By Kate Reynolds
When a stray dog loves older adults and a waiting room sofa, you can’t keep it away. The Detroit Free Press wrote a story of how Scout adopted an entire nursing home and how a stray dog found a loving relationship with the residents and nurses.
Scout was a stray mutt dog kept in an animal shelter in Michigan. He got tired of waiting – waiting for a family – waiting for someone to love him. So, Scout broke out of the ‘joint’ to find someone to adopt. He managed to escape the shelter and its fences three times, all in pursuit of a place he could call home.
In mid-July, the Meadow Book Medical Care Facility in Bellaire, Michigan, called the Antrim County Animal Control. The facility had found one of their shelter dogs, Scout, sleeping on a sofa in their waiting room.
Scout had escaped the night before from the shelter just down the road. Somehow, the dog managed to scale a 10-foot chain link fence and another 6-foot privacy fence, cross a busy highway, find the nursing home, go through the front door unchallenged, and curl up on the couch for a nap.
No one knew how he accomplished his journey, though everyone tried to figure it out. So, Animal Control took Scout back to the shelter. Undeterred, Scout escaped for another nap on the nursing home’s waiting room sofa a few nights later. The nursing home’s staff again called Animal Control, and, once again, Scout was headed back to the shelter.
Within a few nights, Scout again was found sleeping on the couch. That’s when the nursing home’s staff knew they had to decide what to do about Scout.
“I’m a person who looks at outward signs, and if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” Marna Robertson, the nursing home’s administrator, told the Free Press. “He did that one time, two times, three times, and obviously that’s something that you should pay attention to. And I asked the staff, ‘Well, he wants to be here. Would anybody like to have a dog?’”
After a discussion, the nursing home officially adopted Scout. They made him feel welcome by helping him make friends with the older residents.
Scout was a priceless comfort to residents with dementia, older people without any family support, and those near the end of their lives. He quickly made friends with everyone.
“To each and every one of them, it’s their dog,” said Jenni Martinek the nursing home’s household coordinator.
Scout turned out to be an invaluable addition to the nursing home. He patrols the halls as part professional greeter and part security guard. Scout regularly visits residents who are in the process of passing away. He also drops in on those who still have the energy to play with him. And Scout has a nose for the rooms of those who keep dog treats in their walkers.
Scout is not a big dog. He’s not even threatening. But let a visitor ring the doorbell – he barks and jumps up on the wall to let them know he’s on the job if they misbehave.
The way he quickly adapted to his new home and duties and the way he escaped just to be there makes the staff and residents believe that he was meant to live and work at the Meadow Book Medical Care Facility.
And that’s the good news of the day.