Fall Days and Halloween

I took Hope to the pumpkin patch hoping to get some nice Fall pictures of her. As usual, she put on her serious face and wouldn't smile and these were the best I could do. Oh well....

We also took some time to meet some new friends, Porter and Ginger, two King Charles Cavalier Spaniels who belong to our Volunteer Coordinator at Sutter Hospice who runs the WAGS program. I've been thinking how it would be nice to have a smaller dog to use for our therapy work, especially at Sutter. She taught me a lot about this breed and it is something I would consider, it just depends on if I want to raise another CCI puppy, or if Nick comes home as he has priority in my life if he gets released. While I think Hope has adjusted to being the only dog in the house, I often think sometimes she gets bored as there is no one to play with. Who knows, its a big decision with a lot of unknowns at the moment, time will tell I guess.

Here is a picture of Hope with Porter and Ginger...Some of the things that sold me on this breed? They are very people oriented and make good therapy animals, like to take walks, like to swim, Porter and Ginger even go kayaking!

Halloween is not Hope's favorite holiday...we all know about her issues wearing "clothes"... Well, I did spare her the humiliation of wearing a costume for our Lend A Heart or Delta visits, but I did put her in a costume for our Sutter Halloween party as they were having a fundraiser. Sorry Hope, I'm glad you were a good sport.

Hope says, "Why did several people call me a dalmation? I just don't get it, are they dumb or what, isn't it obvious that I am a cow? This is the reason why dogs should NOT wear costumes!"

These are a few of the other WAGS dogs, Rascal (the black lab fairy), Sheeba (as "Queen of Sheeba"), Hope (losing her head!...), and Taylor (the pumpkin).

I did spare Hope the dignity of wearing a costume when we answered the door on Halloween night as the trick-or-treaters came to the door. She was a big help passing out candy as she held the handle of the candy bucket for me as we answered the door. I kept the bucket filled with just a little bit of candy this year, as last year she dropped the bucket and all the candy went flying all over the floor! She did a much better job this year, until a young girl dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz knocked on the door... she was accompanied by her sidekick, Toto, and yes it was a real dog! I just laughed as Hope dropped the bucket and proceeded to greet Toto. Oh well, can't blame her I guess....

Happy Halloween!

Oceanside Trip and a HOPE AACR callout at Camp Pendleton

Hope and I drove down to Southern California once again for another HOPE AACR callout in late October. Since this callout was at Camp Pendleton, I decided to turn the weekend into a mini-vacation by driving down early to hang out with a friend who lives in Oceanside. This time it was just Hope and I, our friend Mary and her dog Mason would be flying down on the day of the callout on Sunday just for the day.

We reached Oceanside and Hope was happy to stretch her legs at our friend Laurie's house. Her puppy Kane is about 9 months old now. Its funny, but I think Hope and Kane look a lot alike and have very similar expressions, even more so than her brother Hefner.

Here's a picture of them together:

On Saturday, we went to CCI's Southwest Region campus in Oceanside. Dean Koontz, who is a huge supporter of CCI, was there autographing copies of his latest books. I watched one of the CCI puppy classes in the morning then we waited in line to have our books autographed. This is Kane doing an "up" in front of him (after he attempted to do a "jump", oops...):

On Sunday, it was time to go on the HOPE callout with Hope at Camp Pendleton. We met as a group and drove to the base together. The purpose of the callout was to ease the tension on base as many of military families were waiting in the long food distribution lines. This was the 2nd HOPE callout on base and it just seemed like any other visit to me until I heard the person in charge say that the HOPE teams really eased all the tension in the air as people waited in lines. Apparently, in past times, fights have actually broken out.

I was so glad I had made some stickers and trading cards with Hope's picture as they were very popular with the hundreds of kids we met. I am also very impressed with the teamwork that occurs on these callouts, everyone really looks out for eachother. Some of the families had pet dogs so our HOPE team leader and other members gave us all warnings of dogs in the area that didn't appear to be very friendly.

Here is a group picture of all the HOPE teams from the callout that day:

And, I just had to get a picture of Hope with our buddy Oz, a huge 150lb Newfoundland. He is the sweetest, gentlest creature...yet Hope is afraid of him. No wonder, he's 3 times her size. You don't need to be an expert in body language to know how she feels about Oz. We went through certification with Oz last year and Hope would never get near him. She will at least approach him from the rear and the side now. But if he comes towards her from the front, she bolts behind me. Little by little she is getting used to him each time we see him.

This is Hope, Oz and Oz' owner Mary...we nicknamed Oz "magnet" on the callout because he attracts so much attention!

I was hit with the realization of what sacrifices military families make for our country so that we enjoy the freedoms we have. Many of the people we met had spouses who were deployed or being deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan, etc. We even met many individuals who had been deployed or were going to be deployed. Many of them expressed their appreciation to us for having our animals there as their military housing situations or the fact that they have to move around so often doesn't allow for them to have pets. So many of the children loved having a dog to pet!

It was another amazing experience and taught me a lot about something I knew very little about - military life. It was another rewarding callout and a new experience for me, and of course, Hope did great.

On Monday, we met one of the HOPE members for breakfast at Beach Break Cafe, our favorite breakfast place in Oceanside. I was trying to time things right for avoiding traffic in L.A. on the way home. I put a local puppy raiser in touch with one of our HOPE members who was looking for a golden retriever that she can use as a therapy dog and as a future HOPE dog. Her released dog, Izzy, has now been adopted by the HOPE team member. Here's a picture of Hope with Izzy and her other dog, Denali, who is a therapy dog and HOPE dog who was at the Camp Pendleton callout. Hopefully, Izzy will be a HOPE dog in the future.

Another weekend of lots of driving, but well worth it!