Hug-a-pug. (visiting a nursing home with pet dogs)

Every Thursday morning for the past three years there is an excitement around our house, not experienced on other days, for Laurie and Ebony know that they are going to visit their friends at the nursing home.

Laurie is an eight-year-old fawn-colored pug dog and Ebony, who is half her age, is a jet black one.

It all began after I spent several lengthy, lonely stays in a hospital that did not extend visitation privileges to animals. Later, remembering how much I had missed my dogs, I contacted the head nurse at the new nursing home in our area- Marathon Manor, in Marathon, Florida-and asked if my pets would be welcome there. She was delighted with the idea, and invited us the following week. As it turned out, it was, mutually, love at first sight and we were made to feel very much at home.

Laurie is a most gentle dog, and I knew there would be no problem with her. Ebony, however, is a bundle of energy and I was concerned that her exuberance might overwhelm the elderly. I need not have worried, though, for she innately understood their fragility, and is as quiet and sweet around them as Laurie.

The moment we step off the elevator, those residents in wheelchairs gathered by the front desk brighten visibly when they see the dogs. The ladies slowly reach out to touch the whiskery, wrinkled faces as I lift the dogs up to see each one. Most of the men prefer to hold the dogs on their laps and pat their shiny backs.

Many of the residents who rarely change expression will smile and softly tell the dogs how beautiful (or ugly, for a pug's beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder) they are. Then they will think back and relate a story about a beloved Fluffy or a Sam that they once had.

An aide told me that on Thursdays most of the residents want their baths early, so they will not miss seeing the dogs.