Everyone Deserves a Treat!

As many of you may or maay not know, Chelsie LOVES peanut butter - further evidence she is truly her mom's dog. We have 2 kinds of PB in this house - human and dog. Yep, I get Jif, she gets Kroger brand. Call the pound.

Mom is exhausted tonight. Between work, trial-ing and volunteering tonight, I am DONE. Stick a fork in me (as Chel just let out a big groan). Tonight, as usual, she was awesome. We actually had a new adventure - we went to the third floor tonight. The patient population on 4 was very low, we were only there for about 30 minutes. With that in mind, I headed down to three, to see what the climate was like down there. We did see a few people on four, but many were asleep already. It was a cold gray day in Columbus, so I can hardly blame them. Today would have been a good day for a nap.

I have to say, the level at which she has become SPOILED at this hospital is RIDICULOUS. Tonight, as the weather was horrid, we again went to Dodd in the tunnels. About halfway through the tunnel, this horrible, loud noise started - I thought something was taking off over us. Chelsie was definitely agitated. Just as fast as the noise started, it quit - the only thing I could think was thank god, because it was loud. I don't think anything of it, until we see the meal lady in the hall. She says - I was pushing the trays in the tunnel and I saw it was scaring her, so I waited until you got in the building before I kept going. Unreal - where do I get treatment like that????

Once we got to three, I introduced us to the nursing staff. They immediately sent us to a room where an older man was visiting with his son. He had a German Shepherd at home, and was very happy to see Chelsie. She was happy to see him to - he had some crumbs on his front, and she put on her best display of manners and went after his crumbs. We had a really nice visit.

The room after that was tough. There was a young girl in there - and I mean young. She was maybe 15, maybe 16 - not older than that. Kimmy was her name. If I had to guess, she has been in some sort of car accident. She had some sort of brain surgery, and had the leftover of a trach. I also saw she had some staples in her stomach. She had just returned to Dodd after going off to another hospital for her brain surgery. I asked if she wanted to see Chelsie, she said "Yes, please". She was petting Chelsie's ears and Chels was just waiting patiently. It is amazing to me how she knows when to be patient. Kimmy moved very slow, and she just let Kimmy rub her ears - I think she liked how soft they are. For those of you that don't know, Chel has very soft ears.

The last room was an older lady who was a dog person. We had a nice dog conversation. She told Chelsie it would be nice if she would be more concerned about her grammie's feelings, and how grammie's feelings are hurt when she dives under the table after grammie walks in the door. She had a granddog who lived a block away - his dad got mad at him one time and he went to his grammie 's house. I told this lady my mother would love her.

It has been a busy weekend and will prove to be a busy week. I have training in Cleveland on Thursday and a packed calendar until then...we are off to la-la land and beauty rest.

Nicole and Chel