avoided the dogs and had never done this before. On our way out, after I was finished spreading the love, the big man stopped us again and asked if he could hold me. He said there was something really special about me. Duh…we all know that!

Anyhow, I really liked doing this, but didn’t get to go back for several months. I will tell you about my second trip there tomorrow. Gotta go help Mom fix some chicken now.

Be good, and if you can’t be good, don’t get caught!

Lexi the Therapy Dog

January 4, 2008

Wow, this Christmas thing is really nice. It sneaks up on me every year, but this year I knew there was something in one of the pretty bags just for me – I could smell it and Mommy kept telling me to leave it alone. Sure enough, it was a new chew bone filled with rawhide! And I got a new Quack-quack. The quacker broke in my old one, but this one works really good. I was so excited when I got it I wiggled all over.

Christmas Eve I went to the nursing home to see my Grandma. Grandma fell again in her apartment and broke her hip. She had an operation to make it better and went to something called physical therapy in the hospital. That was supposed to help her be able to go back to her new apartment where she has lots of people around and help if she needs it. But every day when she went back to therapy she couldn’t remember what she had learned the day before. It was like starting all over again. That doesn’t make any sense to me. How can you forget what you just learned the day before? I always remember what Mommy teaches me and we have a grand time dancing new steps together or doing new tricks or, well, you see what I am saying. Mom says it is because my Grandma is 89 years old – wow, that is something like 623 in dog years. People used to live that long –  623 years – in the bible times but not anymore. Anyhow, the hospital finally sent Grandma to a nursing home to keep trying to learn to walk again, and that’s why we are here visiting her. Mommy put up a little Christmas tree in Grandma’s room and the lights are very pretty. It reminds me of the Grand Illumination and makes me smile my little schnauzer smile.

We had pizza. It was good. I love my Grandma.

My people brothers stayed all night on Christmas Eve and I got to jump on Adam Christmas morning to wake him up. He was sleeping on the couch and didn’t want to get up. So I wiggled and stood on him and dug in next to him until he finally succumbed to my charms. In the middle of it all I had to stop to run in and tell my other big brother Andrew that I was busy with Adam and I would be back to get him up, too. He didn’t wait for me, though.

The day after Christmas I went to Siskin Hospital to work. They call me a pet therapy dog. It’s really lots of fun. I sit next to people and let them pet me. These are people who come and learn to do things like walk again, just like my Grandma. I like some people there more than others, and when I find them I won’t let them stop petting me. They smile and I wag a lot. Mom says it’s good work if you can get it.

Lexi, the Christmas Schnauzer