People sometimes ask me what it is that therapy dogs do for people, and as usual, I don’t often give the answers people want to hear. My dogs do not spot cancer, heal the dying, transform life for the sad, lonely and depressed. They are  not mystics or magicians or psychiatrists or psychics.

They can not erase the fears and hurts of people, or keep them from their worries and trials.

The gift of the dogs, almost unique in the animal world, is that they mirror and replicate our emotions, their faces and responses are recognizable to us, even if we often misunderstand them.

Gus and Red are not at the Mansion to alter reality, just to lift up the spirits of people, pull the joy and love to the surface, and give them the experience of loving and being loved by other living things.

The residents tell me the most painful thing about their lives is that they rarely see living things other than one another, and the love of dogs brings back that experience for them.

Make no mistake about it, their lives are often difficult. They are often in pain and confusion. The future for them is always uncertain, and they have left behind all of the things the know and love.

The dog’s job, and my job, is to comfort them and lift their spirits. This is what Red does, this is what Gus has begun to do. He h ad a great day at the Mansion yesterday, he is staking out his own turf as an animal that can lift people up without hurting or disturbing them.

That is all that can be asked of him.