Well now, it wasn't just my first PAT visit, it was de first of any of The Beastly Beasts. Normally it would be Kai dat'd do de first of anything, but he had a cyst removed from one his feet dis week and his paw is all bandaged up, so it fell to me.

So yesterday evening me and dad went and met Pat (who runs PAT in Northampton) and one of her dogs - Lucy - at St. Andrews Hospital to do a visit. Dis was a trial visit to see if we loiked it 'coz St. Andrews is a bit of a special place; you see it's where people go dat have de mental health problems and dat can be anyting; dere are people dat have Huntingtons disease, dat have been hurt in de head in an accident, right de way to some people dat have done some not very noice tings 'coz dey are ill. So to keep dem safe dey live in a "locked environment" and not everyone or everyhound loikes to visit in dat kind of environment. But according to Pat St. Andrews have asked for more PAT dogs 'coz de people loike dem and it makes dem better for a bit, and Pat needed more volunteers. So we was dere to see if we loiked it or not.

Now, before Oi tell you what happened Oi need to say dat when we say anything about our PAT visits de names we use for de people we visit are not de real names - Oi'm sure you'll understand why.

So yesterday we went to two wards both of which Lucy and Pat visit. De first one was a ladies ward. We had to ask to be let in den even when were insoide every door we went truogh had to unlocked den locked behoind us. We went into a room were dere was some ladies and den straight out into de garden were any of de ladies could come and see us if dey wanted. As soon as word got round a few ladies came out to see Lucy and mostly dey made a fuss of her. Oi say mostly 'coz one girl - Oi'll call her Angela made a fuss of me. De others did too, but it turned out dat Angela was scared of dogs and never come out to see Lucy. Her mates had persuaded her and when she saw me she decoided Oi was de one she'd stroke first; and dat was noice. All de girls were really noice and we spent about tree quarters of an hour with dem. Den it was toime to go to the other ward.

Dis ward was for de lads. Loike de ladies one we had go through one door at a toime. When we go to the lads dey was all doin' what I call de biggin' up - loike dey were de man, or one of dem was playin' a game on the telly. But after a bit dey all stopped and made a fuss of Lucy and me - you could tell dey really enjoyed Lucy being dere and Lucy had a bit of a laugh with dem. And loike on de ladies, one lad who had never touched Lucy decoided to give me a stroke. I guess we were dere about half an hour or so. Lokie de ladies dey were really nice and hopefully dey will get better and be able to leave de hospital soon.

So, dis was a test visit. It maybe wasn't what we tought we'd be doin as PAT dogs, but did I enjoy it? Yes. Two people dat were scared of dogs stroked me, and dat has to be a good thing. Was bein' in a locked environment a problem? Oi'm a greyhound - dat's what my life used to be, so no, not a problem. Will the others be OK? I reckon so.

Next dad has to register as a volunteer at St. Andrews and get CRB checked (again) and do some training so dat him and us will safe when we visit on our own. All dat waill take a whoile so we probably won't be doin' any visits again soon. But Oi'm lookin' forward to my next one.

Labels: PAT