Working Girl . . . Again
My father started a new job yesterday at a nursing home and during orientation saw a Pekinese run past. This wasn’t too much of a jolt to him given the many nursing homes that regular take in rescues or have therapy animals paraded through their doors, but he inquired about the pooch and it turns out said pup accompanies his master daily to work at the home. Without really thinking, my dad blurted out that he is the happy owner of a retired guide dog, whom he is a bit concerned about leaving at home for such long periods as she’s getting on in years and may need to relieve more often and probably should be a bit less of a couch potato. No sooner had the words left his mouth than everyone from administration on down was expecting him to bring her along with him today.
He talked with me about it over the phone last night and in the end he decided it was worth trying out . . . and she’s an instant hit there. Dad reports that she schmoozed everyone for attention and food and that everybody has fallen in love with her. He’s still not 100% sure if he’ll bring her continuously; the floors there are very slippery for her and she’s certainly not going to loose weight with every staff person and patient feeding her treats all day long.
Either way I think it’s just brilliant. ;-)
Rubber footed booties will fix the slipping on slick floors if she’ll tolerate them. It sounds like a wonderful retirement career!
I doubt it. We tried them once when she was younger and she pretty much reacted like she somehow lost the ability to walk because her feet disappeared. Plus, I think at 12 it’s a bit much to try and introduce them.
Understandable at her age. I introduced them to my dog when he was 5, and it took weeks for him to get used to them.