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safety and health of the dog is the top priority for the handler, who must be the constant advocate and protector of the dog;
    â€¢Â  Supporting research on the effect of our work on the health and well-being of patients, clients, family, staff, and the volunteers themselves, and the effect of that work on the health of the dogs.
    Our guiding principles are constantly being developed and evaluated by Angel On A Leash in association with our partners, which provides a perspective that enhances relationships while helping us build effective and successful programs.
    While we weren’t able to handle individuals, we still wanted people to get involved with their dogs, wherever they might be. That is our mission, after all—to promote the practice. So we decided to coordinate our program with Delta Society’s Pet Partner program, which had about 10,000 individual teams around the country as well as many instructors and evaluators. We would refer inquiring individuals to Delta, where they could get into the therapy dog world. We might not have had an Angel On A Leash partner facility for them in their area, but that was not as important to us as getting the dogs and their humans volunteering and helping people in need.
    I am a past board member of and PR consultant for Delta Society, and all of my dogs have been registered with the organization. A number of our Angel board members—including my mentor, Christi Dudzik—have been involved with Delta as well. We are all full believers in what Delta does and how they do it. So we have the best of all worlds—our own perspective and philosophy on the importance of therapy dogs for the facilities, and Delta’s teaching programs and registration for the individual teams.

    When Angel On A Leash was expanding into Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon, I went out there for a press event. My longtime friend, Tom Lasley, an executive at the hospital and a board member of Angel On A Leash, hosted the conference with doctors, pediatric patients, and hospital officials in attendance. Tom brought his wonderful yellow Labrador, Alain, a therapy dog who visits at the hospital, to help us with the “photo opps” for the TV crews and photographers who were there.
    After the press conference, the three TV crews followed us upstairs to the cardiac unit to visit a patient, Mr. Ebey. He had been at the hospital for several weeks, recovering from a crisis during open-heart surgery. Alain and Tom had been visiting him for a couple of weeks already, and on this day, we were doing it for the TV crews, to show them what therapy dog visits were like.
    Tom told me that this had been a special day for Mr. Ebey, as his endotracheal breathing tube had just been removed and he was breathing on his own. He was sitting up in a chair and seemed quite happy to see Alain, smiling and petting him. After we had been there for a few minutes and the camera crews had gotten their shots, I suggested that we all step out of the room for a break, so as not to get Mr. Ebey too worked up. We retreated out into the hallway; the TV crews, with their task accomplished, departed.
    We were standing in the hall with one of the nurses, Lisa, and had only been out of the room for a few minutes when Mr. Ebey slowly lifted his arm and motioned in our direction. Tom looked at me, seemingly surprised to see Mr. Ebey being this active. Then he looked at Lisa.
    â€œThis is new; he’s been intubated all this time until this morning,” Lisa said. “We have never heard him talk; we don’t even know if he can.”
    Tom shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, let’s go see what’s on his mind.”
    Tom handed me Alain’s leash, and he and Lisa went back into the room. I waited in the hall and watched. Tom leaned in, and it looked to me as if Mr. Ebey said something to him.
    Tom straightened up and broke into a huge grin. He looked at me and took a couple of steps