By Tawnya Panizzi – The Herald Staff writer – O’HARA: Admiral Karger strolled slowly through the courtyard at the Veterans Administration hospital, listening intently to stories told by ailing patients.
A wheelchair-bound Navy veteran, Frank DeMarco, chatted at his side about baseball, the insufferable humidity and women.
“You seen any good-looking broads lately?” DeMarco asked Admiral, who intermittently cooled off with a dip in the wading fountain.
Admiral, part of the hospital’s therapeutic services department, answered only by nuzzling DeMarco’s hand.
“He’d jump into your lap if you let him,” said Bethany Karger of Admiral, her bear-sized Newfoundland dog whose job is to spur patient interaction. (more…)
Author, dog owner and trainer Jon Katz says that the relationship between dogs and their owners has gone way beyond master and pet; that increasingly we’re treating them as family members and human surrogates.
Pittsburgh Dog News 