A seven-and-a-half-year-old, 130-pound Leonberger named Cooper has been a favorite among patients and staff at the St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage. He might be big, standing five-foot-four when he gets up on his hind legs, but he has the gentlest eyes and the sweetest heart. He is the epitome of a gentle giant.
Cooper has earned one of the top levels of pet therapy certification through Bideawee in Wantagh. While other therapy dogs are restricted to a certain setting and audience, Cooper is not. His certification allows him to participate in any therapy situation.
That is, he could do one-on-one interactions in groups and easily adjust to children, older people, the wheelchair-bound, the bedridden, and many more. Cooper is also very flexible and can go from high-energy to confined spaces. And his breed is considered obedient, loyal, and loving.
When Cooper visits patients at the hospital, he immediately walks up to them and puts his face right next to theirs. And everyone wants to hug him to death. He looked so adorable to them, and that feeling never ceased.
Lou Damore, Cooper’s fur dad, has been doing therapy visits with him for about four-and-a-half years. Cooper started when he was just three years old. And seeing smiles form on the patients’ faces has always been their partnership’s greatest accomplishment. Some patients rarely get a visit, and some miss their dogs.
Cooper and Lou visit around 40 patients at the St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage on Thursdays. And there’s no room that Cooper can’t light up with his adorable size and big heart. And on days that they can’t see him, they get updates about him through his Facebook, and seeing him in pictures also comforts them a lot.
Source: Long Island Weekly
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