FrontRunner Ride

Posted on September 26, 2011 by tellingfamilytales

Waiting on the platform for the return trip – Bill & Casey

For puppy class this week we road the FrontRunner commuter train from Salt Lake City to Layton and back. One of the puppy raiser’s husband works for UTA and made arrangements for free passes. Casey has been on the train before when we did they same thing for puppy class last winter. Waffle did good too. I thought she might have trouble with getting on the train and going over the gap but she handled everything just fine. I did quite a bit of food rewards as we walked around by the trains and buses just to make sure she kept moving along and didn’t get into her “I don’t want to move” mode. All the dogs seemed to handle things very well.

This was Waffle’s last puppy class as part of our club. Friday she will be transferred to a high school student. It was also Cobb’s last class. He is going to Colorado for our CFR to evaluate him. Lindsey thinks he doesn’t have what it takes to be a guide dog and so Barb will be decided whether to career change him or send him back for training on the October 15th puppy truck. Just one more puppy meeting for Casey, Radison and Kasha. Boy lots of big changes are coming to our club in the next few weeks.

Casey & Waffle Farewell Party

Posted on September 25, 2011 by tellingfamilytales

Invite for Waffle’s & Casey’s Farewell Party

We have the tradition to have a Farewell Party the Sunday before each of our puppies gets on the truck. Since Waffle is transferring to the high school program on Saturday and Casey gets on the truck a couple of weeks after that we decided to combine the two parties together. It is just a relaxed fun time where friends, family and especially kids from the neighborhood and play with the pups and see them in their home environment. We had a card to sign for each of the girls. Usually we have a guess the puppy name contest but since we don’t know what letter of puppy we are getting yet we had a vote for your favorite photo contest. We have an official puppy portrait wall and I had narrowed Waffle’s photo down to four and thought it would be fun for people to vote on which one they liked best. We had an obvious winner. So I uploaded it here because I didn’t get any photos take at the party.

winning Waffle portrait – taken by Lisa Thompson

Now I need to get this photo prepared to take to Pixels and have a canvas made for our wall. I don’t think I can get it back before she leaves but hopefully it won’t take too long to get done. Waffle is finally big enough to wear her big girl collar. The other pups have been able to wear it at 6 months but Waffle has such a skinny head that it could easily slip off. Our little girl is getting all grown-up and ready to leave the nest. Friday is going to come really fast I’m afraid. I wonder if it will be harder to had a puppy off to another raiser than it is to put them on the puppy truck back to Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Waffle Gets Fixed

Posted on September 20, 2011 by tellingfamilytales

Waffle getting snuggles from Bill at the vet

Today was the day that Waffle was scheduled to get spayed. Last night she got home from the puppy swap and seemed extra thirsty. She went into the bathroom and drank out of the toilet which she has never done before. So we gave her some extra water. She wasn’t suppose to eat or drink after midnight. I meant to make sure the toilet lid was down if this was a new trend she wouldn’t have access to it this morning. But somehow I forgot. And she went straight to the toilet this morning and snuck in about 3 laps. I was sure we would have to reschedule her surgery but they said it would be fine. When I was unpacking her bag from the puppy swap we figured out why she was so intent on getting water. It appears that she didn’t get fed before she was return last night from the puppy swap and we didn’t realize it. Because there was a baggie with one of her meals in it. Poor Waffle. Her tummy was so empty and she wanted to fill it with something so she went after water. I felt so bad because we couldn’t feed her breakfast because of the surgery.

Bill took her to Cottonwood Animal Hospital on his way to work. It took awhile because there were so many other dogs waiting to check in too. This afternoon Dr. Porter called and said that everything went well. I was glad to hear that. Then this evening the three of us (me, Bill and Casey) went to visit Waffle. She was a little groggy but she was happy to see us and went spent about a half an hour or so give her loves and cuddles. The labradoddle in the next kennel wanted some attention too but I couldn’t do much for him through the door of the kennel. Casey didn’t like it if I gave Waffle too much attention so Bill did most of the real cuddling with Waffle. Finally we put Waffle back in the kennel and headed home. Waffle was not happy about being left behind and made her feelings known. We get to pick her up anytime after 10 a.m. tomorrow and she will hang out with Bill at work because I need to go to Provo tomorrow and have other errands to run.