Category Archives: My Life

National Service Dog Month

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September in National Service Dog Month in the United States. So this month I thought I’d highlight guide dogs in my weekly puppy posts. This week I decided to start with how a little about training guide dogs. Guide Dogs for the Blind did a series of videos  a few years ago by following a trainer through San Fransisco. It shows one dog, Solana and some of what a training session is like.

This first video show the dogs loading up in the morning. It is the longest video and the least interesting in most ways. So if your pressed for time skip this one or if you really like the others come back to this one.

In this video show unloading the dogs from the training van, harnessing up and starting off down the street in San Fransisco.

This video features training on escalators and subway platforms.

In the last video you get to meet Solana’s partner on her graduation day.

50 for 50 #34 – Humane Society

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Shadow

About 16 years ago we adopted a lab mix from the Humane Society of Utah. They said his name was Kiwi but he didn’t seem to know that name so we picked a new one, Shadow. He took to that name right away. Shadow was a part of our family until 2007 when he got cancer.

So this week, to celebrate my 50th year, I drove back to the Humane Society in honor of Shadow and the start to our involvement with dogs. The place has changed in some ways and is the same in others. They’ve added on to the building with a vet clinic and a really nice place for the cats waiting for adoption called Kitty City. It is such a contrast to the space they have for dogs. The dog area hasn’t changed other than they have put some elevated dog beds in each the kennels. It was a very sad place to visit. The poor dogs with no family to love them. I’m sure that most of them would make wonderful pets with the right love and training. But there they are abandoned to their fates.

Humane Society of Utah

When I drove up I saw a man taking a large white and black dog in. The poor pup had no leash and the man was tall enough that the dogs front legs where off the ground. It was such a sad sight. If that is the way he treats dogs, than that dog is probably better off at the Humane Society. Such a contrast to the loving treatment that all the puppies that are part of the Guide Dogs for the Blind family. They come to us with no baggage. They really think the whole world loves them because they have such a sheltered life. No mater what their future brings there will be someone there to make sure they have a safe and loving home. This is one of the things that I love about Guide Dogs for the Blind, they truly love each one of these puppies.

Apex Update

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Apex in his rain coat

I got some of the cutest pictures of Apex this week. Even though they didn’t get hit by hurricane Isaac, they got plenty of rain in Apex’s neck of the woods. He wasn’t too happy about standing in the rain to get his photo taken but isn’t he just so handsome.

Apex is a good listener

We also got this sweet photo with the following explanation:

He was in the 2-year-old class today making friends when we caught her telling him the story about her picture. Today was her 1st day and she had been screaming all morning… But after Apex came to visit all was well.

It makes my day when ever I get news from one of our pups and when photos come too it is even better. It is icing on the cake when I get a sweet story like that above about the impact a puppy we raised is having on the world.

 

My Guide Dog Song

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I made up a song this week about the stages of life of a guide dog. It was inspired by and is sung to the tune of the “Gilwell Song”. We learned it this year while we were at Wood Badge, a leadership training put on by the Boy Scouts of America. We had a Wood Badge reunion this week and it got the song stuck in my head again. So I think this was an attempt by my brain to move on to something else. Here is a link to the tune. Gilwell Song. You can sing along if you are brave enough to try.

My Guide Dog Song

I’m just a little puppy, but a good old puppy too.

And when I’m finished growing, I wonder what I’ll do.

I love my puppy raisers, but there is so much more,

So I’m going to be a guide dog if I can.

Back for training, happy land, I’m going to be a guide dog if I can.

———

I used to be a puppy, and a good old puppy too.

But now I’ve finished growing, I wonder what I’ll do.

I love my puppy raisers, but there is so much more,

So I’m going to be a guide dog if I can.

Back for training, happy land, I’m going to be a guide dog if I can.

———

At last I am a guide dog, and a good old guide dog too,

But now that I am guiding, I have so much to do.

I am not old or feeble, so I can guide some more.

And I’m going to help my handler if I can.

I am guiding, happy land, I’m going to help my handler if I can.

———

I used to be a guide dog, and a good old guide dog too,

But now I’m finished guiding, I don’t know what to do.

I’m growing old and feeble, and I can guide no more.

So I’m going to take a nap if I can.

Back to sleeping, happy land, I’m going to take a nap if I can.

———

Zodiac is so funny. When I start singing this song he gets all excited. He runs up to me and usually jumps on me too. I just can’t help but feel happy when I sing about my pups and he is very attracted to happiness and anything that might be fun.

Do you ever make up new words to songs or with your own tune and lyrics? I did one once while I was walking Casey when she was young. But I didn’t write it down and most of it has been forgotten.

50 for 50 #33 – Swiss Chocolate

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Lindt milk chocolate

This week, to celebrate turning 50 years old this year, I decided to eat some Swiss chocolate. I picked up a bar of Lindt classic milk chocolate from the grocery store. The package stated that it was actually made in New Hampshire but that the quality was guaranteed by Lindt & Sprungli of Switzerland. So it wasn’t actually Swiss chocolate but it was still yummy.

Almost 30 years ago, while I was playing volleyball at BYU, we took a month-long trip to Europe. One of the stops on our tour was Switzerland. I remember seeing the Chateau de Chillon with its stone walls by the lake, Bern and the LDS temple there, and finally the beauty and quiet of Interlaken. I’d love to visit Switzerland again some day.

