Well Well Well is Seattle Met’s regular health and wellness column, covering the sometimes surprising ways we can support our physical, emotional, social, and environmental well-being.

In the ambulance bay at Harborview Medical Center, it’s uncharacteristically quiet on a Friday morning. That’s fine by Bella—like a lot of employees who work in emergency medical services, it’s been a long week and she can’t wait to take off her uniform and let the weekend begin.

But Bella differs from her coworkers in quite a few ways. For one, she has four legs—plus a soft, hypoallergenic coat and a winning smile that shows only her bottom teeth.

Bella is part of the Global Medical Response, Inc.(GMR) Therapy Dog Team, a group that serves the employees of private ambulance company American Medical Response, Inc. (AMR), which is a division of GMR.

Founded in 2016, the GMR Therapy Dog Team has grown from a small program with just a few therapy dogs into a national resource with more than 40 dogs. In the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, GMR found that the therapy dogs provided as part of the response were an important benefit to its employees. Each dog is a doodle, chosen for its temperament, intelligence, and aptitude for learning. Before being certified as an official therapy dog, it must demonstrate that it can remain obedient and calm in potentially stressful, emotional, and chaotic environments.

Bella’s been on the beat for about five years, and by all accounts, she’s great at her job. “If any employees are having a bad day, that’s what Bella’s there for,” says her handler, Erica Henry. “She has that sense; she’ll go sit right next to them.”

Henry has worked in emergency medical services for about 17 years. She started as an EMT and later transitioned into a role as the community relations coordinator for AMR Western Washington. When Bella’s previous handler retired, he chose Henry to take over the duties, knowing she had a connection with Bella and that the Australian Labradoodle would thrive in a home with four children.

While Henry and Bella are based out of an office in Tukwila, they go on plenty of field trips to hospitals, fire stations, community events, schools, and other places where emergency response crews congregate throughout King, Pierce, Lewis, and Thurston counties.

Outside of Harborview, an ambulance rolls up. Bella is quick with a greeting for an EMT who hops out of the passenger side. “Hi, my sweet girl,” he says. He recently had to take some time off and was anxious returning for his first shift post-break. “I came back after some struggles and walked in, and that was the first face I saw,” he says. Bella gave him a little head tilt and he immediately felt calmer.

As an EMT herself, Henry understands the demands of working in emergency medical services. “The ins and outs of this job as a first responder produce high rates of stress,” she says. “Especially for some of these kids that are so young getting into this job and this industry, a lot of them don’t realize the toll it can take until it’s too late.” When she started in her 20s, she found that sometimes it would get to a point where she could feel numb going into yet another crisis situation.

Although Bella’s interactions with first responders are often brief, Henry has seen how she can turn someone’s day around. A therapy dog offers a way to get support without explicitly asking for it. Bella can sense when someone needs extra attention, and she doesn’t judge—just provides comfort in an undeniably cute package.

“It’s so good for the crews,” says Andrew McCoy, MD, AMR’s medical director locally and a physician at Harborview. “We don’t have great ways to deal with all the challenges and struggles that people find themselves in with responding to acute medical situations, so any little things we can do are tremendous adds.”

Dr. McCoy also makes a stop in the ambulance bay, and Bella is thrilled. Even though she meets lots of people all the time, she recognizes ones she knows and is always quick with an enthusiastic hello. Today, Bella and Dr. McCoy are twinning in lab coats and yellow Crocs, and while Bella’s not sold on her new look (a Halloween outfit that’s sure to put her in the running for best costume among all the GMR dogs), she amiably poses for photos anyway.

“She has a lot of friends and makes a lot of people happy,” Henry says. “She has an overall sense of being that brightens everyone’s day.”

Bella will take some time to recharge this weekend, and she’s really looking forward to making up for the long walk she missed this morning, but she’ll be back at it soon. Although she can’t perform CPR or run an AED machine—at least not yet, anyway—like her comrades, Bella is here to save lives.