The dog days of December
Dec. 16th, 2019 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrThe bears got a day off from Market last weekend.
The story behind the dogs: many years ago, Denise's grandmother was in a nursing home, slowly declining with Alzheimer's. She'd largely regressed to childhood when I met her, and was always asking after her dog. This was in the early 90's, and mental health animals were not yet a thing in Appleton, Wisconsin, so Denise and I suggested getting her a stuffed dog. Her mom wound up getting two, so Adalia could have one while the other went through the wash (she would sneak it spoonfuls of breakfast when the caregivers weren't looking).
After Adalia died, the doggies came home to Del and Mary, and, eventually, to us. They've been hanging out with the bears in the bedroom for a while now, and it occurred to me that they'd never come to Market. So Saturday, the bears got a day off, and we discovered that stuffed puppies are just as effective at distracting fussing children.
Denise couldn't remember what her Grandma's dog was named, so we decided to call them Barkley... and Wagner.
The story behind the dogs: many years ago, Denise's grandmother was in a nursing home, slowly declining with Alzheimer's. She'd largely regressed to childhood when I met her, and was always asking after her dog. This was in the early 90's, and mental health animals were not yet a thing in Appleton, Wisconsin, so Denise and I suggested getting her a stuffed dog. Her mom wound up getting two, so Adalia could have one while the other went through the wash (she would sneak it spoonfuls of breakfast when the caregivers weren't looking).
After Adalia died, the doggies came home to Del and Mary, and, eventually, to us. They've been hanging out with the bears in the bedroom for a while now, and it occurred to me that they'd never come to Market. So Saturday, the bears got a day off, and we discovered that stuffed puppies are just as effective at distracting fussing children.
Denise couldn't remember what her Grandma's dog was named, so we decided to call them Barkley... and Wagner.