Therapy Dogs: A Teckel Named Tinker

Pet partner Becky Cade and Tinker visit Ashley Castro on Monday, June 13, 2011, at the Edinburg Children's Hospital in Edinburg, Texas.

We mostly sit around the house all day and wait for Dad to come home from work.  Not smooth black and tan 'Tinker' though.  This is a Dachshund who makes things happen.  Excerpt from The Monitor:

Little 5-year-old Ashley Castro wanted to leave the hospital where she had been since Saturday, but as soon as she saw Tinker — a miniature Dachshund — she got off her hospital bed and knelt to pet the dog.

“She was crying because she misses her dog,” said Amparo Castro, Ashley’s mom. “She wanted to leave.”

“This (visit) motivates her,” the mother said.

Tinker belongs to Becky Cade, a pet partner with Wonderful Animals Giving Support. WAGS is a local chapter of the Washington state-based Delta Society, a nonprofit that brings the emotional power of pets to bear on hospital-weary patients.

Ashley petted Tinker with the hand that wasn’t connected to an IV, and the dog was placed on her bed.
“To give love, that’s what they do,” Cade said.

Way to go Tinker!  Read more about Tinker and therapy dogs, and see five photos at The Monitor.