Wally is a medium-size dog with a woolly brown coat and a pair of the warmest, sweetest eyes imaginable. He wears a colored scarf around his neck, identifying him as a “Good Dog” who has been trained and licensed by the Good Dog Foundation to interact with the sick. His handler Irene has also taken the eleven weeks of training that assures each Good Dog has a special way of engaging with strangers in an unfamiliar environment.
Wally is amazing. I watch with fascination as he trots to the bedside of a frail and barely conscious hospice patient named Anne. She reaches out her open hand, and Wally lifts up his front paw, puts it into her hand, and moves his head to be stroked.
All over the country there are more than one thousand Good Dogs doing good work for the lonely and the sick. The sight of Wally as he wags his tail and enters another room immediately reminds me of the hymn: “All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful: The Lord God made them all.”
God definitely had a hand in creating Wally, the Good Dog.
Let us give thanks and praise, God, for all our animal friends and the solace they bring.
Written by Brigitte Weeks
Digging Deeper: Ps 145:9, 150:6