Chateau de Chillon – 1983

One Year Old – Yakira

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Yakira in the birthday bandana

This week marked Yakira’s first birthday. This is a big milestone in a puppies life. Now we switch her over to adult food. So I got out a bunch of small storage containers and measured out all the food for the next week so that she can make a smooth transition without any digestive upset. I like to do it this way instead of trying to keep track of how much of each food she is supposed to eat each day. Plus it makes it easier for Bill, who usually feeds the pups their breakfast. Usually we are also finishing off the last of the puppy food so then once it is all measured out I can tell when to actually start the transition and not end up with a bunch of puppy food to store until we get the next puppy. With Zodiac here I didn’t have to worry about that.

The other side of Yakira’s birthday is that her time with us is coming to a close. She will probably head back to guide dogs in two months. It could be longer depending on the timing of puppy trucks and what the needs of the breeding department is. Last year Casey’s return was delayed a couple of months because the breeding department had too many dogs to evaluate already that they didn’t want her yet. Yakira is a sweet and wonderful dog and she is “very well put together” as the CFR (Community Field Representative) put it when she evaluated her in July. Because of this she sent a note to breeding to keep an eye out for Yakira. That put together with her diverse lineage from outside of GDB, I’m guessing they would really like for her to be a breeder if she passes all the other tests.

So we have entered the final leg of raising Yakira. I’m sure the time for her to get on the truck will be here too soon. At the same time I always look forward to finding out what the future brings for our dear sweet Yakira. Plus in many ways I am looking forward to being a one dog household again.

50 for 50 #32 – Fish and Chips

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As I was deciding what I wanted to do to celebrate my 50th year this week I starting making a list of the ideas that where possible. Then one of the ideas jump out as the perfect choice, fish and chips. I listed this as an idea to celebrate going to England in 1983 with BYU volleyball team. This week seemed like the perfect timing since the Olympics are finishing up in London too.

So I picked up some French fries and some battered fish patties at the grocery store along with a bottle of malt vinegar. It has been a busy week so there was no way that I had time to do it all from scratch. That would have been fun but not very practical. I can’t remember if I actually ate fish and chips while I was in London but it is the symbolism that matters. It worked out to be a fun and quick dinner that fit perfectly into my schedule.

Puppy Pool Party

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Lotus swimming

This week was the annual puppy pool party. Every year about this time our puppy raising club makes arrangements for the puppies to get a chance to go swimming. Most of the years we have raised puppies, the party has been at Gael’s house. Her daughters have raised three puppies. Right now she is being a puppy sitter. For most of the pups this is their only exposure to swimming. You would think that with a bunch of labs they would take to swimming with no trouble but for puppies in training the norm is not that at all. It is rare that any of the pups really take to the water and enjoy themselves. I’m sure with enough exposure over time that most of them would learn to love the water. But since swimming isn’t part of their formal guide dog duties that doesn’t happen, at least not as puppies.

Bill and Zodiac

We have been puppy sitting Lotus this week, while his raiser is at girls camp. Zodiac went to Lisa’s for the week so that we could take Lotus. Lisa has puppy sat Lotus before so this gave him another experience. So Bill took Yakira into the pool, I had Lotus and Lisa had Zodiac. Yakira was the best swimmer of the three. She was probably one of the best of all the puppies there but not by much. Bill eventually took all three puppies swimming. I think all the puppy raisers ended up with at least a few scratches and bruises from flailing puppy paws and claws.

pool party fun

Gael generously also provided pizza and soda, while Karen brought some fresh fruit. It was a fun day. The pups had the most fun running around the outside of the pool. We were all exhausted by the end of the night.

puppies having fun outside of the pool

Sony and Yakira after the pool fun

 

 

 

Waffle Update

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Waffle with her “go to bed” blanket – photo by Lisa Thompson

We got some more news this week on Waffle. She has been in a foster home to assess her potential as a K9 Buddy. But she has a little too much energy for any of the kids that are looking for a K9 Buddy now. They still think she is a really nice dog and so they are looking for a community placement for her before placing her as a pet. A community placement could be another type of service dog or a therapy dog or anything else beyond being just a pet.

So now more waiting to see what Waffle’s future will be. They probably won’t give us more information until they are sure that any placement they make is going to work out for her.

50 for 50 #31 – 25th Anniversary

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from our wedding announcement 25 years ago

This week marked 25 years since Bill and I got married. I find it funny that I’m celebrating my 50th birthday and my 25th wedding anniversary in the same year. I spent some time thinking about the fact that I’ve spent half my life married. It feel kind of strange to think that I spent as many years single as I have married. Then my thoughts went to where will I be in another 25 years when I’m 75 years old and celebrating my 50th wedding anniversary.

It was my turn to plan our anniversary. With everything else I’ve done over the summer I forgot about our anniversary until about a week ago. So my plans had to be simple. I came up with 12 things to do with our courtship and marriage and wrote them on small pieces of paper. Then we drew a paper out and did what was on the paper. Bill took the day off work so we had the day together. We did a variety of things, including going to a movie (Dark Night Rising) in the theater where we our first movie together to downloading the first movie we saw (Mannequin) and watching it on Bill laptop. We had Chow Mein for dinner. I think this was the first meal that we fixed together. We drove by the business where we met and went to City Creek because the mall that use to be there is where we bought our wedding rings. It was a fun and relaxed day together and I’m grateful for the relationship that we have after 25 years.

What are your favorite things you have done to celebrate an anniversary?