An Ohio dog has received the gift of a new home for the holidays – and not a day too soon.
Alfie is the newest resident at Victoria House Assisted Living in Austintown. She’s learning the ropes in her new role as a four-legged therapist, spending her days walking the halls and visiting with residents.
“We’re so excited,” said Victoria House resident Mary Bagin. “She’s getting more attention than I think she’s had her whole life. Everybody just loves her.”
Alfie is the first dog in a pilot program with Close to Home Animal Rescue, bringing dogs to live in nursing homes.
“There are a lot of facilities that do pet therapy where they come in for visits and we thought it would be just a little bit more special to have a live in, four-legged resident,” said Susan Greco, Activities Director at Victoria House.
Six weeks ago Alfie was rescued from a pound where officials say she likely would’ve been put down. Close To Home fostered Alfie, vetted her, and found her a forever home at Victoria House.
“Just in time for Christmas. She’s home for the holidays!” Greco said.
What a great Christmas story!
Oh WONDERFUL. Alfie have a great life! I hope that more dogs and even cats get to have great lives.
greetings from australia what a wonderful thing to do both for dog and patients! god bless you i wish everyone a happy christmas!
NOw if we all tell someone about these proven positive effects of having a live-in therapy animal, think how much we can actually shift the paradigm into universal acceptance of this program, and to a greater than property attitude towards our companion animals in particular.
wonderful everybody wins
Dogs can sense when a person is sad, sick or just in need of a companion. How great for those that may have no. Nothing like a wet dogs nose to make you feel better.
there is big difference in someone bringing their dog to the nursing home they work at and having a communal dog living at the nursing home….in my experience communal animals tend to have haphazard feeding, no-one responsible for exercise and subject to very variable treatment as not every resident or staff member likes animals and they can be very unkind.You usually get a couple of people who will take responsibility for the animal and when those people leave the animal gets neglected – not to mention dogs, who tend to bond to individuals, getting separated from those people when they move on.Great idea in theory, not so great in practice.