Therapy dog Tully has spent the past 14 years bringing smiles to the faces of the people she meets at hospitals.
Now it's her turn to get some care, as she prepares to retire from duties.
Patients, nurses and therapy staff farewelled Tully at a special visit to the University of Canberra Hospital on Tuesday, the Shetland Sheepdog's final job before she has a leg operation.
The oldest Delta Therapy Dog, which is the largest in Australia, Tully has spent most of her time working at various mental health services, including the UC Hospital's Adult Mental Health and Rehabilitation Unit.
Seeing patients in person was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic because of hospital visitor restrictions, however Tully was so loved that she was scheduled for online video sessions.
Owner Caroline Pappas said she'll never forget the way her dog changed people's lives.
"I remember one of our regulars; they could not get him out of his room. Then when they yelled out 'the dogs are here' he came out and sat on the couch and said 'I just want to do this today'," Ms Pappas said.
"That's really lovely because a psychiatrist couldn't give [the patient] that.
"I think physical contact is the biggest thing. For the kids' wards it's a fun thing to see a dog.
"With mental health ... it is really lovely when you've got patients that aren't communicating, that are in a really really bad place and there's no one for them to cuddle.
"They can't cuddle a nurse, they can't cuddle other patients, so they can just sit with the dog."
Tully's successor will be 14-month-old Kismet, who is eagerly training for her future as a therapy dog.
"Hopefully Kismet can have a career like Tully has," Ms Pappas said.
And nurses hope Kismet has just as much of an impact as Tully did.
"My patients know Tully," nurse Sarah Hetherington said.
"She has always lit up every room, and that is so important. She'll be in all our thoughts during the operation."
In a typical pre-COVID year, therapy dogs deliver care to about 200,000 people per week across Australia. In addition to mental health facilities, their "unique wellbeing" services are delivered to aged care facilities, disability services, schools and workplaces.
The use of therapy dogs relies on volunteer organisations such as Delta, whose funding predominantly comes from donations.
The Delta volunteer base has remained relatively stable but the level of engagement and funding that is available has noticeably dipped because of COVID-induced changes.
This trend is consistent across volunteer-based organisations over the past year, with Volunteering Australia finding that between February and April 2020 65.9 per cent of volunteers stopped working. Researchers estimate this reduction amounted to a loss of about 12.2 million hours worked per week.
