Miniature Schnauzers are alarm sounders, ball fetchers, and squirrel chasers; but my 12-and-a-half-year-old Miniature Schnauzer, Jersey, is also a nurse. Whenever I’m feeling sick or sad, she snuggles as close as she can, comforting me with frequent soulful glances. Jersey loves to make eye contact. Now that she’s older and can’t leap on and off the couch at will, she waits patiently for me to move her portable stairs from bed to couch and back again so she can clamber up and provide her special medicine…cuddles.

Today, at 6:00 AM, I’ll be checking in at the hospital for gallbladder surgery. Since my gallstone attack three weeks ago, I’ve been monitoring symptoms and eating only bland foods (no coffee, cheese, chocolate, butter, or anything with any taste!) as I wait for this scheduled procedure. I’m not looking forward to surgery, but I am looking forward to seeing my little four-legged nurse waiting for me when I get home this afternoon. Of course, my husband will be assisting her…toting me back and forth from the hospital, keeping an eye on me after anesthesia, heating up chicken broth and serving it up in a coffee mug; but Jersey knows she is the charge nurse. She’s the one who leans in close, sits quietly, watches me read, and pats my forearm with one soft paw if she thinks I’ve been on the computer too long.

Everyone needs a dose of Jersey.

(Jersey, posing with a book stack a few years ago)