Sharing The Love

Being an old married man, there comes a time when you start to branch out a bit in sharing your feelings with others. Sweetie and I have a great relationship, even if it is not perfect. But even we can get bored with each other, and need a way to reconnect with our emotions. Now, before anyone gets any bright ideas, I'm not talking about swinging or swapping here. We don't share.

So how do 2 long time married people get back in touch with their feelings? Simple, spend some time with those less fortunate than we are. Share some moments with folks older than us. Bring some smiles to the faces of people that are lonely, and in some cases, forgotten. It has been 4 years in the making, but this last weekend, our plans finally came together.

Sweetie, Shortcake, Duncan, and I, spent Saturday at the VA State Nursing Home. We went through our volunteer orientation, followed by a walking tour, and our TB tests. Then, it was time for Duncan and I to be tested as a therapy dog team. My little cocker preformed flawlessly. He treated every person he met with respect. He waited patiently to be petted by the veterans. Best of all, he brought out a lot of happy smiles. He passed his evaluation when I placed him on the bed of a vet who is usually not very responsive. This man not only smiled at my dog, but spent many minutes petting the happy puppy. When his wife arrived and heard what happened, she thanked me with a big smile of her own.

Sweetie and I are going to be visiting the home at least once each week. Duncan and Shortcake now have jobs to preform. We are, to the best of my knowledge, the only married therapy dog team for the home. There are a few other folks that bring their dogs in, but as individuals. Sweetie and I work together. Also, because we have smaller dogs, we have been asked to pay special attention to the dementia / Alzheimer ward. Those folks are isolated enough as it is. Having a visit from a happy puppy gives them a reason to smile.

By sharing our time with these former military members, Sweetie and I see ourselves as the happy couple trying to bring a little joy to someones day. I think it is good that these veterans see a married couple. It might help them to remember some of what they were fighting for, and that the future is not all bleak and selfish. Just as Sweetie and I care for each other, we want these people to know that there are still folks that care about them. We may not be their family, but we can try to help them feel more at home in their situations. This is why we have trained and worked so hard over these past 4 years to have our dogs ready.

In return Sweetie and I see ourselves as we might be, someday. No one knows the future, but it is always possible that one, or both of us, my end up in a home like the one we visit. I hope if that happens, we are together. I also hope that someone will remember that we took our dogs to visit people, so that they will bring their puppies to visit us. We have learned that there are ways to share our love with other people. Some of whom have not felt a warm, tender touch, in a very long time. It makes me want to cuddle my Sweetie even more. So that she will never forget what it means to be cared for.