This facility provides both assisted living and skilled nursing care. We divide our time between both units. Most of the residents in skilled nursing use wheelchairs, and occasionally we will visit a bed-ridden resident in his/her room. The assisted living residents are more active and always look forward to our visits.

Welcome to the Reading Buddies program at the Gilroy Library. This state of the art library is located at 350 W. Sixth St. in Gilroy. Reading Buddies is a program where children read books aloud to pets, to help increase their confidence and reading ability. The one-hour visits take place in a single large room, so all pets are in close proximity to other pets. Pets of all types are encouraged; however, pets must be able to be calm for relatively long periods of time, maintaining a sit/stay or down/stay, while the child is reading to them and petting them. All pets must have passed our Reading Buddies evaluation class. This program is a lot of fun for both the pets and the children involved, and very rewarding for the volunteers. Consider signing up for one of these exciting Reading Buddies sites!

Grant Cuesta Sub-Acute and Rehabilitation Center, located in Mountain View, offers 24-hour skilled nursing and rehabilitation therapy services with experienced staff dedicated to treating residents with dignity and respect. Grant Cuesta is a 100-bed facility located on Grant Road at the intersection of Cuesta Road. Patients may be recovering from surgery, injury, or stroke; some are making decisions about long-term care. The staff is particularly friendly, not only welcoming our pets but also helping patients to interact with them. The visits take place in a community room or individual visits in a patients room.

Green Hills Manor is a small nursing home/convalescent hospital facility in a residential area. The residents are about equally divided between those who are very low functioning and those who are higher functioning. Since it is a small facility, the team is small. The team would welcome a rabbit and/ or cat, and a lap-sized dog.

Description Pending

This is a Reading Buddies team and pets must have passed the Reading Buddies evaluation class.

Hope Services provides training and employment for developmentally delayed adults. The clients are all middle-aged, neither children nor elderly. Some have physical disabilities as well, but most of them are ambulatory. The Furry Friends team meets with the clients in a large common room while the clients wait for their transportation for the day. Everybody looks forward to the Furry Friends visit, and many of the clients remember the dogs from visit to visit and can identify them by name. Hope has plenty of parking and is easy to get to, near the junction of interstates 85 and 101.

Idylwood Care Facility is a Skilled Nursing Center in Sunnyvale that has been serving Sunnyvale and the surrounding communities since 1958. Idylwood provides individually tailored nursing care programs for short-term rehabilitation or long-term care. The visit consists of 30 minutes with mentally challenged residents and 30 minutes with skilled nursing care residents in two separate buildings. Both visits occur in community activity rooms.

This is an Off-Leash team and pets must have passed the off-leash evaluation class. This is a facility for minors aged about 11 to 18 who are incarcerated. Volunteers are required to go through police screening procedures before their first visit and are also required to attend a 3-hour state-mandated training (not necessarily before the first visit). Typically about 6 to 8 volunteers attend each month. Visits take place outdoors with several groups of youngsters and last about two hours. Rain cancels the visit. Active dogs often do well at this visit; dogs that fetch are very popular. Because dogs are off leash and activity level is high, it is important that all pets be non-possessive of toys and non-aggressive, even in hectic situations, and that owners of small animals monitor them to avoid accidental injury.

Kensington Place is an upscale senior living community where our volunteers and their pets socialize with the residents in the lobby/library/parlor areas for 30 minutes before visiting with the residents in the memory care unit for 30 minutes. This is a beautiful, upbeat visit to do and all types of pets are welcome.

This is a Reading Buddies team and pets must have passed the Reading Buddies evaluation class. La Selva Beach Library is in a quiet neighborhood. It is a small site with an intimate setting and a large grassy area. The staff is very supportive and the visits are fun.

Laboure Residence is a retirement community and skilled nursing facility for the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul, retired Catholic Sisters, many of whom have been teachers.

