We are still alive. . .

Well, we have finished two more sessions and start anther one on Sunday! I absolutely love it here. I am so glad that I decided to come.

So I am going to back track a bit to catch you all up. One the 30th (Spankys B-day) we all went to Germs house with five of our pups (Spanky, Frisco, Miata, Sherwood, and Godfrey) to have a pool party for him. . . okay so it wasn't specifically for him but we decided it was a b-day party for him while the dogs were running around. They had a grand old time jumping in the pool and running around Germs backyard. While I was there I called GDB to discuss placement for Sherman, I said that I couldn't take him back and asked if they could find community placement for him. The lady I talked to was very nice and said they would look into other jobs that he could do. I didn't expect to get a response as fast as I did but a couple days later I got this e-mail from Dogs4Diabetics:

"Dear Megan: Thank you for your generous gift of Sherman to our program. Dogs4Diabetics is non-profit organization that teaches a dog to alert on Type 1 diabetics. Dogs4Diabetics dogs are specifically trained to identify and more importantly, act upon the subtle changes that hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) creates in the body chemistry of type 1 diabetics.

We picked up Sherman today at the GDB. What a sweet mellow dog, you did a fine job in puppy raising. He will be living at night and during the weekends with a foster family. During the week day he will be brought by the foster family in for training and obedience work. We look forward to working with Sherman here at D4D.

Thank you for the puppy pictures, Sherman looks like he had a wonderful puppy hood. Your detailed "Fun Things About My Puppy" is a big help for us to get to know him.

I also raise puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind and realize the generous gift we have received in your donation of Sherman to our program.

We send out a short report monthly,regarding Sherman's training and socialization's. At times the report time may longer, please be patient with us, we are almost a total volunteer organization.

If you are interested more in our program, please look us up on the web at dogs4diabetics.com.

Thank you again, for your generous gift."

I am so excited and proud of my boy. I hope he does well in his new job! I already got an e-mail from his foster mommy and she loves him and told me how sweet and mellow he is. Good Luck Shermy!!!

Spanky is still doing great here at camp our last session was elementary camp and my campers LOVED having him in the cabin with them. They all had to take turns saying goodnight to him and giving him pets. It was so cute. I had some of the cutest little girls in my cabin they were nine to eleven years old and such sweet little girls. It was hard to say goodbye to him by the end of the week.

Anyway, it is late and I am exhausted so goodnight everyone. . . oh and my b-day is in six days on the twenty fourth. Ya for being old. I was so happy when I told my campers that my birthday was on the twenty fourth and I was turning twenty three I said that I was so old and they said I wasn't old until I was twenty five. That made me laugh so hard, they are so very sweet. Hope everyone is doing well!!

First Session down and some bad news. . .

Our first session is done! I think it went really well. Of course we had a few hiccups and some very stressful and frustrating moments but we all pulled through okay. This first session was a family camp and I was co-counselor with a VI guy named Rambo. It was fun working with him he is a really sweet guy. We were in charge of three families one had two VI kids, the other one VI kid and the third was a completely blind boy. It was so great to get to know them and see how excited they were for all the activities. I had a very fun week. :)

Today is Spankys birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE BLACK LABBY NAMED SPANKY!!!! I don't have anything really fun planned I got a few new toys for him and he will wear his silly birthday hat too. Right now he is curled up in a ball sleeping on the floor in the arms of a guy named Hercules. He is such a sweet doggie and I think in the last week we have really bonded. I love this boy!! (Okay, so I tried to upload pics but the Internet connection is supremely slow so I may have to wait until after I get home from camp in August and post one big picture post.)

Now for the bad news:

DOG: 40M0 - Sherman M\LAB\Black - TRN\REL DOB:1/20/2007
LOCATION: SR
DISPOSITION: Update
MANAGEABLE COMPANION: No
RELEASED DATE: 6/27/2008
PLACEMENT:
SUMMARY: Sherman is an average-sized male black lab. He is a very willing, manageable and attentive dog. He is affectionate and playful, but settles very well
when asked and has an average energy level. Very good house behavior when home for a night with instructor- appropriate with older pet dog.
Sherman has adjusted well to the kennel and has done nicely with a couple different roommates. He plays well with other dogs. He received little formal
training at GDB, but has very good basic obedience and manners. I feel that he would be suitable for any sort of placement, including community/special
placement.
Sherman was CCʼd for soft trachea. He is currently eating 2c BID of SD L&R, and is on no medications.
RELEASE REASON(S): 10014 - MED: Trachea, sensitive

I am way bummed about Sherman being CC'd. He was my perfect puppy and I so looked forward to seeing him in harness. He is also my first medical CC and I just want to say it SUCKS because he is such a great dog. I have to wait until I have cell phone reception later today before I can call GDB to decide on placement for him. I so wish I could keep him, I have cried lots of tears the last few days because I know he can't come home. I hope he finds the perfect place for him, it sounds like GDB really likes him though he got a very good report. I am so proud of my boy and want him to be in the best place for him. I know GDB will find him the perfect home. That's about it for now. Talk to you all later.

Howdy from Camp Bloomfield!!

We finished our first week at Camp Bloomfield!!! And now we are on our first break. Which we so needed because a lot of us are getting burned out. :) It has been so much fun as well as exhausting and blazing HOT!! This first week we spent training and preparing for our first session which starts on Tuesday, so we have to report back to camp tomorrow evening. There are a lot of great and fun people here I had no idea how diverse it was going to be. We have quite a big chunk of international staff from all over like, Ireland, England, Kazakhstan, Korea, South Africa, Columbia and a bunch of others. It has been fun to get to know them and their cultures and everything.

