A gentle giant named Quincy made a name for himself as a therapy dog at Capital Health Medical Center in Hopewell, New Jersey. For more than eight years, the mastiff — beloved by both the hospital staff and patients — made his rounds with fur mom Karen March.
Quincy is neither Karen’s first mastiff nor her first therapy dog, however. That honor belongs to Bella, who was relatively lighter at 150 pounds but was still a large pooch.
Karen wasn’t intending on having Bella undergo specialized training. But when she saw other therapy dogs at obedience school one day, the fur mom thought the female mastiff had the right disposition for the job.
Bella hated hospitals, though, because the machines made her nervous. What she loved most was visiting seniors in nursing homes. Bella went to one every Wednesday, and the residents would always huddle together by the door, eagerly waiting to pet her.
The female mastiff worked as a therapy dog for about a decade before retiring. However, Bella still kept seeing one of her favorite humans, Karen’s 92-year-old mother.
The female mastiff was four years old when Karen decided to get another one, and she wanted a bigger dog this time. That’s how she met Quincy, although he was tiny back then; the pup weighed less than two pounds, and he could fit right into Karen’s palm.
Eventually, Quincy grew into a whopping 190-pound dog, but he remained as gentle and docile as he always has been. The mastiff can even sense when somebody’s afraid of him. Quincy’s a large pooch, after all, and not everybody knows how friendly he is.
Whenever that happens, the mastiff rolls over on his back and asks for belly rubs with his kind eyes. It’s Quincy’s way of showing the person in front of him that they don’t need to be scared of him.
Quincy and Karen drop by various wards at each visit, and they’d walk through the corridors until they come across someone who could use a cuddle with the mastiff. Quincy also has a gift for knowing which patients need him the most.
One time, the two were roaming the hospital as usual when the mastiff walked straight to a room at the end of one hall. Only a few employees knew that it was occupied at the time. It turned out that a nurse was resting there briefly, and Quincy knew she would feel much better after seeing him.
The mastiff sure leads a busy life, but Karen shares he’s actually a huge couch potato. Unlike Bella, he far prefers lazing in the sun than chasing squirrels around their yard. Watch Quincy with his fur mom here:
Source: capitalhealthnj on YouTube and Dr. Quincy March – Therapy Dog on Facebook
