= new reply since forum marked as read
makes me both smile and tear up. 
At the retirement community that my grandmother moved to, they have a program called Noah's Oasis. People who move there can bring any pets with them, they just can't replace them - though the community adopted a cat who had kittens there and the woodworking shop constructed a special house for her and her kittens - with a glass top so people could observe the kittens. And residents adopted both the mother and kittens.
In the nursing home part of the community, there were resident dogs or cats on each hall. And those who required that level of care could also "rent" a bird. Someone came in to clean and feed the bird every day, the residents could just enjoy them.
And I once took my grandmother to visit a friend in a nursing home around here and when we went to leave, a friendly dog got into the elevator with us. We took the elevator back up and asked the nurse about the dog and she said the dog knew where she was going. And she was right - when we got to the ground floor, the pup got right off and trotted down the hall - she was off to visit somebody! 