Liberty Tower is a 101-unit high-rise building located in the heart of historic downtown Santa Clara, California. Nestled in lovely residential neighborhood and home to an attractive rose garden, Liberty Tower offers studio and one-bedroom apartments. Its convenient location includes nearby transportation, a post office, restaurants, a state-of-the-art senior center, and a branch library in the center of a beautiful tree-lined park.

Life Services Alternatives (LSA) is an organization that operates community-based homes to provide residential care and support for adults with developmental disabilities. To view pictures of the beautiful homes, as well as learn more about Life Services' mission, values, and goals, please visit their website at http://www.lsahomes.org. Furry Friends visits three 5-bedroom homes, each containing five residents. The homes are located near each other in a beautiful complex in Santa Clara. They are separated by a lovely grassy area.

Lincoln Glen Manor is a very pleasant senior facility located in the Willow Glen residential neighborhood. Lincoln Glen Manor is dedicated to enhancing the lives of seniors by providing 4 levels of care in independent living, assisted living, nursing care, and memory care. Furry Friends volunteers visit Lincoln Glen Manor residents and staff each month on the 2nd Monday. We meet with residents for 20 minutes in a large assisted living activity room, then we enjoy the well-kept grounds with freshly planted flowers throughout during our short walk to the nursing care activity room. We conclude our Monday site visit with residents in memory care. On the 4th Thursday, Furry Friends volunteers visit residents in the large nursing care activity room for 45-60 minutes. Furry friends volunteers may choose to visit either on Monday or Thursday or both days each month!

Live Oak Cupertino (formerly Cupertino-Sunnyvale Senior Day Services) is a senior daycare center open from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Some of the clients live there and others are there for the day. They play games, read, and have guests that come in and entertain them with music, stories, and, of course, Furry Friends. The clients have many different types of problems: stroke, dementia, and just about every other type of medical problems. There are around 8-12 clients each day.

This daycare facility in Gilroy is a lovely place with about 15 daily drop-in seniors who come Monday through Friday. The seniors and staff alike thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the visits. The clients are very interactive with the dogs and love the attention. They especially like having the dogs sit with them for photographs. While they enjoy the dog visits, they also enjoy just chatting with the Furry Friends volunteers! It's a great group of people.

Welcome to the Reading Buddies program at the Los Altos Library, a member of the Santa Clara County Library System. This library is conveniently located at 13 S. San Antonio Avenue in downtown Los Altos. The visit will be done in one large room and pets of all types are encouraged, so please make sure your animal is comfortable with “foreigners”. Animals must be calm, maintaining a sit/stay or down/stay, and enjoy being close to children for long periods of time. No health requirements for human partners are required, but humans must be at least 14 years old. Animals with prior experience are preferred, and all pets must have passed our Reading Buddies evaluation class. This is a fabulous way to increase and improve a child’s love of reading, which can change their lives forever. What a great way to spend an hour of your time.

The Los Esteros Apartments are low-income housing. The residents are not allowed to have pets here, so this is an opportunity for the children to interact with dogs.

The Los Gatos Reading Buddies Program helps children increase their reading confidence and ability by reading books aloud to pets. Interested children sign up for the program with the Los Gatos librarian on a first come, first serve basis. Our visits take place in the children's library section of the Los Gatos Public Library. All pets in the program must have passed the Reading Buddies evaluation class and should be able to remain calm and quiet while around children and in the proximity of other pets. Our visits last one hour. The Los Gatos Public Library is located at 100 Villa Avenue, just off Main Street in the Town Civic Center.

Located within the Los Gatos Therapy Center on Bascom Avenue near the intersection of Union Avenue, in Campbell, this is an IOP Program for teens. We meet in a nice and spacious, indoor living room-style setting. The meeting room is located on the first floor. The director has requested 1 large dog and 2 small dogs, 40 lbs or less. We meet for 30-35 minutes once a month. There is ample parking. The director has also requested that volunteers be aged 18 and over, be fully vaccinated, and wear masks during the entire visit.