LOS ANGELES - One of the angels that 9-year-old Cory Callison eagerly awaits each day wags a tail.

"Angel!" Cory shouts as she stretches out her slender bandaged arms to greet the hospital visitor, a light-brown mixture of the chow and German shepherd breeds.

Angel and her owner, Grace Freixes of Valencia, visit Cory almost every other weekend at UCLA's Mattel Children's Hospital.

Cory hopes one day for another kind of an angel in her hospital room -- one announcing that a heart has been found to replace her own. The little girl has been bedridden for almost three months and will remain so until she can get a heart transplant.

But for now, Cory knows she can rely on visits from Angel the dog -- a welcome sight hurrying to hold out a paw and then give the child a warm, furry embrace.

"This is what she looks forward to, every day and every night," said Cory's mother, Pamela Worley of Bakersfield. "It makes her happy. It makes the time pass. And she loves dogs, too. She even has a toy poodle at home named Angel."

Angel visits in a volunteer program called the UCLA People-Animal Connection, begun in 1994. Currently, 30 volunteers make the visiting rounds with their dogs at the hospital. The dogs pass a behavioral test before they can be included. Volunteers visit 40 different units and up to 400 patients a month at the UCLA Medical Center.

"When you first walk in ... you see the person in bed, and they are in pain, and then they see the animals. Their faces change, and it makes you feel good," said the program director, Jack Barron, who walked his 9-year-old golden retriever, Joey, through the hallways of the hospital. "They forget, and they put out of their minds that they are in a hospital."

For hospitalized children, the dogs bring warmth, companionship and spontaneity to sterile surroundings filled with needles, tubes and endless doctor visits.

On Sunday, some of the dogs wore holiday garb for a special visit. West Los Angeles resident Grace Sagara dressed her 10-year-old Labrador, Dan, in reindeer antlers and bells. Other dogs sported red ribbons around their collars.

The volunteers sang Christmas carols in the pediatric unit, where they paused to let small hands reach out and pet the well-behaved pooches on their furry heads.

The tender moments touch the volunteers as well as the children's parents and the hospital staff.

"This changed my life, because we all have problems, but when you see some of the people here, you forget your own problems," Barron said. "This program is a win-win for everybody."

Northridge resident Tom Marshall said he discovered the program after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and couldn't go back to work. He and his black-and-white border collie, Daisy, now come to the hospital.

Besides looking pretty, Daisy has talents.

"Can you sing for us, Daisy?" Marshall asked his dog.

Lifting her nose toward the sky, Daisy belted out a wail to the delight of onlookers.

In Cory's hospital room, Angel got one more big hug before leaving to visit with other patients.

"You got your wish! Angel came to visit, huh, Cory?" said the child's mother. "Maybe it's a sign of good things to come."