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Ad Rates & Info: 513-520-6077
Please support our partners -- Say you saw it in the Pet Pages
Are you and your pet "dog-gone"
determined to make a difference
in this world?
Calling all Pets with a Purpose...
Paw Pals
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care
®
of Greater Cincinnati
invites you and your pet to join our VITAS Paw Pals
®
program to visit our hospice patients at a nursing
home, hospital or assisted living community near you.
You bring joy to a hospice patient's life--just by being
a friend.
Even one hour a week can make a difference!
Human companion training provided.
Serving patients in Butler, Hamilton, Warren
and Clermont Counties
For volunteer opportunities, contact Jill Grissom
at 513.742.7429 · jill.grissom@vitas.com
They come in wearing the bandana and photo
ID badge that proclaim them a volunteer for
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care®. They offer
comfort and a welcome distraction from pain
and illness. They leave their patients smiling,
more relaxed--and perhaps with a bit of stray
fur on them.They are the VITAS Paw Pals®, a
team of loving dogs--and their owners--who are
specially trained to visit VITAS patients and offer
the kind of friendship only four-legged friends
can provide.
Betty Agee, of Hamilton, has been a Paw Pals
volunteer for nearly 15 years. First with Tyler, a
black Lab, and now with Cody T, a yellow Lab,
Betty visits VITAS patients in nursing homes and
at the VITAS inpatient hospice unit at the Drake
Center in Cincinnati."It means a lot to them to
see Cody T," she says. "Sometimes he makes
them cry as they remember pets they loved, but
mostly he makes them laugh."I think we Paw Pals
volunteers, especially the dogs, alleviate loneli-
ness," she continues. "It's that unconditional love.
There's nothing like it."
"People become more active and responsive
during and after an animal visit," says Jill Gris-
som, VITAS volunteer manager. "Stroking a dog
or cat actually reduces a person's blood pressure
and makes it easier for him or her to talk."
"The patients always talk to me about their dog,
no matter how long ago it was that they had a dog,"
Agee says. "Some patients barely speak anymore,
but when they see the dog, they light up."VITAS
Paw Pals are well behaved and healthy, says
Grissom. Once their owners complete the VI-
TAS Volunteer Training Program, VITAS Paw
Pals can visit patients in nursing homes, assisted
livingcommunities and inpatient hospice units.
For information on PawPals®, contact VITAS
Innovative Hospice Care® at 513.742.7429.
Four-Legged Volunteers Bring Furry Friendship to VITAS Patients