Our visits to Manor Care Health and Madison Avenue Health are also going well. We are friends with staff members and residents at the facilities.
In the works is an opportunity for Stuart to be on “Pet Pals TV.” We have had a couple of delays, but host Patty Spitler has assured us that when everyone is ready, the show will go on.
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Southport High School’s Class of 1960 hosted its 57-year reunion over the weekend. It also served as a 75th birthday party for most of us. I keep trying to explain that I am only 37 – and have been for several years. But I always get invited.
I help a little bit with the planning. As a class we also attend a home football and a basketball game each year. We will attend Southport’s homecoming game Sept. 29.
I inquired about the possibility of the Southport Cardinal making a special appearance at our class reunion picnic. I was given some contact information, and things worked out perfectly. About a couple of hours after we gathered for our picnic, we looked up to see that a giant red cardinal must have landed in the field next to our picnic area.
He was friendly and came right up to everyone. We felt that with him arriving at our picnic at the approximate time that we might be starting to eat, maybe we should provide him with an acceptable meal also.
We were prepared with a bird feeder filled with some black sunflower seeds. I know from my experiences in feeding birds that cardinals love sunflower seeds. Our special visitor was no exception. As he departed our picnic area, he was carrying his new feeder in his beak.
We had a special two days. Because of other commitments, some of our former classmates could only attend one of the two days.
During the Friday evening dinner and visit, I was asked several times about Stuart and why he wasn’t with us. Therapy dogs have different responsibilities and rules than do service dogs. Therapy dogs don’t go into facilities that serve food, so Stuart was home catching up on his naps.
Saturday was a different story, it was an outside event and I figured he could visit for a while and then I could drive him home and return to the festivities. Lyn had a small conflict and wasn’t going to arrive for a few hours. So Stuart hopped into the car and attended his first high school reunion.
He made many new friends. After about 2 ½ hours I could see he was getting a bit tired. He said goodbye to everyone and I drove him home.
I think he was working on his fourth nap of the day before I could back out of the driveway.