Tony Walter column: Senior's Eyes Light Up At Sight Of Dogs

"My name is Ruth and I live in a nursing home in the Green Bay area. I was born in 1918 so that makes me 88 years old. I need to stay in bed quite a lot because I am weak and my lungs do not give me the strength I need to walk like I once did."

Ruth Birkholz is like many senior citizens whose living space is squished into a half room and whose daily visual entertainment is limited to whatever the walls can hold. So it was last week that Ruth's mood sagged when the Christmas cards were removed from the wooden bathroom door that loomed over her bed.

She needed something to fill that space on her door and in her life. And she knew right away what she wanted.

Dogs. Pictures of dogs. Pictures of your dogs.

"She didn't want to see empty spaces," said Grancare Nursing Center staff member Sheri Zillmer.

Life of dogs

Ruth has only fond memories of dogs. Her daughter had a German shepherd named Kim, a poodle named Missy, a golden retriever named Yukon, and Shih Tzu named Tasha. Ruth once had her own dog named Buffy and her grandson still has a golden retriever named Zeke. Her granddaughter has two Yorkshire terriers named Biff and Buttons who visit Ruth frequently at the Green Bay nursing center.

Ruth is looking for pictures of dogs that will fill the wooden space on the door, knowing that dog-lovers will send pictures of the animals they love, the same way Ruth has always loved the dogs in her life.

Pictures, which can't be returned, should be mailed to: Ruth Birkholz, Room 104B, Grancare Nursing Center, 1555 Dousman St., Green Bay WI 54303. They can be e-mailed to: szillmer@choiceonemail.com.

Maintaining memories

Ruth can't move around too much. She is attached to a machine whose oxygen is the surrogate for her weakened lungs. She has a TV set that takes away some of the day's monotony, and there are several stuffed animals that grandchildren have provided to brighten her days.

Her bed sits next to a window that faces the parking lot so Ruth gets a fleeting glimpse of the passing life, one that she once was very active in through her jobs at Nau's, Newman's, and finally as fashion manager at Lane Bryant.

Ruth Birkholz lives in a community where the joys of life are too often spoken in the past tense. But her love of dogs has carried her to the edge of her 10th decade and she is determined to maintain those memories at this stage of her life.

With your dogs.