Banner Health North Colorado Medical Center

LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs and their teams have many moments they refer to as “God Moments” when they are working in their communities. The following “God Moment” was shared by Carol Salander and Jody Lockwood, handlers for LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Cubby (Redeemer – Fort Collins, Colorado) after a recent hospital visit in Greeley, Colorado:

Our Banner Health North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, Colorado, visit this week was like no other. I liken it to a deployment because of the emotion. Our Top Dog had texted Jody and me the morning of December 3. She asked if we could visit a neighbor friend of hers that had open heart surgery the previous Saturday.  We were happy to do that as part of our regular hospital visit. Being especially vigilant about germs, we decided to visit him first. However, God had other plans as that would not be our first visit.

Once in the cardiac unit, we passed a man on a cell phone. He looked at us and immediately hung up from his call. “Can I pet your dog? There is boy here that needs a visit from a dog, his brother is dying.” We followed God’s plan instead of ours. The gentleman led us directly to the waiting room a few doors away. We turned the corner to enter the room where there were about 25 people in that small waiting room. All of them had tears in their eyes. There was no hope in that room at all. Curled up on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, crying, was a boy (about 10-12 years old). He sat up immediately and put his arms around Cubby Comfort Dog as she went in for her signature hug. The next 1/2 hour we would spend in that room ministering to the family and friends of the dying boy. 

Cubby was awesome … doing her commands of “laps, rises, and hugs.” When lunch arrived, we stepped down the hall to visit the cardiac patient, who we originally intended to visit first that day, his wife, and his son. We had a very nice visit. He spoke of the dogs his family had and growing up on a farm, while petting Cubby Comfort Dog the entire time.

After that visit, we headed back to the waiting room where we were intercepted by a nurse who said, “We just called the volunteer coordinator to see where Cubby was. The young boy she just visited would like to spend more time with Cubby.” We spent another 20 minutes in the waiting room. There was a definite change in the room from our first entry to our final exit. The boy smiled a lot and the air in the room was definitely lighter. God’s plan is always best!

Please pray for this family and all of the families who are coping with the loss of a loved one during the holidays.

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