I'm getting a JOB!

I am going to be a Therapy Dog.
My first day is this Thursday at the local nursing home.
I'm going to wear a pretty dress and put on the smiles.
I hope the love me.
I thought you might like to read about the first therapy dog named Smoky.
Yep, she was a little Yorkie!

History of the Therapy Dog from Wikkapedia

During World War II, under combat operations against Japanese forces on the island of New Guinea, an American soldier found a young adult Yorkshire Terrier abandoned on the battlefield. Unable to care for the dog, Corporal William Wynne bought the female "Yorkie" and named her Smoky.
Smoky's small size enabled her to become a hero by helping engineers to build an airbase at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, a crucial airfield for Allied aircraft. Early in the Luzon campaign, the Signal Corps needed to run a communication wire through a 70-foot long pipe that was eight inches in diameter. The pipe passed beneath the landing strip. Dirt had fallen through the corrugated pipe, filling as much as half of the pipe, giving Smoky only four inches of headway in some places.
Wynne tied a string (itself attached to the communication wire) to Smoky's collar and ran to the other end of the pipe and called Smoky. The little yorkie crawled her way along the 70-foot long pipe into the arms of Corporal Wynne.

Smoky’s work prevented the need to move 40 fighter aircraft while a construction detail dug up the taxiway. This would have placed them in jeopardy from enemy air bombardment. What would have been an extended construction job, was accomplished by this little dog in minutes.

Her service as a therapy dog began when Corporal Wynne was hospitalized for a jungle disease. As Wynne recovered, Wynne's Army pals brought Smoky to the hospital for a visit and to cheer the soldier up. Smoky immediately became a hit with the other wounded soldiers. Dr. Charles Mayo, of the famed Mayo Clinic, was the commanding officer who allowed Smoky to go on rounds and also permitted her to sleep with Wynne in his hospital bed for five nights. Smoky’s work as a therapy dog continued for 12 years, during and after World War II.

The establishment of a systematic approach to the use of therapy dogs is attributed to Elaine Smith, an American who worked as a registered nurse for a time in England. Smith noticed how well patients responded to visits by a certain chaplain and his canine companion, a Golden Retriever. Upon returning to the United States in 1976, Smith started a program for training dogs to visit institutions. Over the years other health care professionals have noticed the therapeutic effect of animal companionship, such as relieving stress, lowering blood pressure, and raising spirits, and the demand for therapy dogs continues to grow. In recent years, therapy dogs have been enlisted to help children overcome speech and emotional disorders. The concept has widened to include other species, such as therapy cats, therapy rabbits, therapy birds and so on.