We had a busy time visiting our assisted living friends. Our nonverbal friend was in the lobby alone, so I was able to spend some quality time with her before heading to the activity room.
On the way there, we ran into one of the regulars, a woman who always wears a big black hat. She used to be very aware, but now she doesn’t recognize me. My human had to tell her all about me again. Fortunately, she doesn’t mind doing that.
Residents filled the activity room! The staff kept me busy posing for photos with all of them. I saw a lot of my regular friends, like the lady who enjoys my high fives and her red-haired friend. Plus the woman who always follows me around. And yes, she did follow me around for most of this visit.
I also visited with the man who loves me but never remembers anything about me. Next to him was a woman I’ve never met before. She was really thrilled to see me, and asked my human lots of questions about me.
Another new-to-me resident was a man with tubes in his nose. My human is always careful about letting me visit people like that because it means they have compromised breathing, but the staff said it was okay. And that was a good thing because he was so delighted to spend time with me!
Not everybody is fun, though. There’s one woman who loves seeing me, but she is a little rough and she always wants to hug me. She wouldn’t actually hurt me, but it’s kind of uncomfortable, especially because I don’t like being held that much. So my human limits the time I spend with her to a minute or so.
It’s also a little difficult visiting the people in wheelchairs. A lot of the time, they don’t really have a lap to set me in, so my human either has to hold me for them to pet, or leave me in my sling carrier for them, when I’d rather be walking on my leash. But the ones who are awake are often happy to see me, so it’s worth it.
By the end of our visit, the nonverbal woman had come into the activity room and was sitting by herself on a sofa. So we finished up by visiting her again. The staff didn’t know we’d already seen her, and we liked being able to cheat a little and get in an extra visit.
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