Published: July 16, 2008 10:58 am            

Love on a Leash visits Sunrise Manor

Community News

Love on a Leash therapy dogs make 15 or more regular visits each month to 12 (sometimes more) facilities.

The types of facilities range from health care (Lake Cumberland Re-gional Hospital and Lake Cumberland Cancer Treatment Center) and libraries (Pulaski County and Nancy Public lib-raries) to special facilities such as Oakwood, the Alzheimer’s Center, Som-erset Adult Day Care and LINKS.

But no one appreciates their visits more than the residents of assisted living facilities who deeply miss having their own compa-nion animals. Although there is a growing trend for facilities to have their own in-house pets, most do not yet offer that luxury.

Included in the Somer-set group’s monthly assist-ed living visitation sched-ule are Britthaven, Crest-view, Somerset Nursing & Rehab, the Highlands and Sunrise Manor.

Many residents still keep pictures of the pets they loved and lost through the years and often want pictures made with the visiting therapy pets, who are added to their cherished bedside keepsakes.

Such a resident was Dora Smith who lives at Sunrise Manor and ex-claimed “Oh, you have made me feel so special today!”

Mrs. Smith asked for a photo of not one but ALL the therapy dogs visiting during the group’s June 22 visit. The dogs and their handlers were glad to oblige.

Facility leader at Sun-rise Manor is Sandra Stokley, also on the staff there. “I think we’ll put a copy of this on our bulletin board too, Dora, so everybody can see!”

Mrs. Smith just smiled and agreed that was a good idea.

For more information about Love on a Leash, visit the group’s national Web site at:

www.loveonaleash.org

        

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