HosPet Team Retire After Years of Sharing Love

When we think of someone retiring after a successful career, we don’t usually picture a dog – and yet Hospice’s most celebrated recent retiree is therapy goldendoodle Steeler, along with his dedicated handler Linda Kinna-Engel. A former Hospice Bereavement Coordinator herself, Linda took on the task of handling Steeler after her own career retirement in 2015, and the pair have been a constant fixture with Hospice patients since then – now, with Steeler being over 10 years old, taking a well-deserved rest.

Linda says that she and Steeler first met after he was purchased as a puppy by Stauffer Funeral Home, specifically to provide comfort to Hospice patients.

“He would visit the Hospice offices a few days a week,” she says. “He began to follow me around and sleep under my desk. He essentially picked me as his person.”

After Linda retired, given their connection, Hospice asked if she would begin working with him.

“I went through a three-month-long handler trial, and had to go through all the training they had already given him. He began working at only eight months old,” she says.

From there, the two began visiting facilities and sometimes private homes for three days a week. It quickly became clear that Steeler was gifted in his role: “He always seemed to know just who to visit,” Linda says. Steeler would often gravitate into the rooms of patients who had had to give up pets after moving into a facility.

Other employees and visitors often remarked at how quiet Steeler would be during visits – he was trained never to bark – and he was gentle and sensitive with everyone he met.

Sometimes he would stretch out a paw to touch someone’s hand, Linda recalls, and even when they visited funerals, he would walk up to quietly sit with and offer comfort to people who were emotional. “I couldn’t tell you how many lives he touched,” Linda says.

Now the pair are going to mostly enjoy their time together, she says – she is his primary caregiver, sharing him with his Stauffer foster parent Julie Condrasky. Because he so enjoys seeing people, though, Linda says he’ll continue to visit her grief share group at church.

“He just loves to provide a quiet presence,” she says. “He’s actually taught me a lot.”