Thanks to your donations, Delta Society is providing an alternative way to improve the wellbeing of sick and infirm children, adults and the elderly and it’s all thanks to man’s (or woman’s) best friend.
A $8,4890 grant from the Give Where You Live Foundation in 2017 allows Delta Society to bring in the Therapy Dogs team to simply bring the joy of animal companionship to those who need it most by spending time with patients, offering a chat and a floppy ear to listen and a paw to shake.
Delta Therapy Dogs currently visit 88 care facilities in the Geelong / G21 region. Pirate and his owner Mary is one of over 100 Delta Therapy teams. The program makes a difference for residents in aged care facilities like Donna, who recently moved into a facility that hosts the Delta Therapy Dog program.
The first time Pirate visited after Donna’s arrival, Pirate went straight into Donna’s room, sniffed her hand, then jumped onto her bed and laid next to her. She was in a wheelchair next to the bed. She looked at him and smiled, and said “Oh my, aren’t you beautiful?” and proceeded to burst into tears.
While chatting with the human half of the Delta Dog team, she explained that she had only been there a couple of weeks, that her family had cleared out all her things from her previous home, and had her black Lab put to sleep. She smiled through her tears and said her old dog must have sent us to comfort her.