YOU printed my letter on December 13 about Pat Dogs at Southampton General Hospital.

Today I have been asked, so far by five people, is it right that there are more than just the two Pat Dogs that visit this hospital?

With my two Pat Dogs (Max 2 and Lady Poppy 3rd) added, that makes four! Plus I believe there are others, all doing a valued job in helping people feel a bit better when they are feeling very down.

I have visited wards where there was a lady who was feeling very down, and by the time my Pat Dog left her she was happy and nearly singing to the world about him.

I felt pleased my Pat Dog had cheered this poor soul up so much, and this was all down to the Pat Dog doing his job and had nothing at all to do with me (bar maybe a kind word or two).

I am, after all, nothing but the Pat Dog’s chaperone. The Pat Dogs cannot wander the wards by themselves, so I cannot and would not claim any credit for the Pat Dogs’ gift of happiness to this unhappy lady.

On another ward the Pat Dog met an old man who at first just stroked the dog. He then burst into a flood of tears; he had owned a dog just like my Pat Dog Max years ago. His dog was now long gone but he was still grieving for it.

Max picked up on this pain and unhappiness and went into top gear to help ease this poor man’s pain.

Max did this with the ease and skills of the loving and experienced Pat Dog that he is. The man then asked me if I thought he was just a stupid old man? I told him he was the same as me, he was case hardened on the outside only, and he had just shown me a part of himself he wanted to keep hidden inside.

By the time the Pat Dog left him there was a big smile on his face and a little less pain in his heart for his now absent friend, his long gone and beloved dog.

This is what a Pat Dog is all about and how they help to cheer people up.

Their owners do very little, if anything, to help bar get the Pat Dog to and from the hospital and chaperone them about.

You don’t give the parent of an athlete an award for winning! You give it to the athlete who earned it.

MICHAEL THORPE, Southampton.