Today was the first visit from Winston the therapy dog at the library.  He did a great job, and two very happy families got to hang out with this gorgeous and sweet pooch.  Winston is a golden doodle, and he’s very tall and very soft and (despite the golden) pitch black.  He’s one of the coolest looking dogs I’ve ever met, and he is very, very well behaved.

In case you’re not familiar with the use of therapy dogs in libraries, the idea is to provide children with a non-judgemental listener to whom the children can read aloud.  Dogs don’t speak English, and they certainly don’t read, so they don’t know if their child reader friend has just mis-read a line from the book.  All the dog knows is that he or she is happy to hang out with his or her young literary fans.  And the kids who read to a therapy dog come out smiling and happy and with renewed reading confidence.

It’s a terrific program, and I’m so glad that Julie, Winston’s owner and handler, came to me with the proposal of doing a program at the library.  And I’m really looking forward to the remaining four “Paws and Read” sessions that are scheduled for this summer.