Most hospitals will see therapy dogs roaming the halls to lighten up the mood of sick patients.
But this easter, the Beaudesert Hospital had a pair of alpacas visiting patients and nurses.
Noodle and Shadow from Mountview Alpaca Farm in Canungra were the talk of the hospital halls, getting pats and smiles as they wore their easter bunny ears.
Owner of Mountview Alpaca Farm Stephen Pack said the alpaca hospital visits have been happening for around seven years.
“Initially how it started was a friend of ours who was a barista in Canungra got a job at an aged care place,” he said.
“He asked if we thought it would be possible to bring the alpacas to the aged care place. So, we decided to give it a go.”
The feedback from the visits were overwhelmingly positive which led to an opportunity from former Councillor Virginia West.
“Virginia asked us if we might be able to fill a gap at the Beaudesert Hospital left by a therapy dog who was retiring with it’s handler,” Stephen said.
“It was at a difficult time for us. We had no resources and no funds. We’d just been wiped out basically by Cyclone Debbie.”
“We sort of shrugged again and said yeah okay we’ll give it a crack and it was quite fantastic.”
The alpacas began visiting the Beaudesert Hospital every month and then started gaining some publicity.
A poignant moment for Stephen was when Shadow visited a patient, a former farmer, at the Logan Hospital pallative care unit.
“Shadow was really young at the time so we were able to pick him up and sit him on the bed beside the bloke. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house,” he said.
“He died within 24 hours of that visit. I consider it the single best thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
Noodle and Shadow have been doing the hospital visits for a year now, and Mr Pack said they’re the right alpacas for the job.
“Shadow was orphaned as a young one and I became his mum. I did all of his cleaning and he slept on the floor beside my bed. So he’s interacted with humans his whole life,” he said.
“For Noodle, she’s an absolute gem. You can have a dozen people walk up and she’ll just stand there and strike the pose and wait for the photos to be taken.”
