The place he belongs
Scout was a stray mutt. He had no identity, no history. The sheriff brought him into the county animal shelter, like a canine prisoner. The shelter staff gave him his new name, but otherwise they knew nothing about him, though they noticed he had the distinct demeanor of an abused dog. Somebody apparently once shot him too, with BBs or birdshot, because his jowl still had some kind of round pellets embedded in it. You couldn’t see them, but you could feel them if he let you touch him. But like all the ambitious human prisoners lately that have been escaping, Scout had, had enough. Scout climbed over one tall fence and then another, crossed a busy highway in the darkness, entered the automatic doors of a nursing home down the road, walked unnoticed into the lobby, hopped onto a couch, curled into a ball and quietly went to sleep for the night. An astonished nurse there found him the next morning. She called Antrim County Animal Control, whose shelter happens to be just down the road. They discovered that he’d escaped from there the night before.
The home called the sheriff came and he took Scout back to the shelter. But a few nights later, there was Scout, back on that same couch in the nursing home lobby. Somehow, he again scaled a 10-foot chain-link fence, then a 6-foot solid privacy fence, crossed a highway without getting run over, entered the front door unnoticed, jumped onto the same couch as before and made himself at home for the night. A call was placed again. The sheriff brought Scout back to the shelter again. Just a couple of nights after that, Scout was back on the couch for the third time. And the staff had a decision to make. Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility is a long-term medical care residence some of whom have terminal illnesses, or dementia, or simply nowhere else to go or nobody to look after them. There are 82 beds split between several smaller households. For some reason, this is the place Scout the dog decided to make his home. “I’m a person who looks at outward signs, and if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” said Marna Robertson, 57, the nursing home’s administrator. “He did that one time, two times, three times, and obviously that’s something that you should pay attention to. And I asked the staff, “Well, he wants to be here. Would anybody like to have a dog?” The staff formally adopted him. Suddenly, the nursing home had its own pet. And the residents were delighted.
“I think it reminds them of being home. When you’re home you have your pets, and you don’t get to have that here. Having a dog around makes it feel like home.” He wanders the halls at will, lies down wherever he wishes and visits residents whenever the mood strikes him. He learned how to get into their rooms by jumping up and using his paw to pull down on door handles. And he knows which residents keep dog biscuits in their walkers to give to him.
“To each and every one of them, it’s their dog,” said Jenny Martinek, 49, the nursing home’s household coordinator, in whose office Scout has his bed and his toys. Earlier this year, the nurses held a fundraiser in Scout’s honor. They put his photo on social media and asked for donations to the animal shelter that brought him in off the street, and thus to them. Hundreds of dollars came in from strangers who heard how he got there. Someone even came by just to meet this dog they saw online. And in February, he was named Resident of the Month. “We woof you!” said the poster announcing the honor, written by the staff. “Thank you for adopting us!” (See the whole heartwarming story in the links below.)
Rescue home jokes
I rescued a dog that belonged to a blacksmith.
As soon as I brought it home, it made a bolt for the door.
My six year old daughter went on a field trip with the Brownies to a nursing home. Once she returned she shared all the details with me. She said, “I saw a woman who was 103 and a man that was 104. I even talked to a woman who was 108.” I asked her how she knew these people were so old. She gave me that impatient look and answered, “Mom, it was on their doors.”
A woman was celebrating his 100th birthday, and a local television reporter visited the nursing home to interview her. “Are you able to get out and walk much?” the reporter asked. “Well, I certainly walk better today than I did 100 years ago,” she answered with a grin.
Biden visits a nursing home. He goes over to an elderly woman and asks,
“Do you know who I am?”
She replies, “No, but if you go to the front desk, they’ll tell you.”
October 19th Birthdays
1999 – Katie Douglas, 1994 – Hunter King, 1983 – Gillian Jacobs, 1983 – Rebecca Ferguson
1963 – Evander Holyfield, 1945 – John Lithgow, 1911 – Will Rogers, 1956 – Steve Doocy