Providing companionship is one of the many duties with which therapy animals are charged, and in Dublin, retirement communities are some of their favorite places to visit.
Dublin Retirement Village
Photo courtesy of Dublin Retirement Village
Murphy with residents at Dublin Retirement Village
At Dublin Retirement Village, the Assisted Living Memory Support division employs a golden retriever named Murphy, who lives with the residents full-time and offers a welcome greeting for all who enter.
Not only does the dog provide compassion and companionship, he also offers an opportunity for the residents to care for someone.
“Residents help out and take him for walks,” says Natalia Burke, administrator at the community.
Murphy has resided at the community since last year, and he seems to be the perfect fit.
“When someone sees Murphy, he kind of just lights up a room,” Burke says. “He’s one of the more special dogs that I’ve ever seen.”
Murphy spends much of the day going around the center to greet residents, associates and guests. He often hangs out around Burke’s office, so she gets to see how he interacts with the residents and brightens their days.
“It’s a really mutually beneficial relationship between the residents and him,” she says.
Murphy also helps give residents a sense of purpose. When residents interact with the dog, they have a chance to offer love and compassion.
“Aside from helping with cognitive things, it’s really just an emotional support that you can see that he provides them,” Burke says.
Senior Star, the company that owns Dublin Retirement Village, has therapy dogs at all of its retirement communities. Murphy was selected to be a therapy dog based on his temperament when he was a puppy, and after he went through the necessary training he became a staple in the community.
Burke says that, from an early age, Murphy displayed the perfect personality to interact with seniors, and that remains true today.
Sunrise of Dublin
While Murphy is a great fit for Dublin Retirement Village, Sunrise of Dublin makes itself comfortable with a larger fleet of therapy animals.
These include 13-year-old golden retriever Molly, 11-year-old Australian shepherd mix Ceecee and a black cat named Gidget. These three animals live at the retirement community, and miniature horse Butterball visits the residents once a month.
“Not only can we provide love for them, they can provide love for each and every one of our residents every day,” Gaskins says.
Sunrise adopted the dogs about four months ago, and it’s been a win-win situation for the animals and the residents, says Activities and Volunteer Coordinator Dionna Gaskins.
“Not only can we provide love for them, they can provide love for each and every one of our residents every day,” Gaskins says.
Photo courtesy of Sunrise of Dublin
Ceecee and Molly
Because the dogs are older, they have the perfect temperament to interact with seniors. It is not common for people to adopt older dogs from shelters, so Molly and Ceecee were provided with an opportunity to have a happy and comforting home in their old age.
Some of the residents at Sunrise have their own dogs, such as one named Ms. Priss.
Miss. Priss
“Their dogs can become our family as well, for those who don’t have them,” Gaskins says.
The residents at Sunrise love to take care of Molly and Ceecee, and Gaskins says many of them are guilty of overfeeding the dogs because they love them so much.
“We have almost 80 residents here in the building,” she says. “We have to make sure that we don’t overfeed and over-treat.”
Butterball, the trained therapy miniature horse, provides residents with a chance to interact with a different type of therapy animal, and they look forward to her monthly visits. When she visits, the residents usually sit in a circle, and Butterball will go around to take a few moments with each of them.
“She’s just trained to know exactly what they need at that moment,” Gaskins says.
Multiple Facilities
Not all therapy animals in Dublin are for the benefit of a singular location.
One well-known traveling animal is Dublin resident Rosie. Rosie is a comfort dog for Atonement Lutheran Church, which purchased her from Lutheran Church Charities K9 Comfort Dog Ministries, a national program based in Chicago.
Mary Ludlum is known as Rosie’s Head Dog, or the administrator for her schedule. She says that in the three years Atonement has had Rosie, she has been on more than 1,000 visits. These visits are most often to retirement communities in the area.
Rosie visits Abbington Assisted Living twice a month, and she can only make it to the other retirement communities about once every other month because there are so many.
“Pets offer such a wonderful interaction,” Baker says. “You don’t have to be able to speak.”
An important part of Rosie’s visits, given that she is from a Lutheran church, is prayer. This is something that many seniors look forward to, including one who she recently visited, Ludlum says.
“She loves seeing Rosie, but boy, are those prayers important,” she says.
Rosie is popular among residents at Friendship Village of Dublin, where she visits about once every other month. Beth Baker, resident services director at the community, says she brings plenty of comfort to residents along with their other regular visiting pets Lucy and Olive.
Lucy visits with her owner every Friday, while Olive makes it to Friendship Village on the weekends, usually about once a month.
Baker says the pets are great for residents because they offer an opportunity to be close with someone, especially in a world that is not very tactile.
“Pets offer such a wonderful interaction,” Baker says. “You don’t have to be able to speak.”
Therapy animals have been welcomed to Friendship Village for at least 20 years, and Baker says she would be happy to expand the program in the future.
Emily Hetterscheidt is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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