A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home, Sue Halpern
A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home, Sue Halpern
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A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home
Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher

Author: Sue Halpern

Narrator: Karen White

Unabridged: 7 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/16/2013


Synopsis

At loose ends with her daughter leaving home and her husband on the road, Sue Halpern decided to give herself and Pransky, her under-occupied Labradoodle, a new leash—er, lease—on life by getting the two of them certified as a therapy dog team. Smart, spirited, and instinctively compassionate, Pransky turned out to be not only a terrific therapist but an unerring moral compass. In the unlikely sounding arena of a public nursing home, she led her teammate into a series of encounters with the residents that revealed depths of warmth, humor, and insight Halpern hadn't expected. And little by little, their adventures expanded and illuminated Halpern's sense of what virtue is and does—how acts of kindness transform the giver as well as the given-to.

Funny, moving, and profound, A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home is the story of how one faithful, charitable, loving, and sometimes prudent mutt—showing great hope, fortitude, and restraint along the way (the occasional begged or stolen treat notwithstanding)—taught a well-meaning woman the true nature and pleasures of the good life.

About Sue Halpern

Sue Halpern received her doctorate from Oxford University in 1985 and first began teaching at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is the author of Four Wings and a Prayer, Migrations to Solitude, and two books of fiction. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Conde Nast Traveler, and the New York Review of Books, among other publications. She lives in Ripton, Vermont, with her husband, writer Bill McKibben, and their daughter, Sophie, and is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lizz

I loved this book. I see that many reviewers were hoping for more stories about the author and Pranksy, and I can understand that ... but as someone who works with a therapy dog in a nursing home, I was fascinated by the other aspects of the book. I originally bought the Kindle version, but I found......more

Goodreads review by Linda

Lately things have been difficult. My 92 year old stepmother, June, had to be moved to assisted living. She'd been living alone and it became apparent that she couldn't care for herself any longer. She thought she was doing a fine job and there in lies the problem. Navigating the world of home care......more