November brought extra-special woofs, wags and wiggles as the Child Life team celebrated the birthdays of several beloved animal-assisted therapy dogs from our Pawsitive Play Program.
Our furry four-legged heroes offer comfort, companionship and a calming paw to hold for patients and families navigating difficult moments every day. This month, we’re taking a moment to paws and reflect on how each fur-midable pup celebrated another trot around the sun.
Even though Pluto’s birthday was in October, we couldn’t fur-get to include him, because all our hardworking pups with recent birthdays deserve to be paw-lighted.
Name: Cohen
Handler: CJ Canlas
Work Location: The Woodlands
Birthdate: November 11, 2017
Our King of the Woods, Cohen, hosted a Tail G-8 Paw-ty for his eighth birthday at his favorite spot: the rehab gym. He looked fetching in a Houston Texans jersey while he played with his therapy fur-iends. His buddies honored him not just for his birthday but for his re-bark-able role in supporting hundreds of therapy sessions, cheering on patients, celebrating milestones and watching goals become a reality.
Name: Crosby
Handler: Shelby Strauser
Work Location: Medical Center and West Campus (Acute Care Units)
Birthdate: November 7, 2021
Our rawr-some pup Crosby had a dino-themed paw-ty for his fourth birthday. Turning dino-four was a roaring good time for Crosby, who spent time with his furry buddies and human pals. Those who attended his T-rexcellent paw-ty dug for dino bones, played games, colored pictures or made face masks.
Name: Pinto
Handler: Shelby Bonnet
Work Location: Medical Center and West Campus (Acute Care Units and Inpatient Rehab Unit)
Birthdate: November 5, 2015
On his milestone 10th birthday, Pinto proudly became the first furry team member at our hospital to keep working while in the double digits. It’s clear this dog-tor still has plenty of wag in his workflow. Our fur-ever young Beanie Boy spent the day offering tail wags, paw-fect snuggles and canine courage to patients at every station in our rehab gym. His signature smile did most of the heavy lifting, proving that sometimes the best therapy in the gym comes on four paws.
Name: Pluto
Handler: Hanna Kuhn
Work Location: Medical Center
Birthdate: October 1, 2017
For his eighth birthday, our floofy bark-box Pluto paw-tied through a dialysis outpatient celebration with tail-wagging joy. Our golden boy made his rounds to all his fur-iends to spread paw-sitive vibes. Even though he’s a big boy, he still sniffed out the most bark-tastic spots to curl up and comfort anyone in need.
Join us in wishing our fur-bulous facility dogs a Yappy Birthday and giving them — and our other furry heroes — a round of a-paws for all the joy and support they bring to our hospital every day!
