Coffee and waffles chapter II

“Waffle’s heart stopped” That’s an exact quote from my 3 year old granddaughter, Clara, when she was telling her uncle David that Waffle was unresponsive when they come home from church Sunday morning.

So who is Waffle? To answer that question here’s an excerpt from an All About Senior’s column last fall:

A few years ago, my second oldest son and business partner, William, agreed to temporarily dog sit a Golden Retriever for a friend of his who was being transferred overseas. After a year or so, the friend’s circumstances changed and the temporary became permanent, and the retriever, named “Waffles”, became a permanent member of William’s family.

Backup a few years even before Waffles was dropped off and we hired Eva, a care giver to seniors who herself was a senior. After eight years of faithfully serving seniors all over middle Georgia as a Visiting Angel care giver herself, Eva decided it was time for her to work on her retirement plan. So she went to her boss, my son, William and told him what she’d like to do: “I want to train a dog that I can take to my seniors and bring them comfort”; that was her retirement plan! William said “I think I have just the right dog for you: Waffles”.

That was the beginning of Waffles’ formal training as a therapy dog. Even tempered and gentle by nature, Waffles really only needed to be certified to take her sweetness out to the public. And that’s exactly what Eva did. On her own time, after work, Eva would go to William’s house, pick up Waffles in her car and take her to her training classes. I don’t know who enjoyed this more, Eva or Waffles; whoever it was, it worked and Waffles was pronounced ready for duty a couple months ago.

So what exactly is Waffles’ duty? She, along with Amber, our Community Relations Manager and Eva go to visit seniors in assisted living facilities and Nursing homes where senior residents aren’t allowed to have pets for obvious reasons.

But when she visits her seniors, Waffles never goes “Empty Pawed”; she almost always dresses in her petite party hat and takes coffee and cupcakes or some other sweet treat to make her seniors feel loved while they enjoy petting her.

So how are these canine capers being received? Waffle already has bookings a couple months into the fall.

Now, back to the present. A few months ago Waffle got pretty sick and we didn’t know if she’d ever recover to being her old self. But after several visits with the vet and some intense TLC, Waffle recovered quite nicely and has been back making her rounds at all manner of senior facilities for the last several months. But Sunday it was her turn to say her final “Goodbye”. She will be sorely missed by her many senior friends all over middle Georgia.

So now the big question is, “Can and should there be a successor to the one and only Waffle”? Stay tuned for chapter 3 of Coffee and Waffles.

Thanks for reading All About Seniors,…..see you next week.

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA/