Therapy Dog

Hope and I also volunteer in the WAGS (Wonderful Animals Giving Solace) program at Sutter Hospital in Roseville. We started doing this late last year after we received our Delta certification. The program is run by the Volunteer Coordinator for Sutter's Hospice program. In order to start volunteering, we had to complete four days of Hospice training, another evaluation, and vet check for Hope.

We are volunteering at Sutter's STAR (it stands for Sutter Transitional and Respiratory Services, I think) unit. We have been visiting patients who are essentially permanent hospital patients on respirators. It took a few times for Hope to get comfortable visiting these patients. I generally have her jump onto a chair next to the bed so that patient can reach her. At first, she was reluctant to jump on the chair. Now she jumps on the chair like its nothing. She seems to enjoy it too, her tail is wagging. If we can bring some joy to these people for only a small portion of their day, its all worth it. At some point, we will also visit the Oncology ward or may be called on to do a visit with a hospice patient.