Tugger and Glenn Ross with Juliane Jablonski, who started the HUP's Pups program when she was a clinical nurse specialist.
Staff throughout HUP are celebrating the life and legacy of Tugger, a beloved therapy dog who was one of the first HUP’s Pups. Tugger passed away on Sept. 21, two months before his 15th birthday, after having logged 181 visits and 625 hours of service.
The HUP’s Pups pet therapy program was started by then-clinical nurse specialist Juliane Jablonski in 2010. Tugger, a chocolate Labrador retriever named after the late Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw, and his owner, Glenn Ross of Havertown, “helped set the standard for what a HUP’s Pups volunteer team should be,” said David Cribb, HUP’s director of Programs and Services.
“Tugger by himself was a great therapy dog. He loved attention and he loved for people to pet him,” Cribb said. “Glenn, however, always wanted to bring more smiles to the staff and patients.” It wasn’t uncommon to see Tugger dressed in his Eagles or Phillies gear on Sundays in the fall, in a doctor’s costume for Halloween, or wearing a Santa suit during the holidays, Cribb said.
Ross regularly brought Tugger to the hospital for visits from the time he was three years old, bringing comfort to countless employees, patients, and family members over the years, with a brief hiatus during the pandemic. The pair also made regular trips to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Bryn Mawr Hospital.
Staff give Tugger some love
“The HUP staff treated Tug as if he were a VIP,” Ross said. “As soon as we arrived, the first order of business was to make sure Tug got a banana, which was his favorite treat. Ice chips, hugs, kisses, and butt rubs soon followed. After our patient visits, we would often hear, ‘You made my day,’ or ‘Thank you so much for visiting me.’ The nurses and doctors re-iterated the same thing … Tugger had a sixth sense for recognizing people in need and I believe he truly understood how much his visit meant to them.”
Tugger loved sitting next to the patients so they could be close enough to pet him. The nurses would put a chair next to their patient’s bed, and he would eagerly jump up into it. “He was also a real ham and loved attention,” Ross said, “so there were times when he jumped up into a chair and then we wheeled him around the unit, and that scene drew lots of smiles and laughter from everyone. That was the goal of all our visits.” The pair would spend hours at the hospital, stopping in patient rooms for anywhere from five to 45 minutes at a time. “I never timed the visits. I’d stay as long as the patient enjoyed it, and Tugger liked it,” Ross said.
Fame came to Tugger when he was nine years old and the Penn Medicine Facebook page shared “a day in the life” video of him making rounds in a snowman costume. Local TV stations and other media picked up the story. Ross was moved to read comments from staff and patients whose lives Tugger had touched, like the person who wrote, “Tugger sat with my son while he had an IV inserted at Bryn Mawr Hospital, and he visited my dad days before he passed away at HUP. He makes everyone smile and helps during such difficult times.”
The Heart and Vascular Intensive Care Unit (HVICU) always looked forward to Tugger’s visits and will miss him deeply, said cardiac anesthesiologist Bonnie Milas, MD. “Tugger was such a good boy,” Milas said. “He and Glenn were two giant-hearted guys who did more for us than they will ever know.”