CHOP's first facility dog retires after six years of service

Just to see the impact that one dog could have, you know, brightening kids' days while they're here at the hospital and bringing joy. It's just been tremendous. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hi, I'm Lizzie Olson, and this is my facility dog, Dilly. Dilly was the first facility dog here at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Good job. Yes, that's how we do that. They had been trying to implement the program a couple years while I was working in the special delivery unit. Dilly lap. And then around 2019, we started to have meetings with Susquehanna service dogs and talk to them about what our needs were for the program. And we were matched with Dilly. We met him actually in December of 2019. And then he started working in July when he finished his training. So many good memories with patients and families and staff, especially because he arrived during the pandemic and he brought a lot of extra hope, I think, to both patients, families, and the staff. He was just like a much needed breath of fresh air. Oh, when one of the kids made you a crown. Dilly works five days a week. There's a lot of physical work walking throughout the buildings, getting up and down on the patient beds or the therapy mat tables. And so we kind of noticed that Dilly was starting to slow down a little bit. He's eight years old. And it was time for him to retire. Enjoy your retirement, Dilly. Thank you, Dilly, for everything you've done on inpatient oncology. You're going to be so missed. So now he spends a lot of time just kind of hanging out with stuffed animals, going for extra long sniffy walks. And we have his little sister, Nettle, who is working here with the patients right now. And we're hoping to add more. How's that look? Huh? Handsome? Are you officially retired? In the meantime, just focusing on Dilly's retirement, providing him with like really good care and just fun adventures and patiently waiting for the next dog to arrive. Ready? Let's go.