One Dog's Amazing Gift for the Dying

Just found a great story on Izzy, a gifted dog with a unique ability to earn the trust of those at the weakest point in their lives.

In the three months since we started doing hospice work, Izzy has learned to spot and to head for wheelchairs and hospital beds. His gifts as a volunteer are multiple: gentleness, appropriateness, patience. He never pesters anybody or goes where he's not wanted. He can remain still for many minutes. When he's not wanted, he finds a corner to curl up and vanishes.

He approaches people in pain, people in comas, with dementia and paralysis, disfigured and frightened, always softly, carefully, and lovingly. He threads his way around IVs and oxygen tanks. I've never had a dog that could do this kind of work, nor could I begin to imagine how to train a dog to do it.

The author relates an amazing incident with an "untouchable" patient who was only able to be reached out to by Izzy, and Izzy had to work for it. Read the whole thing.