Bellamingo
Sitting on the front steps
We went to visit my grandmother yesterday, who has dementia. Because we move between mine and my fiancé's parents houses while we wait to find our own place (have to wait until his parents move because they need us to mind their cats while they travel, but my house is closer to work and uni) we had to bring Mingo with us. We had him out of the box after the long drive to have a chat to my uncle's lorikeet and look at his chickens, let him stretch and eat etc. We tried to put him back in his box before going into Granny's room because we thought his noise might upset her, but he wasn't having a bar of it and escaped like a little Houdini. So we had to keep him with us in the room with her.
My grandmother has been virtually non responsive for weeks, mumbling gibberish and not eating. She has kept birds all her life and loved them, used to help her brother draw them for Gould's book of birds even. She collected owls and bird statues, even has a rainbow lorikeet statue next to her bed.
Not only did Mingo get her to laugh several times, we got a few complete sentences and she even patted him. We were all so emotional over it as we know she's going to pass sooner rather than later as her dementia is progressing rapidly. We saw her past self for a few seconds yesterday and it was beautiful. She even drank her smoothie because I said Mingo would eat it all if she didn't (he did have a few sips and was desperate for more, it was totally safe, mainly fruit juice and egg) so we didn't have to force her to drink it like we have had to for the past few weeks.
I thought I'd share it here because it was just such a special moment and shows how animals can make people happy!
My grandmother has been virtually non responsive for weeks, mumbling gibberish and not eating. She has kept birds all her life and loved them, used to help her brother draw them for Gould's book of birds even. She collected owls and bird statues, even has a rainbow lorikeet statue next to her bed.
Not only did Mingo get her to laugh several times, we got a few complete sentences and she even patted him. We were all so emotional over it as we know she's going to pass sooner rather than later as her dementia is progressing rapidly. We saw her past self for a few seconds yesterday and it was beautiful. She even drank her smoothie because I said Mingo would eat it all if she didn't (he did have a few sips and was desperate for more, it was totally safe, mainly fruit juice and egg) so we didn't have to force her to drink it like we have had to for the past few weeks.
I thought I'd share it here because it was just such a special moment and shows how animals can make people happy!