Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/therapy-dogs-visit-national-guard/

Last month, we witnessed a storming of our nation’s capitol. As a result, thousands of National Guard troops were brought into the DC area. And more than 250 of these Guardsmen have been living at the Hamilton Hotel in downtown DC.

These men and women have been unable to go home, so in honor of Valentine’s Day, they received a little love from some happy doggies.

The non-profit People Animals Love was founded way back in 1982 in order to provide a network of comfort animals. They have 500 individually-owned dogs, as well as a few cats, who go around to different care facilities, libraries, or schools in order to brighten up peoples’ days.

However, with the pandemic, they’ve done a lot of online meetings, including a virtual program where children can practice reading with a PAL dog.

While the event with the National Guardsmen occurred prior to the holiday of love, it was no less special for the Guardsmen who got to experience a wonderful pick-me-up from the happy bunch of therapy dogs who paid them a visit.

The non-profit wanted to do something nice for the men and women entrusted with protecting our country.

All 12 therapy dogs came with their owners and placed themselves at different places throughout the hotel and waited for the service members to arrive for a greeting. And the servicemen and women were equally as excited about seeing the dogs too.

As the Hamilton Hotel director, Joe Palminteri, shared with GNN that seeing how happy the dogs made the “hardened” soldiers was definitely a very touching sight to behold.

Watch the video below:

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What do you think? Let us know!

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog