Thank you Joy for all the good times we had together.
Joy’s mother, Glory had 8 puppies in the litter. When she was half way through the delivery she stopped pushing, and I got really scared. When she started up again out into my hand popped a little white puppy girl and that was Miss Joy. I was planning to keep a different girl because I wanted one with Glory’s pretty color, but Glory’s breeder picked out Joy for me. Joy turned out to be exactly Glory’s color.
Joy became the youngest of 4 dogs in my household and quite spoiled. She loved to chase after the other three, but was always respectful of their senior position. She had the least obedience with lots of energy, but she did love to snuggle. Since Glory was a Delta Pet Partner I never thought I would use little wild Joy. After I lost Glory Joy began to shine and passed the Delta test. She was a little over exuberant about visiting, so we always practiced coming up gently. Once she was actually visiting with someone she would focus so completely on that person that she was called the Velcro Dog. She knew the command “Say hello”, and you could point to the person you wanted her to visit.
Joy is on the far left. This was Our Freestyle Christmas Gathering 2008. Thanks to Jill Stuart Joy and I learned to do a few Freestyle dance moves, and we soon found out that the Pet Therapy visits were even more fun when we did even our basic dance. Emotions run high in the Intensive Care Waiting Room, but still lots of people enjoyed her trying to entertain them and take their minds off their troubles for a short while. .
Joy and I always had such fun at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade at Research Hospital. All the Pet Partners and the Physical Therapy Floor would march around the hospital following the bagpipes and visiting with everyone. If there was time Joy would even do a little dance. One year she twirled in front of the main entrance and with every swish kept opening the automatic doors.
Joy and I liked to pass out cards to her friends and we usually had about 30 per visit at Research. This summer card was very special because it was her last. We passed them out at Golden Years right after our Fourth of July Freestyle to “It’s a Grand Old Flag” and “Washington Post’.
Thank you Joy for all the good times we had together.