Video of therapy dog caring for hospice patient goes viral

(Facebook)

A video of a 4-year-old golden retriever therapy dog caring for a hospice patient in Oregon has gone viral, King 5 News reported.

JJ, who has been a certified therapy dog since she was 1 year old, is the primary therapy dog at  Samaritan Evergreen Hospice House in Albany, Oregon.

In the video, she is shown with her head on a hospital bed as a patient’s hand touches her face. An unseen man is heard reading the poem, “What then?” by W.B. Yeats, according to JJ’s Facebook page. People have shared the video over 200,000 times.

“This is a lady who has very few people to visit her. She cannot see and often does not wake up, but she did like having her hand on my fur,” JJ “wrote” in her Facebook post. “We fell asleep later with her hand splayed on my head, but of us snoring (but not proof of that!).”

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According to JJ’s Facebook page, a bed visit can vary but typically involves keeping a patient company, helping them be calm, or distracting a person to decrease agitation while medications take effect. The video was originally posted in February 2014. For the past three years, she has worked 12-hour shifts with her “boss lady,” registered nurse Tracy Calhoun.

"What we do is absolutely touching, but the depth of the response to the video is amazing, as well as heart-warming," Calhoun told King 5 News.

JJ is a certified therapy dog through Project Canine and works with Hope Animal-Assisted Crisis Response, providing comfort and encouragement to those affected by crises and disaster.

“Wow! We're a bit overwhelmed at the response of our reposted video, but happy to be able to share,” JJ “wrote” on her Facebook wall. “Apologies to those who got teary watching the video, it comes with the territory here sometimes.”

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