Rusty the Furry Therapist

This is Jake by the way. We are out of the PICU and onto the Children's Surgical Unit. These are the best rooms in the hospital, but I digress. We got down to the floor and we heard a sound that we had never heard in a hospital before, dogs barking. Our new nurse asked us if we would like to meet the new dog. Nathan was really fussy as he doesn't like driving around in his bed, so we thought seeing a dog might cheer him up. Sure enough, we were right. A couple minutes later we met Rusty. Rusty is a golden retriever who is part of Intermountain Therapy Animals. Donna Olsen brought Rusty in and he laid down next to Nathan. At first Nathan was a little unsure about the dog and was still crying, but Donna had Rusty speak. Rusty barked and Nathan got the biggest grin on his face. He would giggle every time that Rusty would speak and he sat and patted Rusty for a good 15 minutes.

We are so grateful to all the nurses and doctors who have helped Nathan along all this time, but it is volunteers like Rusty and Donna who make our visits special. So once again this is a shout out and a thank you to Donna and Rusty for making Nathan's stay a little more comfortable. We also want to thank the volunteers from the Forever Young Zone who find toys for Nathan to play with. They are so good at picking out toys that he loves.

While we hope that Nathan doesn't remember any of this, Steph and I will always remember the special people who helped us and Nathan through these times.