Cole always leaves them smiling.

The 90-pound German shepherd may look imposing to people who don't know him, but to the residents of the two local nursing homes he visits once a week, Cole is a big teddy bear.

Telegram photo / Joel Hodges (ENLARGE)

Alma Wilkins, 62, pets Cole on Tuesday at Somerset Court. The German shepherd is brought there to offer pet therapy, a regular series of spirit-lifting encounters with residents.

As soon as Cole walked into Martha Oleksa's room Tuesday morning at Somerset Court in Rocky Mount, her hand was reaching out to pet him. Despite having no experience with big dogs before she met Cole, he does not scare her.

"He's a good dog, yes you are. He says 'I don't mind if all these old ladies rub on me,'" Oleksa, 72, said to Cole while petting him.

Having safe, friendly animals visit or live in a nursing home enriches the lives of residents, said Kathy Ellrod, resident care coordinator at The Fountains at the Albemarle in Tarboro. A warm, furry body they can hug or pet is a source of joy and comfort, especially for residents who have few or no visitors.

"You just see a smile on their face when they come around. They love to rub and pet them or just watch them," Ellrod said.

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Every nursing and assisted-living home has its own rules and comfort level regarding animals in the building, so it is important to check before bringing one in, said Vicky Brown, Cole's owner. Cole has been a certified therapy dog for six of his eight years. He has his own picture identification from Therapy Dogs International Inc.

Part of his certification requires that he receive yearly checkups for parasites and other contagions so he does not bring anything into a nursing home, Brown said. She also makes sure he is bathed frequently since residents will be touching him.

"The advantage with being registered is that when you go to a facility and they don't know you, you can produce this paperwork that says they are registered, they passed these tests. It is a little different than someone bringing their pet in there that they really don't know anything about," Brown said.

The testing Cole underwent was to make sure he could handle any situation that came up in a nursing home – the smells, the wheelchairs and equipment to maneuver around and the constant touch of strangers – without becoming aggressive, Brown said.

Without even realizing what they are doing, residents sometimes pull his ears, slap him on the head when they think they are petting him and give him bear hugs, Brown said.

"Early in his career, I had gone to a nursing home and there was a patient there with Alzheimer's. She, not knowing any better, had grabbed him, and she made him cry, ... because she grabbed his ears," Brown said. "He was fine with it, but after about a minute of it, he looked at me as if to say, 'Am I going to get my neck back any time soon?'"

An animal that is going to spend any length of time in a nursing home has to be able to handle those kinds of surprises, Ellrod said. The Fountains has two dogs, Sadie and Colleen, in the assisted-living area and two cats, Truman and Miss Kitty, who stay with the Alzheimer's residents.

The animals are allowed to roam in their areas, Ellrod said. They belong to everybody, so the staff takes turns caring for them. They sleep wherever they want. All of their temperaments were tested when they arrived to make sure they could be given such free rein.

"They are not trained per se, but we do the cats just like the dogs. If we see any aggressive behavior with them, we would get them out of here. We would make sure they got a good home, but we couldn't keep them here if they become aggressive toward our residents," Ellrod said.

There are some residents who are scared of or don't like animals, and Brown keeps Cole and her other therapy dog, Daisy, away from them, said Estelle Jones, activities director at Somerset Court.

"When I see him coming in, I go and let them know, 'Hey, Cole is on the way in the facility,' and if the door is closed, she does not take a dog into a closed door. As long as the door is open and they are in the room, she'll walk by. If they want to see him, she'll let him go in," Jones said.

Brown takes one of her dogs to Somerset Court at 10:30 a.m. and Autumn Care of Nash in Nashville at 1 p.m. every Tuesday. Cole knows his route as well as his owner.

Oleksa was his first stop of the day on Tuesday. She called him a gentle giant while she petted him and thanked Brown for bringing him for a visit.

"I am just happy to see him come, because I don't get that many visitors. It is like she comes to me and brings me joy, but I don't have anything I can give in return," Oleksa said.

Alma Wilkins, 62, was just as thrilled when Cole walked into her room a few doors down minutes later. She loves to watch the tricks he can do.

Cole gave Wilkins a bow, much to her delight, and was rewarded with a treat.

"Hey sweety. I like it when you do that little bow for me," Wilkins told Cole.

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The only trick Virginia, an 8-year-old Shih Tzu, does when she visits Guardian Care of Rocky Mount is roll over on her back to receive a belly rub, said Juanita Latten, her owner. The 14-pound attention-grabber has been coming to the facility since she was a puppy and loves to snuggle up with the residents and staff members.

"Sometimes she doesn't want to leave. She gets to sniffing around and smelling the food or hearing some of the entertainment that is going on, and I have a hard time to get her out of there," Latten said.

Virginia is not a certified therapy dog, but she has never had any problems with the residents, Latten said. She usually visits Guardian Care twice a month but has been taking a break because of back problems. She is set to return to her schedule in August. Latten is looking forward to it.

"It brings me satisfaction to see a smile on someone's face and to know there is something that I can do to brighten their day," Latten said.