WRITTEN BY: Lauren Cavagnolo
As the only dog to ever live at the hospital, Tippi is a bit of a celebrity in the Saint Francis Health System. She was featured
in the hospital’s own magazine and was even in a commercial for the health system.
Tippi first arrived in Tulsa as a puppy with Sister Mary Nika Schaumber, RSM, in 2003 from the Religious Sisters of Mercy motherhouse in Alma, Mich. The Bichon Frise has lived with the sisters at the hospital ever since.
“She actually was raised by one of our sisters. Her mother breeds Bichons, and she came to Michigan because another sister had a niece who was disabled. They thought she needed a dog, but it didn’t work out,” Schaumber explained. “So, we had an extra dog at the motherhouse, and we got Tippi.”
The fluffy white dog quickly made a place for herself in the convent at the hospital’s main campus, which currently is home to six sisters who are a part of the Religious Sisters of Mercy.
“She will search out the sisters during the day to see if anyone is home. She will go around until she finds you, and then she will plop herself down,” said Sister Gianna Marie Savidge, RSM.
Walking through the convent, visitors can spot a small dog bed (many of them pink!) neatly tucked in the corner of almost every room.
“She has beds all over,” Schaumber acknowledged. “The pathologists, every year, would bring her presents. Rick Ellis started it. I remember the first time they came, they saw that we had a dog, so they came back with loads of treats. And every Christmas, they bring a new bed.”
While the current convent was being built, the sisters temporarily relocated to Saint Francis South. Tippi was equally loved and spoiled by the staff there as well.
“I remember we had an open house a couple weeks after we moved in so we could meet the staff. People brought so many gifts for Tippi and nothing for us!” Schaumber chuckled. “Beds, treats, everything for Tippi. It really was funny.”
Schaumber said the sisters began taking Tippi out the fire escape for her bathroom breaks during their stay at the south campus because she was stopped so frequently by people if they walked her through the halls of the hospital.
Tippi—whose full name is Tipperary, after a town in Ireland— is not the only dog cared for by the Religious Sisters of Mercy. Schaumber said most of their convents have dogs.
“We name our dogs after places in Ireland because the founder of our community is from Ireland. It’s better than [giving] them a person’s name and then a person comes in with a similar name; we have run into that, so we learned that this is safer,” Schaumber said.
Savidge said their convents are home to all different types of dogs, and many of them are rescues, including a German Shepherd Rottweiler mix named Sligo. The dog found himself in need of a home after being hit by a car and rescued by a postman.
While Tippi has a therapeutic role, and all are in agreement that she brings joy and comfort to people, she is not actually a certified therapy dog.
“Sister Anne loved Tippi, and she wanted to bring Tippi to see everyone in the hospital. [But] it was better that we not get her trained to be a therapy dog because I knew Tippi would need a full-time sister to take her around to everyone Mother Anne wanted her to go to,” Schaumber said. “What we did then, especially in our old convent, we had another garden, and patients would come to the garden to see Tippi. That worked out much better.”
Schaumber remembers one visit in particular with an older gentleman in a wheelchair.
“It was an enlivening experience for him,” she said. “You could just see the joy because she has so much energy and enthusiasm that it helps. It helps enormously. It’s been a little less frequently now. She is more just faithful. She follows you around, and she is just a faithful animal.”
On another occasion, a sister was taking Tippi for a walk and encountered an older child being wheeled out of the hospital. The sister asked if the child would like to see Tippi, and she did. So, she put Tippi on her lap, Schaumber recounted.
“Well, the girl had been mauled by a dog and had been very seriously injured. And the mother started to cry because the girl had been so traumatized by the experience that she couldn’t even pet another dog,” she said. “And it was just such a healing experience for that young girl. It was the first time she was released from the hospital and was able to hold her.”
But it is not just patients in the hospital who love and benefit from Tippi’s presence. Staff will often ask to see Tippi just to cheer themselves up.
“Staff would come to play with Tippi. She was much more energetic at that time,” Schaumber recalled. “We used to have five people in a row, and you would throw a ball. Tippi would know, and she would bring the ball back to one person at a time. She would go to all five people and then start all over again. So, she is a community dog.”
At this point, almost all of the staff know Tippi or have at least heard about her. Tippi has even attended new staff orientation at times.
“The sisters here have a ministry of presence. So does Tippi,” said Lauren Landwerlen, executive director of corporate communications for Saint Francis Health System.
Staff have come to associate the sisters with Tippi, and any sister walking the halls or grounds of the hospital is bound to be asked about Tippi.
Schaumber, who has become Tippi’s main caretaker, left the Tulsa convent for six years to be with novices at the motherhouse and returned July 2018.
“I know when I was not here, the sisters would frequently bring Tippi through the hospital. Her walk would be to walk on the skywalk and things like that. And even now when I go on the skywalk, people will stop me and ask, ‘Where is Tippi? How is she?’” Schaumber said.
For some, the presence of Tippi may make it easier for them to approach the sisters.
“Oklahoma is not a heavily Catholic state, so I think sometimes there is a little bit of mystery around the sisters in general,” Landwerlen said. “When they are with Tippi, it is an easy ice breaker.”
In addition to the patients and staff, the sisters also delight in Tippi’s company.
“She has been very healing for those with later onset dementia and those with illness who come through here for a time. It’s therapeutic to have a dog in that setting for the sisters who are aging,” Savidge said.
One sister in particular with early onset dementia loved Tippi, and Tippi was a great help for her, according to Schaumber.
“When Sister Mary Lucy was here, she would feed Tippi from the table,” Schaumber said. “It wasn’t good for Tippi, but it was good for Sister Mary Lucy.”
Mother Anne Marie is another sister who became attached to Tippi. She lived in the Tulsa convent for about 12 years and is now at the motherhouse in Michigan.
“Mother Anne—she’s 94—but she still asks about Tippi. ‘How is my Tippi?’ Schaumber said. “She would go around in her electric wheelchair with Tippi in her lap. She cheered her up a lot.”
At 16 years old, Tippi is considered a senior herself though she is maintaining good health.
“She is doing well,” Schaumber said. “The vet told me in September, ‘You must be doing something right because she is doing very well.’ She had her spleen out; that was when I wasn’t here. But on the whole, she is doing well.”
Though the sisters love Tippi very much and dote on her, Schaumber said, “St. Thomas Aquinas says that we [should] try not to treat our animals as people. But at the same time, St. Thomas would say an animal is a trace of God.”
“We don’t want to treat dogs like people so that there is a difference. I think, unfortunately, our culture sometimes does that. We don’t want to do that,” Schaumber said. “But at the same time, when she was younger, she was very much a community dog. She would be present to everybody and be a source of joy and amusement—and help to build community.”
Schaumber said one evening William K. Warren Jr., whose parents founded Saint Francis, had dinner with the sisters and Tippi at the convent.
“He commented on how Tippi makes the outsiders feel welcome, which I thought was beautiful,” Schaumber remembered. “That’s true because [Tippi’s presence] just makes people relaxed and feel like they are loved, and that is what’s important, which hopefully is what we all do in the hospital.”
