The Connection

Hugo strolls into the classroom at the Homeless Services Center on Wednesday afternoon and looks expectedly around the room where several residents are gathered around waiting for his arrival. Hugo gives a short bark and is rewarded with a whitefish treat. "These are new. I'm trying them out." Hugo, the therapy bulldog, met his owner Tim Denning at a Nats game at an adoption event just over five years ago. "Hugo loves to attend the Nats games. I think Scherzer is probably his favorite player, you know powerful and magnetic."

Denning continues, "Actually Hugo met Scherzer's wife at a fashion show last year which was a fundraiser for the Humane Rescue Alliance. We were in the fashion show together. Hugo wore his baseball bandana. There were 50 models and each one had a dog."

When Denning met Hugo, Hugo had both of his ears sewn shut. "He had not been well-treated in his previous life and didn't have a good prospect for adoption." But the day after the Nats game, Denning went back and picked up Hugo. That was 5 and a half years ago. "He is clearly a great dog."

Today Hugo has come to the Homeless Assistance Center where he will spend an hour just being Hugo. "See, that is his favorite position," Denning says pointing to a dog sprawled out napping on the floor. "It is very calming."

He says some dogs jump around. Sometimes Hugo likes to head butt. "He nearly broke my nose one time but mostly Hugo is very calm. Sometimes this guy just crawls up into people's beds when we visit George Washington Hospital on Saturday mornings." Denning says Hugo has his own badge and access to all parts of the hospital except the nursery. "He gets treated as a volunteer." Denning adds that they start in the ER where there is a lot of waiting. "People are frustrated, tired and may be in pain. A dog shows up and soothes tensions."

After ER they move to the rest of the hospital. Denning said last week Hugo was outside the ICU where a patient had been taken off life support and was dying. "We couldn't go in but the gentleman saw Hugo in the hall and waved. By the time we left, he had passed away."

Anna McAlpine, a one-month resident at the Homeless Services Center, rushes to the front desk when she notices Hugo has arrived. "I love dogs and I miss my own dogs. Dogs make you feel good; they can pick up on your tensions." Hugo looks nonplused as McAlpine gives him a hug. Hugo has been visiting the center once a week since the new program started five weeks ago.

One of the residents of the center sits in the classroom sketching the dog. She is enrolled in an arts program through the center and often gives her sketches to Denning to pass along to patients at the hospital to cheer up their rooms.

Denning says that Hugo has had five separate operations to remove both of his ear canals and the soft tissues and now he is deaf. But finally "I said you are alive for a reason so you are going to start giving back." So Hugo got certified through People Animals Love (PAL) and now has made over 200 visits to hospitals, libraries and rehab centers.

Denning says, "Hugo loves libraries where kids read to him. He especially likes the series about Biscuit the Dog…you know, ‘Biscuit goes to School,’ ‘Biscuit's birthday’." It is a program called Paws to Read, where Hugo listens to 1st-3rd grade readers at the Central Library as well as the Westover and Cherrydale branches.

"Not every dog has a temperament like this. He is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of animal and I got him the first time."