This week had some great days and some challenging ones.
I don’t know that Yakira yawned more than any of our other puppies but when you are trying to find words that start with “y” for her book you don’t turn away a word like yawn. I don’t think she loved having her photo taken and so we did catch of few “stress” yawns.
A book I read about dogs said that yawning is a calming signal. They could be trying to calm themselves or they could be trying to calm someone around them. Yakira has a quiet kind of confidence so it could be that her yawning was all about helping those around her calm down.
Dune
For puppy class this week we met at the Valley Fair Mall. I thought it would be the usual socializing but our leader divided us into two team for a scavenger hunt. The two little puppies, Dune & Eagle, stayed in the center of the mall while the rest of the pups went off to find the things on the list and take photos of our puppies with the items we found. It was lots of fun. The mall was rather quiet and so the clerks were always happy to help us and the pups went lots of places all over the mall. Here are some of the photos.
Dune in Akyra’s lap
King & Zodiac in the arcade
plastic fork in the food court with King & Zodiac
a bouquet of flowers with Zodiac and King
Zodiac, King and a stuffed bear
King and Zodiac by luggage with wheels
Our Scavenger Hunt Team – Bill, McKale, Raelyn, King & Zodiac
When Yakira was about three months old we went into the mountains for our annual Christmas tree cutting. I was concerned about how she would handle the snow and if it would be too deep for her. But she was a trooper. She only got cold once and after I warmed her up on my lap she was good to go.
Yakira also loved the biggest toys when she was little. The jolly ball was a life saver because she could attack it and get out some of her extra energy. She never let the size or weight of anything stop her from picking it up and carrying it around.
Yakira’s dad, Pike, is from an Australian guide dog school so it seems fitting to use a couple of Aussie words in her book.
From a very young age Yakira was a talker. Especially when she was playing she would vocalize with all kinds of noises. Some were happy sounds and some didn’t sound so happy, but I think they really were happy most of the time. She was just pretending.
Once in a while those not so happy sounds would shift just a little and you could hear her frustration. Yakira was patient with Zodiac but sometime she just had enough of his little puppy ways and she let him know politely.
Yakira – Cover
(photo by associate of Lisa Thompson)
In honor of Yakira’s recent graduation and since I finally have her puppyhood book finished I decided it was a good time to do a series of post on her book. This is the fifth book I’ve done for the puppies we have raised. You can see Apex’s, Banta’s, Casey’s and Waffle’s books by following the links on their names. (Oops, I’ve never posted Apex’s Book. I’ll have to put that on my to do list.) I designed Apex’s from scratch and then made a template based on it for all of our black dogs. Then a tweaked the coloring for all of our yellow dogs. I customize for each one by changing the font for their name etc and the accent colors for that font. Using the template really helps in speeding up the time it takes to put each book together. I also like the continuity that it brings to the series. Beside using the template for the layout, all the books text is based on the concept of taking their initial and finding words that start with the same letter to describe their personality, trait or memory of that puppy. Yakira was a challenge because of that. If we succeed in getting an “X” puppy someday, I think I’ll have to adjust that guideline and find words containing the letter x.
Yakira Book – title page (photo by Lisa Thompson)
This is a quirky little book about a rather dysfunctional family and town, but I think I like it. There is a short paragraph about each person along with a rustic illustration drawn by the last surviving member of the Pataw family. The stories were compiled and edited by Lindsey Marie Fenderson. I especially like the way it tells the story of this family in a very approachable and interesting way. How could this book be an inspiration in telling one of your family’s stories? I’m filing this idea away for future reference.
I started a family history for my mom about 10 years ago. I finished Volume One in 2004 that covered their courtship and marriage. There’s nothing fancy about this series of histories. They are based on letters and journal entries from my mom and include photos. The are all printed on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, bound with wire binding and simple laminated card stock for their covers. My binding machine can only handle 100 sheets of paper so each history is limited to 200 pages. All of the volumes have the same format which speeds up the time it takes to put them together. Plus it gives a consistency to the volumes. Volume 6 covers 1994 through August 1997. It was supposed to cover more years but my mom wrote lots of letters to her sisters in those years so we have more text than we could fit in 200 pages. I’ve got all the photos placed. I still have final corrections on the text to do and I need to label the photos. Then it should be ready to print. Hopefully I’ll get that all done in the next week or so.
Doing a history like this isn’t hard. It takes time to organize, scan, enter in the text and decide on a format. It isn’t very exciting reading but it does a pretty good job of documenting our families history and it is a good source to go to for information.
In many ways this has been a very good week. I think I have a tiny touch of spring fever.
Zodiac
Zodiac Eval:
On Monday Zodiac had an official evaluation by our CFR (Community Field Representative) at Trolley Square. Last Saturday we had an optional outing at Trolley Square to give our pups a chance to experience the environment ahead of time. Zodiac had trouble on Saturday with layovers and animal distractions at the Best Friends Animal Society. I was feeling a bit stressed about his eval. We worked on his lay-over and he got some better. He was so good at church on Sunday. I was sitting next to a mother with a crawling baby. This little girl dropped food and chucked toys and Zodiac handled it all perfectly. That helped me be more relaxed about Monday.
He wasn’t perfect on Monday. Her refused to do the layover. Now we have a new food protocol for helping him with that. We had the last eval slot of the night so Best Friends was closed, so he did perfectly there. She commented on his strong neck when she took him for a while and some kids decided to create a big distraction at the wrong moment. For that she suggested more time on the flat collar and less on the head collar. Overall I think he did ok. His next eval will probably be just before he returns to Guide Dogs for harness training.
Dune in her new puppy in training jacket
Dune’s Jacket & Three Months Old:
At the end of the eval for Zodiac, Dune got her jacket. It was a fitting day to earn her jacket since she turned three months old on Monday too. She has been getting bored at home and wanting to have new adventures. With her jacket she is legal to go out and start socializing. On Tuesday Dune got to go to the Library and a short trip into our local grocery store. She was so excited and wanted to meet every person she saw. On Wednesday we had a women’s meeting at church and so I took her. She settled down pretty good. The food protocol is great for this. She gets a kibble every few minutes for sitting and then laying quietly on the floor. She got lots of oohs and awes because she is so cute. On Thursday Zodiac went to work with Bill so the two of us had a quiet day at home. She wanted to go with them so bad. Dune laid on the landing by the door for about an hour after they left. This morning Dune got her first chance to go to work with Bill. I picked her up before noon. She is too young to handle a whole day at work. She did pretty good, once she accepted that the tie down wasn’t coming off.
Both pups are doing good and they both have things to work on. But they bring lots of smiles and laughter to our lives.
telling family tales 