Sam has a great responsibility, but he’s been quite remiss. This is not his fault, however, it’s strictly mine.
I simply haven’t taken him out for the required visits to the hospital and/or health centers, primarily because it’s somewhat difficult to arrange a ride for both of us, now that I am no longer as independent as I was, and would still like to be.
As you know, I don’t have a car any more, so have to rely on family, friends, and neighbors to drive us around. Some are willing to add Sam to their passenger list, others are not, so we have to be very selective, and coordinate our times very carefully.
Therapy Dogs International requires that the visits be recorded, and the records sent in to headquarters within a reasonable length of time after earning therapy dog status.
I had a letter from them last week, inquiring about the reasons why Sam hadn’t made any visits yet. I wrote them, pleading my case, particularly about not driving and requesting that he maintain TD status anyway.
The response was polite, but was asked that the visits be done pretty soon. This nudged me enough to make a more concerted effort to do something about it; after all, Sam enjoys being a therapy dog, so he should be able to renew it when the time comes at the end of the year.
I’ve already made one phone call to schedule one visit; I have two more to do to get him off the hook and out of trouble. He will also thoroughly enjoy coming with me tomorrow for the day, instead of being left at home all alone.
This is when he dreams up trouble for himself, trashing the wastebasket, or anything else that I might have inadvertently left around that he can get into. Tomorrow I know I can return to a house that’s still the way I’ve left it, and not find stuff strewn all over the floor in his desperation thinking he’s been abandoned forever.
I found Sam’s TD bandanna that he’s supposed to wear when making visits, quite easily for a wonder (he wears his tag all the time on his collar with his license, so he remembers who he is…).
I often put something away and immediately forget where, and have to do a mad search all over for it, but this was right under my nose. In addition, I just have to bring along the paper work to be filled out, and he’ll be all set.
Needless to say, Sam is really looking forward to this and because he’s such a people puppy, I know he’ll have a good time attending to his duties. He will just have to rely on me to get the paperwork sent in, since he finds that so difficult to do himself.
