Chelsie meets Elway

Tonight was a good volunteering night. As usual, she was awesome....

On our way in tonight, we decided to walk outside, since it was 78 outside. While walking across the courtyard to Dodd, we saw a border collie in the grass, laying with his tennis ball while his mom was reading a book. The 2 puppies said hello, the moms exchanged pleasantries, and on we went.

As soon as we got in, nurse Kori came running up and said "You have to go to this room, there is a new patient in there. He is upset and misses his dogs. Don't go in there now, but make sure you get to room X". Ok, so off we go. We go in a few rooms, here and there, and finish one side of the hall. I stop in at the nurses station and ask Kori to remind me what room we need to go in. So in we go.

The patient, Mr. X we will call him (god bless the government and HIPAA) was thrilled to see us. He had some sort of brain surgery and while not immobile, he was certainly not mobile. Chelsie sat in front of his wheelchair and he was just so excited to pet her. About 5 minutes after we walked in, his wife walked in - you guessed it, the border collie's mom. The dog's name was Elway - named for John Elway of course. Apparently, they were Broncos fans - as evidenced by the story she told about their kids using washable markers to color their previous dog orange and blue and their current dog being named Elway. :) She smiled and said "this must be your surprise". They were a very nice couple - they had a rough few weeks, he had come straight from the ICU to Dodd and I think that had been hard on them. Anyway, we sat and visited - super nice people. I think this health situation has been really hard on Mr. X - I could tell he was frustrated, he said he was not moving very well. I told him to give these people here a few days and they would have him moving like he would not believe. Let's hope so - I am certainly not educated in this arena, but it seems to me this guy will do much better in a home setting.

On our way out, I stopped and we officially met Elway. He was running around off leash with his ball, which was too much for my little precious to take. Mom freed her and of course, she went after his ball. The couple's son was out there with Elway and he threw the ball, and off they went. A few times Chel got it and a few times Elway got it. They were both submissive dogs, so we did not have a toy war. It was great.

After this, we were off to agility, where she continues to excel. We did some hard stuff for us tonight, and I was so proud of her. A couple of times her handler screwed up and she went just where her handler told her to - what a good girl. We are both officially wiped out tonight - after House Hunters International (Sweden), we are done. Lights out - in fact, I think my precious is already out...

Hope all is well with everyone!