For sick kids, the best medicine is a wagging tail

BETHESDA, Md. - At Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health, sick children from around the world get top-notch care and now, they get the added bonus of a tail-thumping greeting.

When 3-year-old Benjamin from Chile first came to Children's Inn, his mom Alejandra says he didn't walk at all and was listless.

Now, he's racing around the lobby of the Inn, getting big sloppy kisses from Vi Mars, the Inn's newest staffer.

Resident Manager Deanna Wharwood says Vi is a pro.

"Her duties are basically to help us take care of the children. Heart, mind, body and spirit," Wharwood says.

Vi is a 5-year-old retired seeing eye dog. The Children's Inn has had visiting therapy dogs before, but Vi will be the first live-in companion. She's a ginger- colored yellow Lab with big brown eyes and some --uh-- quirks.

"She's a Labrador -- we have to watch food around her, for sure," Wharwood says.

Like that episode with the turkey leg at Thanksgiving. (She helped herself.)

But seeing all the help she gives to children eager to pet and play with her, it seems only fair.

Vi comes to the Children's Inn at NIH courtesy of the Mars family, makers of candy and pet food.

The Inn hosts up to 59 families from all over the world whose seriously ill children get cutting edge medical care in a setting that feels like home.

And with Vi there, parents say it really does seem a little bit more like home.

Especially for the holidays.

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