Woman's dog is her best medicine

By Tanya Connor  | The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Theresa had a problem – she didn’t want to live without her beloved Shih Tzu named Juju. But she couldn’t take the dog with her when she moved into St. Mary Health Care Center last May.
Kristin Gorgone, a nurse there, found a solution – adopt Juju and bring her to work. That way Theresa could continue to enjoy the pet she’d rescued several years earlier.
So could other residents and staff members, it turned out.
Juju turned 7 on Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of animals. Plans are in the works for a birthday party, complete with cupcakes for the people and “pupcakes” for the dogs. (You see, Juju now has a “sister” who visits too. But that’s getting ahead of the story.)
Ms. Gorgone’s thoughtful – and costly – gesture in adopting Juju caught the attention of her superiors. Ron Doty, St. Mary’s president, said he thought it was amazing, so he told Stephen J. Grubbs, president and chief executive officer of Covenant Health, to which St. Mary’s belongs.
Mr. Doty told Ms. Gorgone that the CEO asked him to share the story at a meeting of Covenant Health administrators, so “everyone would see what you did in connection with our mission. That you sacrificed for the health of one of the residents.”
“I didn’t really realize what I was getting into,” Ms. Gorgone, St. Mary’s fourth floor unit manager, told The Catholic Free Press. She wasn’t exactly planning to adopt a pet.
But Theresa, who goes by Teri and whose last name was withheld for privacy reasons, kept telling her, “All I have left is my dog.” So a few weeks after the 86-year-old arrived in May, the nurse arranged to get Juju from Theresa’s neighbor who’d taken in the dog.
Ms. Gorgone says she came directly to St. Mary’s and Juju seemed to recognize her former owner. But it took Theresa a little while to recognize the dog, who was a bit disheveled. (Theresa says she’d kept Juju groomed; “we just took turns – her haircut one month, my haircut the next month.”)
The nurse took Juju home, cleaned her up and the next morning brought her back to St. Mary’s, where she snuggled with Theresa.
“I can’t live without her,” Theresa now tells the nurse, who assures her, “That’s why I got her.”
Theresa says she’s happy with the arrangement; “my puppy loves her.”
“Honey, you’re going to cost a lot of money,” Theresa tells Juju.
She already has, with grooming bills and trips to the pet store for necessities – and luxuries!
“I enjoy spoiling her,” Ms. Gorgone insists. “My boyfriend says, ‘You used to take pictures of me; now it’s all the dogs.’”
Ms. Gorgone wanted Juju to have a friend, so she looked online and applied for a rescue dog, a Shih Tzu the same age.
Last month she and her boyfriend, Shawn Paynes, and Juju went to New Hampshire to get the smaller dog, rescued from Puerto Rico. They named her Nola, since Mr. Paynes is from Louisiana and they’re New Orleans Saints fans.
“She got the best home any of them got,” Theresa maintains.
She herself got Juju as a puppy; “she was little and nobody wanted her.”
“I took her everywhere,” says Theresa, who lived alone. “She loved it.” She says she had her previous dog put to sleep because he was in pain and she couldn’t afford the vet bills.
“All my friends went to heaven,” she says. She asked God, “Why did you take them all?”
Ms. Gorgone reminds her that people at St. Mary’s are her friends, and Theresa acknowledges that now she has new friends.
So does her dog.
“Juju is just so content on people’s laps,” Ms. Gorgone comments. The Shih Tzu makes rounds, visiting residents and staff alike. That includes her former owner, of course, perhaps with some additional motivation on Juju’s part.  
“I save her a little piece of bacon,” Theresa admits.
“If it wasn’t for the support of the facility, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” Ms. Gorgone says. For one thing, co-workers walk both dogs during the day – setting off a chorus of barking by canines in the neighborhood.
“I’ve turned down job offers,” Ms. Gorgone says. “I’m not going to leave St. Mary’s. Number 1, it’s great here. Number 2, I’ve got Juju to bring to Teri. It makes me feel good I get to do that for Teri.”