WW Litter at 46 Days
First Visit to Westview Healthcare Center
3/3/22

See their other nursing home visits:
2nd visit to Westview, 53 days old
1st visit to the Alzheimer’s Unit, 45 days old
2nd visit to the Alzheimer’s Unit, 52 days old

The pups now have the walk around the north end of the house to the car down pat and marched along, with an occasional grab at my pantlegs.  I’m really glad they aren’t wildly tugging yet because we have packed ice with a film of water on top from the warm temperatures.  I sure don’t want to fall so I watch every step and pray that a pup doesn’t bump or pull on me on that slick surface.  We made it safely to the car and headed to Westview, about a ten-minute drive.  The pups were pretty quiet, only making a soft comment every so often; they have riding in the car down pat, too.

Tessa, who helps me with puppy visits and the activity directors, Yvette and Kris, along with another staff member, met us in the parking lot.  We unloaded pups, toy duffel bag and camera and walked the pups on the grass to potty before heading inside.  Their lawn was pretty dry as it was on the west side of the building and the snow had already melted, thus the pups were dry enough that I didn’t have to take the towel in.

We let the pups play a while, burning up some energy, before we began putting them in people’s laps to be petted.  The pups definitely were in tug and keep-away-with-toy mode today and everyone laughed a lot at their antics.  Miss Green was the most dedicated tugger.

The Westview staff and residents love the little police car, so I always bring it.  When you push a button, a siren blares, lights flash and a voice booms to “Get out of the car.”  Yvette especially enjoys turning it on and giving it a push so it heads towards the pups.  I always take a big, noisy toy, too.  Today it was a monkey that makes a very weird groaning sound, and which the pups often like to use as a pillow when they tire.

It was pretty warm in the activity room and the pups panted a lot.  They played hard, but only lasted about 40 minutes before they crashed.  The activity room was packed with residents. They sure love the puppy visits. 

Since Monday’s photos at TRE using the new camera light settings were a fiasco, today at Westview I didn’t try the automatic light camera setting, which we had planned to use to see if we could eliminate the blue tint I get from the LED lights in the activity room.  Despite hours – days, actually – of editing, the photos all have a blue tinge but at least I ended up with usable ones.