Board of Directors

President: 
Virginia Tillmannshofer

Vice President:
Richard Waxman
Founder, Executive Dir. “Paws & Hearts”

Secretary / Treasurer:
Danielle Barton,
Branch Retail Executive
BBVA Compass Bank

Jack Poyfair, LVN
Executive Director
Vista Cove at Rancho Mirage

Debbie Divac
Dir. Bus. Development
Windsor Court

• Volunteer Fall Training
  Jocelyn Senior Center
  Saturday, October 15th
  All volunteers required to attend!

• Annual Halloween Dog Costume Party
  at Vista Cove at Rancho Mirage
  Saturday, October 29th
  

• 12th Annual Dog Walk Fund-Raiser
  Saturday, December 2rd, 2012
  Westin Mission Hills Resort
  Registration 9am, walk at 10am
  
  

Hi Everyone:  Watching Dad take Lucky’s name off this column was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.  He just doesn’t seem to understand that tears will clog up the keyboard!  But more importantly, no one will ever forget “Lucky”--not me the big brother, or Samantha the cat, or any of the thousands of patients Lucky visited over 9 years at Eisenhower.

Dad took a few weeks off from visits, and Uncle Drew took me around.  We had a good time, but now Dad is back and he is having a really hard time whenever someone says, “Where is that little white dog?”  I wish I could talk because I’d do the answering for Dad.  Everyone means well, but this is a very hard transition.

Most of the staff have come over to express their condolences to us and share their memories of Lucky, but the most heart-felt story we heard was from a woman in the lobby a couple of weeks ago.  She looked at me and asked, “Where’s your brother, the little white dog?”  Dad explained that Lucky had passed away and the woman was devastated.  She told us that a year ago when she was a patient, Lucky and I were up on her bed and that Lucky layed across her chest and kissed her face over and over and made her feel so much better.  She was going in for surgery and was so hoping for another visit.  I offered up my services for which she was grateful, but you could tell that she wanted Lucky as well.  He is sure a tough act to follow, and Dad is lousy at tug-of-war.  Lucky always gave me a good run for my money!  I miss you a lot dear brother……                         

“Scruffy” Waxman

“Lucky” Waxman—
The End of an Era at
“Paws & Hearts”

Richard Waxman, Executive Director
“Paws & Hearts” and Dad

Twelve years ago on July 4th  I was looking at a condo, and this little white poodle mix jumped right up into my arms.  No collar, full of fleas and ticks, it was apparent he’d been abandoned.   He saw the word sucker engraved on my forehead and home we went.

Didn’t take long before I named him Lucky, because I thought I was very lucky that he found me.  In Yiddish we have a word, ‘buschert, and it means, meant-to-be, and if ever two lives were meant to collide it was Lucky’s and mine.  For the next twelve years, Lucky was at my side, actually up in my right arm as we built “Paws & Hearts” Animal Assisted Therapy.  Lucky was the founder; I was just the executive director.

Lucky was still a puppy when we were invited to Valencia Palms Nursing Home in Indio.  Lucky turned out to be marvelous on the beds with the patients, and the Desert Sun sent a writer and photographer on our next visit, and when the story and photograph ran in the paper, our journey together began!

Potential volunteers read about Lucky’s visits, and they wanted to take their dogs on visits.  What I thought would become a hobby, quickly became a full-time career.  Lucky and I began making presentations to the Activities Directors at local nursing homes about our new program, temperament tests were conducted, and Lucky’s visits became training visits for the new volunteers. 

Very quickly an office in Palm Desert opened, a board of directors was assembled, and Lucky and I began making presentations at local rotaries and service clubs.  Gino Lamont from KMIR 6 had us on his morning show a dozen times that first year, and the response from potential volunteers, donors and facilities was overwhelming.  We were on our way, and the next decade of my life flew by in a heart-beat!

We were asked to visit the Oncology floor on Wednesday afternoons at Eisenhower Medical Center and a couple of years into it, we began visiting 3 times per week so that all the floors were covered.  My second dog, “Scruffy” came along, and after some intense training by his older brother, he began going on visits with us.  The two of them worked like a well-oiled machine--Lucky always the star, and Scruffy a very happy Ethel Mertz, the second banana. 

The past Spring Lucky developed a cough that just would not go away.   Many trips to the vet, many medications later, Lucky passed away very suddenly June 28th from a tumor on his liver that ruptured. 

I can’t remember a time when Lucky wasn’t under my arm at Eisenhower.  We’d enter a patient’s room and I’d say, “Lucky and Scruffy are here to visit.  Would you like them on your bed?”  And Lucky would lie across the patients chest and Scruffy would snuggle in along-side their leg.  I never thought this would ever change, but sadly it has.  Scruffy has become Numero Uno now at Eisenhower and does his older brother proud, visiting with the patients and making them feel better.  Not a visit goes by that someone doesn’t ask, “Where is the little white dog?” and as much as that hurts, just knowing that Lucky is missed is thanks enough for the memories he made over 9 years, and an estimated 32,000 individual room visits.

To watch a video of Lucky and Scruffy at work, and to see what your dog could do as a Canine Ambassador, please visit our
Memorial Page, and click on his video.

Rest in peace Luck,
your work and your legacy will never be forgotten!

Plans for our 11th Annual Dog Walk/Fundraiser

A tribute to our founder, “Lucky” Waxman

This year’s walk will be very bitter-sweet as it will be the first one without “Lucky”, the founder of the organization.  We are going to make this walk a celebration of his life and the legacy he left behind by creating such an amazing organization. 

Year after year our annual dog walk/fundraiser attracts more and more participants, and we are hoping that this year many of the patients that Lucky and Scruffy visited over the years at Eisenhower Medical Center will come out in remembrance of Lucky.

The walk will once again be hosted by the Westin Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, and their spectacular setting will make for another wonderful event.  As usual we will have our amazing raffle, complimentary continental breakfast, a performance by the famous Muttley Crew, and numerous vendors. 

Please start collecting pledges in your dog’s name and don’t forget to turn in your coins……….we are asking that all walkers bring in their lose change and drop it in our coin jars.  Every walker with change will receive an extra raffle ticket for free for their spare change!

Save the date:  Saturday, December 3rd  Registration begins at 9am, the walk at 10am!

Lucky Waxman Memorial Fund

Karen Gebala                                                                                        $50.00
Peg Bonda                                                                                              25.00
Adrienne Stuart                                                                                       20.00
Syree Gibbs                                                                                          100.00
Jane R. Deah                                                                                          25.00
Dyan Flyzik                                                                                             50.00
Inge Fullerton                                                                                          25.00
Diana Finnegan                                                                                        25.00
Adrienne L. Burnell                                                                               100.00
Anonymous                                                                                             20.00
Maxine Fitzpatrick                                                                                   25.00
Donni Jean Prince                                                                                   25.00
Bruce Hume                                                                                         100.00
Ingrid Walker                                                                                          30.00
Kathleen Widney                                                                                     25.00
Carol J. Kocherhans                                                                                25.00
Patti Keylin                                                                                             25.00
Rita Steffen-Susman                                                                               200.00
Chris McGuire                                                                                        100.00
Valerie Zugates                                                                                      100.00
Dawn Suggs                                                                                         100.00
Lois Leiter                                                                                              30.00
Mary Panesar                                                                                       100.00
Drew Marefos                                                                                       50.00
Carla Howard                                                                                         75.00
Ann Rule                                                                                                 50.00

Thank you all again for your remembrances and donations in Lucky’s memory
.