Anyway, training week has been a lot of fun, most of it has been meetings and such but we have been doing some blindfolded activities too. I got partnered with a very sweet girl named Panda (I am only using Camp Names here) We would alternate meals where we would do sighted guide and guide the person from the cabins to the dinning hall and load up their plates and then sit them down and explain where all the food was so they could eat. It was a great exercise and was really eye opening how difficult even the simplest things are when you are blind. Panda was a great guide though. We also did a few activities blindfolded like climbing a rock wall and archery. After a few days they partnered us with new people and the guy that I was with ended up running me into things and dropped me off at the table and left so I didn't know where my food was, I ended up sticking my fingers in my pasta, salad, juice, and pudding. It was very frustrating so I just gave up and didn't eat half the meal. It really was a great experience.

There are also six guide dog puppies here, it is so fun to have such a great group of well-mannered dogs. Black labs definitely dominate there are four, 3 boys (Spanky, Sherwood, and Daughtry) and a sweet little girl (Miata). We also have a yellow lab (Frisco) and a Golden Retriever (Godfrey) It is definitely going to be a fun summer with all of these pups. Spanky is doing really well, I am so proud of him. He really does love me and even whines and barks when I walk away (which is super annoying) But he is a great puppy, he does have his issues but we are working through it and he is making slow and steady progress. I love this big doggie!!!

And Sherman is in phase 1! He has been for two weeks but I didn't expect him to move, I think there is only one dog in his string that went up to phase 2 this week. So maybe next week my perfect puppy will be in phase 2. I am proud of him no matter what, but I really hope he does good. At least make it to phase 2, I haven't had a puppy in phase 2 since Tahoma. . . so I will be happy if he can just make it to phase 2. :)

Sorry no pics but they take forever to load and I have not put them no my computer yet. Maybe next break I will try to get a few pics on here. Happy Sunday!!!

Our Day Yesterday

I have not been taking Spanky out because I wanted him to get used to me and my house and neighborhood before I took him out anywhere new so yesterday I brought out the jacket to see how he would do. I started by attempting to get some pictures of him in jacket but he was not as cooperative as I had hoped, he kept making funny faces or sneezing or licking me. . . so here are three from that, that are still kind of cute.




First we went to Grease Monkey to give my car an oil change. Spanky was great in the waiting room. I was very impressed.
Then they give us a free car wash coupon when we go to Grease Monkey so I used that and let me tell you Lola (my car) is sparkling now. He was fascinated by the car wash. (Yes, I know he is on my seat and standing in my car, but we aren't moving and he just wanted to watch. He was laying on the floor before we started moving again.)
Then we took my car over to my friends house (who is a mechanic) to have him look over Lola and see if everything is good so that we can get to California in one piece. :) Spanky was on tie-down while my friend was checking over my car. He would whine at me when I went behind the car. (I think he likes me) He is such a sweet boy, I really like him!
Then we met up with some other friends and we went to see Horton hears a Who (very cute movie BTW) and I had to get a picture of Spanky with my pal Steve Carell. :) Spanky was excellent in the theatre and there were no major hiccups like past theatre experiences, I was really hoping that it would go well.
After the movie we went back to my friends house and talked for a while. Then Spanky got to do his very favorite thing ever! Eat!!!! :) I love when he eats if I talk to him his tail wags really fast, and he starts eating faster. It is so cute.

We had a very good day with all successfully outings. Today we are probably going to Wal-mart to pick up some last minute stuff to pack for California. So, hopefully that goes well too. Spanky is definitely growing on me, he is super sweet and so cuddly. I love it. I was always sad that Sherman wasn't more cuddly. So, I love that Spanky is. If I sit on the floor he comes over and flops down on top of me. I think the hardest thing for me is remembering how young he is, since he is so much bigger than Sherman. I just have to keep reminding myself that he is only 11 months old and not perfect. But I really LOVE this dog. He is easy to manage and responds well to corrections, even though most of the time I can get him to stop something by telling him to leave it or that's enough.

Today is the first phase report day since Sherman left. I am really excited to see it, although he may not have made it on yet. I am still on pins and needles to see it. I also found out that Sherman is NOT on the fat list. YAY!!! Which means that he has at least done some of his health eval stuff, since I believe it is after the vets see all the dog that they write up the fat list. (the fat list is a list of dogs that go IFT over weight usually there are quite a few fat dogs that go IFT that way.) I am also excited because at his last evaluation my CFR told me that Sherman was slightly overweight. So it looks like all of our work payed off. My CFR also used Spanky of an example of an overweight dog at our meeting on Saturday so it looks like I have my work cut out for me. We have been taking two neighborhood walks since he got here and his food got cut down so hopefully we can get that weight off. :) It has been a LONG time since I have had a dog IFT, I forgot how nervous and almost sick I feel while I am waiting for the phase report. (As you can see by all the rambling that I have done in the last paragraph. lol)

Anyway, this will be my last post for a while since I leave for California TOMORROW!!!! I am so excited! Hopefully I will finish packing today. I keep procrastinating (like writing this post instead of packing) I don't know how often I will be able to post while I am there but I will try to let you know how everything is going and how Sherman does. :) Bye everyone, have a fantastic summer!!!

He's a keeper!

Looks like Spanky has Cannon approval. That is good enough for me, Spanky is definitely a keeper. :)

We were trying to teach Cannon to pet nice. It was really cute how hesitant he was because he wanted to do it right. Go Canoli!