Casey’s Graduation

Carrie and Casey outside Boccelli’s

Today Casey officially became a guide dog for her new partner Carrie. Guide Dogs for the Blind has an official graduation where the puppy raisers symbolically hands off the puppy they raised to their new handler. Before the ceremony we have an hour or so where we get to meet our puppy’s handler and see our pup that we haven’t seen since they got on the truck to return to GDB for formal harness training.

We arrived at GDB Boring, Oregon campus at 11:45 a.m. The rest of the puppy raisers where already there. Then the group went over to the dorm building. There we were taken to different areas around the building to wait for our puppy and their partner to be brought to us. Bill went off to find a bathroom and missed Casey and Carrie when they first come out. I saw them coming down the long hallway. It was so much fun to see her again. She didn’t seem much changed and was so happy to see me. She was just getting settled down when Bill came up and she practically jumped into his arms. We spent the next hour or so chatting and cuddling and petting Casey. Casey did the typical thing of rotating around between the three of us while keeping track of her training, Amy.

Me and Casey

We gave Carrie, Casey’s “Go to Bed Blanket” that I made her while she was a puppy and a couple of basic nylabones for Casey’s birthday which was last week. He handler gave us a delicious box of chocolates from Victoria. Carrie just finished her 2nd year of law school. She is thinking of becoming a law professor but hasn’t decided for sure. She lives in a small apartment in Victoria, BC with her husband and a cat. Casey is her first guide and she said there are 20 other GDB graduates on Vancouver Island. Her and Casey and a very good match, of course. Guide Dogs for the Blind is amazing at that.

Casey and Bill

We went out to eat after graduation to an Italian place in Gresham called Boccelli’s. It was a nice place to relax and get to know Carrie better. Casey and Carrie had an early trip to the airport in the morning so we took them back to campus after dinner. It was so much fun to see Casey again. She was her normal wiggly waggly self we she saw us and we enjoyed giving her lots of loves while we got to know Carrie. I’m sure that the two of them will quickly develop into an incredible team.