It’s unclear whether the herbivorous Rebachisaurus Tesonei in this photo is Dina or Dino, Diana or Dean (although its gentle eyes do recall the long-lashed girl dragon in Shrek), but the darling little girl astride its back is Ofir, and beside her are, L to R, teacher Ofira Bar Mashiah, Clinical Psychologist Elena Krivoy and Art Therapist AnaLia Magen Schlyfestone, all of the Pediatric Hemato-Oncology Department at Rambam.

In a project initiated by Madatech - the Israel National Museum of Science, Technology and Space, this dinosaur and 59 of its siblings—native to Argentina but hatched in the United States—migrated to Haifa, where they were individually painted by Israeli artists and schoolchildren and set free to graze in public spots throughout the metropolis.

The dinosaur painted by Ofir and her classmates at Rambam basks on campus in sunlight—and in the appreciation of patients and visitors—just outside our current Children’s-Hospital building. If you visit in the very early hours, you may discover moist, gnawed bark, cropped flowers and nibbled-at leaves and Dino or Dina, Dean or Diana, beatifically asleep.