Before my mom recently passed away, I would visit her around medication time twice a day at the skilled nursing facility she lived at. Frequently my three-year-old Shih Tzu, Riley would join me.
Riley is an injured-stray turned rookie registered therapy dog. He passed his test in November. My 10-pound dog loves his job.
Last December Riley went with me in an unofficial capacity for the evening medication ritual. Riley’s presence always cheered my Mom up, along the lines of a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. Albeit in this case, the sugar is a dog.
That night we walked through the retirement center’s inner and outer glass doors into the main lobby where residents sat on couches waiting to see who’s coming and going. I clung to an armful of clean laundry for Mom in one hand and held Riley’s leash in the other.
As we entered the lobby there was a tiny little woman sitting on the edge of a couch who immediately spied Riley. She couldn’t have weighed 80 pounds soaking wet. Reaching out, I knew she wanted to pet the dog. As I was in no particular hurry we stopped, and on command, Riley sat at her feet so she could pet his head. On an official therapy visit I would pick him up and hold him at my waist level so the lady wouldn’t fall out of her chair trying to reach him. But this wasn’t an official therapy visit. Besides, my back was sore from a lot of lifting, and fortunately the couch was low enough that the woman could easily reach his head without danger of falling.
As the lady stroked Riley, she asked his name several times, all the while smiling broadly. I bent down closer to her ear and said his name, but she didn’t understand. I was straightening up when she looked up at me and once again asked his name. As I once again said “Riley,” she opened her mouth to repeat the word, when all of a sudden it happened….
I saw her teeth starting to slip, and I thought, “Oh God!”
Riley eyes followed the action as her full upper denture fell out of her mouth, bounced off her bony leg and dropped to the carpet, right in front of Riley.
Thanks to the ongoing relationship with our house cats, I’m always calling out the phrases, “drop it” and “leave it”. So here we are, one 12-inch-tall dog sitting mere inches away from what was likely one of the most flavorful, tasty, stinky object to have ever fallen at his feet, and one stunned handler suppressing gut-splitting laughter while trying to compose herself long enough to squeal, “LEAVE IT”. To add madness to mayhem, a pair of nurses conducting business just a few feet behind us, laughed hysterically which made it all the more difficult to compose myself.
Thankfully Riley responded in time to avoid returning the dentures personally, although I’m almost certain his little black nose did brush against the odorous new object.
When the teeth fell out, the lady just kept talking to Riley. It was a good three or four minutes before she realized something was amiss. She continued to talk as she searched the floor for her denture. Riley knew exactly where the teeth were, and so wanted to pick them up for her. How does one gracefully point out the obvious elephant in the room? This is not covered in the national therapy team handbook!
I smiled and I pointed her in the right direction. I suspect this was not the first time she encountered this problem because she didn’t miss a beat as she continued to pet Riley with one hand while retrieving her teeth and popping them back in her mouth with the other.
When she put them back in her mouth, I could see Riley thinking, “Oh I wanted those.”
Even though my mom passed away two months ago, Riley and I will continue to visit Mom’s nursing home.
That homeless little dog at the shelter was truly a diamond in the rough, bringing joy to people who are sick or lonely. Who would have thought he would be such a good companion and therapy dog? I hope this little tale encourages people to adopt pets from rescues and shelters.
Riley is a registered therapy dog through Therapy Dogs Inc., a national organization with more than 12,000 handler/dog teams. Riley and Margie work with the local organization, Heart of Texas Therapy Dogs, making therapy visits to assisted living/nursing homes. Like so many therapy dogs, Riley was a rescue. He’d been hit by a car and was scheduled for euthanasia at a Collin County, Texas shelter when a rescue group took him in. As soon as Margie saw the picture of the pathetic matted little dog, she had to have him. Still a therapy dog rookie, 10-pound Riley, passed his test in November and was certified in January. He loves his job.