2025 Therapy Dog News

Due to all the HIPPA privacy rules, I only get photos of therapy dog visits occasionally.  It is totally accidental who appears on this page.

June – December

6/10/26:  Hopeful in a dementia unit.  Hopeful was in great form today.  She sings when she’s happy and was she ever singing this morning!  She sang to one resident, a favorite of ours, who was really down because she had to transition to a wheelchair from a walker.  Soon, though, that resident began to smile and started singing a lullaby back to her. Then the nurse wheeled another resident close to us, and asked if she’d like to pet the dog, and for the first time ever she said “YES!” (I think because of the other two singing).  So Hopeful sang to her, and she sang Hopeful a lullaby – a different one.  We ended up with the three of them singing away, with the ladies taking turns petting her (she’d sit next to one, then move next to the other) for about 10 minutes – an impressive length f connection in a dementia unit. They were smiling like crazy. A new resident was intrigued by all the music and soon would walk between the two women and pat Hopeful on the head, then turn and watch for a minute before coming back past us and patting Hopeful again.  Back and forth he went, even beginning to smile.  I had tears in my eyes at the sharing between Hopeful and the three residents.  Those kind of connections don’t happen often, so they are extremely special.

January – May

2/9/26:  Lovely and I on a therapy dog visit to Westview Healthcare Center during Valentine’s Day week.  As I was logging in, one of the staff members came up and exclaimed about how cute Lovely’s heart was and that she HAD to take photos.  I laughed when I saw this one that she took because Lovely is clearly saying, “OK, let’s start visiting!”  She is SUCH a tease, and this photo shows it.

4/8/26:  April is Volunteer Month.  The VA activity director took a photo of Hopeful and me visiting one of our favorite veterans.

4/12/26:  Lovely and Hopeful earned their Therapy Dog Excellent (THDX) title, which requires 200 visits.  That award includes a nice medal.  When it came, I took photos of both girls wearing their medals.

Lovely was not pleased about being asked to pose for a photo after her ball session, and it shows in her photos.

Hopeful was more willing to cooperate.

Justice earned his Therapy Dog Advanced title, and Pascha earned her Therapy Dog title (50 visits).  They just get certificates for those so I didn’t take photos.

See the 2026 Reading Dog News (my dogs visiting the schools)
See all the pages about my therapy dog activities