Woman disguises dog as baby to sneak it into hospital to comfort her grandma

There’s nothing the majority of us wouldn’t do to help a loved one in their hour of need. Sometimes that might mean bending certain rules or doing things we wouldn’t normally do, but if the end result is the comfort and happiness of a struggling relative, I guess that can be called fair game.

Shelby Hennick, of Santa Maria, California, knows a thing or two about doing just this. Her story achieved viral attention a few years ago in 2017 when she thought outside the box to brighten her grandma’s day.

As per reports, Shelby, then 21, was passing by her grandma Dona’s home when her mom called to tell her Dona – who was receiving treatment in hospital – was longing for a reunion with her dog Patsy.

Now, if you’ve ever spent time in and around a hospital you’ll have noticed that there’s usually a distinct lack of pets (excluding service dogs, of course). That posed an obvious problem for Shelby if she was to grant Dona’s wish of seeing her dog.

Fortunately, Shelby was able to come up with a cunning plan that involved Patsy the pooch posing as a baby! Shelby wrapped Patsy in a blanket, rested her against her shoulder, and was thereafter able to sneak through the hospital without arousing suspicion.

“Patsy was quiet the whole time and actually kept licking my arm,” she later told BuzzFeed.

And it turned out the hospital staff weren’t the only ones fooled by Shelby’s clever disguise. Dona initially wondered why her granddaughter had turned up with a baby in her arms.

“I was really happy we were able to pull it off, and I’m sure it made her day,” Shelby recalled.

After the success of her plan, Shelby took to Twitter to tell her story, with pictures of she and Patsy quickly going viral.

All told, Shelby’s post garnered over 120,000 retweets, as well as plenty of comments congratulating Shelby for doing what needed to be done to improve her grandma’s mood.