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Post by Baglady on Jan 10, 2012 0:44:24 GMT
Friends Friendly Dogs have been invited to visit a residential care home, Forge Care Centre, on Cowbridge Road, Cardiff. We are taking some of our own dogs to meet the residents at 2.30pm. We will be posting up pics and chat about our visit, and if you would like to become part of our team, visiting day care and residential centres throughout Cardiff, please keep an eye on this thread. If you like what you see, you would be very welcome to join us at future visits ;D Once we have met the staff and residents of this care home we will be making weekend visits too, so don't feel you can't be a part of it just if you work weekdays  We are also looking for someone to take on a co-ordinating role for our Friendly Dogs initiative. If you would like to discuss this, please pm me (admin). It's very rewarding and enjoyable 'work' (no, it's not work, it's play) ;D Susie x |
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Post by Baglady on Jan 20, 2012 19:58:33 GMT
Well, Friends' Friendly Dogs, Abby & Basil had a great time at Forge Care on Wednesday. Many thanks to Ros, Matron, and all the staff who made us very welcome! Abs & Babs wasted no time, and got straight down to the business of the day, saying 'hello' to visitors....  .... and staff  .... and the lovely residents        Forge Care is a lovely residential care home with three floors, each having a lounge and with 80 residential rooms in total. It's big! Bern and I met with Ros & matron, and visited the lounges on floors 1 and 2 (floor 3 is opening very soon). Then we knocked on a few doors to say 'hi' to residents in their own rooms. We were there fore just over an hour, but time flew! The staff know their residents really well, and were able to tell us who would appreciate a visit from the Friendly Dogs. It was a lovely afternoon, and we would very much like to continue this relationship with regular visits. At the moment, we have said we will visit once a month, but ideally if we can get enough Friendly Dogs on board, we would like to do a weekly visit, and Ros has said that these could be on weekends by arrangement. This is a very heartwarming thing to do, faces lit up with smiles wherever we went. A number of the residents are partially sighted or blind, and they loved the feel of dog fur and the kiss of wet tongues on their hands. Some of the residents had pictures of their own pets in their rooms. I left feeling very fuzzy-warm and very very proud of Abs & Babs, who seemed instinctively to know what was required of them - and gave it up in bucketfuls ;D If you have a dog you feel would be suitable for these visits and would like to be a part of it, either post here or pm me. Ideally dogs should be calm but friendly, licky and waggy are good characterists too! I'm sure Bern will be along to recommend, we really did have a very enjoyable afternoon ;D |
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Post by ashleighpower on Jan 20, 2012 20:03:11 GMT
I'd love to come along one time!
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Post by Baglady on Jan 20, 2012 21:06:08 GMT
I'd love to come along one time! How are you fixed for weekdays Ashleigh? Our next visit (hopefully with some new Friendly Dogs on board) will be a weekday, and then once everyone knows what to expect we can do weekend ones. If anyone would like to take on the organising and liaising for our 'Friendly Dogs', please pm me. If we can get a nice team together, perhaps we could roll this out to other homes? |
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Post by ashleighpower on Jan 20, 2012 21:16:33 GMT
Unfortunately i dont have many week days off at all.
My weeks rotate, im off thursday next week, then the following im off monday and the weekend....and so on.
If you happen to have any on those days, let me know! I'd love to do it.
x
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Post by angelad on Jan 20, 2012 22:04:43 GMT
What fantastic photos - I can never understand why Care Homes don't have a resident dog or 2 given the beneficial results that research has shown.
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Post by caz on Jan 20, 2012 22:18:22 GMT
What a lovely idea and I'm sure Sadie and I could come along some time.
Caz
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Post by Baglady on Jan 20, 2012 22:33:45 GMT
Honestly, dogs should be on prescription  We met more residents than I took pics of, and they loved meeting the dogs. The lovely gent lying down in the bed is blind, but he had a good ol' feel of Bas's face and ears, and then Bas got on the bed (oo er) and was rubbing against his bare legs, and that's when we got guffaws of laughter and smiles ;D Caz - can you do a weekday? Ashleigh, we should be able to do weekend visits from March onwards. I'm going to arrange one more weekday one in Feb, then it will be Sats & Suns ;D |
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susie78
Good Friend
Member of FCDH
my gorgeous Angel Tara - gone from our sight but never from our hearts
Posts: 106
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Post by susie78 on Jan 20, 2012 22:51:49 GMT
when the weekend visits start maybe i could bring Rosie, she is very licky and very, very waggy but I am wondering if she may be too excited, she just loves everybody would have to have a good think about it xx
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Post by pennyb on Jan 20, 2012 23:00:43 GMT
What fantastic photos - I can never understand why Care Homes don't have a resident dog or 2 given the beneficial results that research has shown. Some do - guess it depends on the management |
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Post by Baglady on Jan 20, 2012 23:45:52 GMT
when the weekend visits start maybe i could bring Rosie, she is very licky and very, very waggy but I am wondering if she may be too excited, she just loves everybody would have to have a good think about it xx Oooh Rosie the lickle yorkie? I think she'd be perfect  She looks like such a sweetie pie  We'd love to have her along  |
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