Meeko Helps a New Friend

Today Meeko and I were doing our regular visit with a small class at a school.  Our visit went really well and the students had a great time working and visiting with Meeko.  That was awesome enough.  Meeko is truly turning into a fantastic little therapy dog.  He may only weigh 6lbs, but he really has a big heart for kids and just seems to know who needs a little extra therapy at times.

We had finished our classroom visit, exited the room and were making our way down the hall to leave when we came upon a student and a staff member sitting in the hall.  Meeko immediately went to this student, I asked the staff member if it was okay, noting that it appeared the student had been crying.  He nodded and the student asked if he could hold Meeko.  I said certainly, and placed Meeko in his lap.  Meeko looked up and began licking this child’s tears.  The child began smiling and talking to Meeko.  He had Meeko do a few a tricks, sat on the floor and played with him for a couple of minutes, got up turned to me, smiled and ran off into the classroom.

I looked at the staff member sitting on the chair who had been with this student, obviously consoling this child.  He looked at me in wonder and said, “That was the most amazing thing I ever saw.”  He proceeded to tell me that there was speaker in the class talking about smoking and the effects of it.  This student’s mother had just been diagnosed with lung cancer from smoking.  He had become upset when they began talking about it in class.  The staff member said he had been trying to console him for about 20 minutes but was unable to.  He said he had never seen anything like that happen before.  I smiled and said that is the magic of pet therapy.  We peeked in on the child in the classroom before we left, he looked back with the biggest smile ever, gave us two thumbs up.  I returned the thumbs up, smiled and winked, then as we turned and made our way down the hall, I thought, “Isn’t it amazing how our dog’s just know what to do?”  I am so proud of Meeko.  He will forever be the Chihuahua that touched the lives of so many children.  The little dog with a big heart!