This is Hunter, the therapy dog

Hunter, a therapy dog, sits with Tyler Regier, 2. Photos: TNS

Hunter makes daily rounds at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Sort of like a doctor – until he jumps into a kid’s bed and gets his tummy rubbed. Doctors can’t do that.

Another difference: when Hunter, a two-year-old golden retriever, walks into a patient’s hospital room, that child, sometimes a very sick child, usually breaks into a smile.