Allie, My Therapy Kerry

by Marilyn Stephens

Marilyn with Allie

She was a very new therapy girl, in fact we were with our mentor at an acute care hospital on our first visit when this happened. We first had been mentored in assisted living previously. As Gayle, my mentor, and her Border Terrier, Duncan, entered a hospital room, Allie and I were following.

The first thing I noticed was that the room was dark, drapes drawn. As I passed through the door I noted a sign that said the patient was unsighted. Gayle and Duncan visited with the youngish man, he was a big bear of a guy with a beard and I noticed very large hands. He said that he had a service dog at home and another dog.

After he visited with the other team I approached his bed and introduced myself and Allie. I have taught her to "paws up" on the bed. He asked for her to get up on the bed to which I replied that she was kind of big and weighed 30 pounds. He wanted her up, so I told her "up". What happened next was stunning. He didn't have his bed propped up, but was lying flat. She stretched out and melted into his body, as you know these Kerries are long. She nuzzled her nose into his beard with her back feet down by his knees. It was as though there wasn't another soul in the room. He ran his big hands through her beard, down her head and headed for her tail. I almost said that she doesn't like her tail touched, but didn't. He ran one hand up her tail and then the other, she didn't flinch. Our rules require that we keep our hand on the leash, but it was as if no one else but those two were in the room. One of the staff called a couple of other nurses to watch what was happening, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.

Later I asked one of our dog trainers what is was that happened, her reply was it's the MAGIC. Allie has never exhibited that particular behavior with me or my husband. The young man was in a lot of pain and I noticed that he had a morphine pump. What did she tune into? I don't know. About two weeks later I saw in the paper that he died................

I was so proud that Allie brought him that few minutes of love and communication.

The other interesting thing that she did was with me. About two months ago I had a terrible case of the 48 hour flu. Not to be to graphic, but late in the afternoon I had been vominting profusely. I was at the sink trying to brush my teeth and feeling terrible. The next thing I knew my husband was kneeling over me. He told me later what happened. Our bedroom is quite a ways from the living room and around a couple of corners. Allie went into where Gil, my husband, was and barked and barked. She isn't much of a barker. He told her to be quiet and she wouldn't. She lured him into the bathroom to find me.

Do you think we love this special girl? She is amazing.