Dog confusion

Yesterday I went to the Alzheimer's unit at a local nursing home for my regular visit. A lady was visiting her mother and had brought her little apricot poodle. One of the other residents there has one very similar dog. For some time she lived off the unit in the general nursing home and had her dog with her. She would carry him around, then she began wheeling him around on a wheelchair. Then they required her to keep him in a carrier while wheeling him around. They had to eventually ask her son to take the dog home and keep him. J. had gotten too confused to deal with it. She was moved onto the secure unit. So, concerning the visiting dog, J. seemed to understand who it belonged to, however, when the lady got up and started to leave the room, J. got upset, wanting to know where she was taking her dog. The aide there apparently didn't know how to deal with it and just said, "it will be all right." Well, J. knew it wasn't all right because someone was taking her dog. Reality orientation doesn't always work with dementia victims but in this case it was necessary. I explained to her that this was not her dog Nickie but his name is Spider. I told her several times that her dog was with her son and that he was taking care of him. She finally said, "Well, I guess my son would let me know if something had happened to my dog." And then she was fine. She basically reconciled her own mind with just a little help. Bless her heart. She knows something is wrong with her but she doesn't know what. Sometimes it's a blessing when they reach the point where they no longer know that something is wrong with them.