Books by Ian Rogers
Books by Ian Rogers
My Mum clung on as long as she could in her own home but, despite the support of my brother and daily carer and then live in carers, eventually she had to be moved to a specialist home for those with dementia. We chose one a mile up the road from my house as big bro would have to sell the home he and mum had shared and move.
I used to go and see Mum about once a week - I was supporting my wife and we had daily carers too. With permission, i would drive up with Jilly, take her for a walk and then take her in to see my mum. She was a great hit with everyone, not because she did anything special, just because she looked nice, brightened peoples day, added variety. After mum loved had stroked her a bit and fed her some biscuits. i handed biscuits to the other people who also liked to stroke and feed her.
Jilly was a food-oriented dog. She wasn’t very interested in the other residents until i passed the dog biscuits round. Jilly would gently take the biscuits from an opened hand and accept some strokes. So many residents watched with interest that i limited each one to only two or three biscuits. I did check that they knew they were for the dog! After a visit or two Jilly knew the routine. Spend time with mum first, go to the next person until the biscuits ran out, move on round the residents. She was calm and well-behaved off the lead and always welcome- except when she smelled lunch and tried to barge into the dining room i think the residents would have fed her from their plates until she burst.
Her food awareness was my main worry when I took her there. On our second visit she suddenly plunged her head into a metal waste bin and came out with 3⁄4 of a custard cream. On other occasions she would flop on her tummy and crawl under someone’s chair. I go on the floor to check what was happening and usually too late to stop her eating a pill someone had dropped. I kept an anxious eye on her but there were never any ill effects. There must be a dog-loving angel from heaven sent to guard over greedy dogs who give pleasure to the elderly
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