Exciting News for Sutter Rehab

Today I found out that Sutter Rehab is applying for a CCI Facility Dog! We've been trying to convince them about the value of a Facility Dog since we started going there over a year ago as I could see what a great place it would be to have a dog there. I'd like to think that maybe having the Sutter WAGS dogs there for visits might have influenced the decision in some way. Nothing like seeing firsthand the positive impact that these dogs can have on patients. A lot of times the staff comes over to pet the dogs, so I think it will be good not only for the patients, but the staff as well.  As excited as I am for Sutter and their patients, I'm also a little bummed as I don't know what this will mean for the future of WAGS continuing this visit. This is one of my and Hope's favorite visits and it would be sad to be out of a job once they receive their full-time Facility Dog. But, I also know I need to look at the big picture, a full-time dog would be such a wonderful thing for this facility. It's also comforting to know that we will continue our visits for the next few months as the staff person is on the waiting list right now, so it will be at least a few months before they are invited to a Team Training. Can't wait to see what dog they receive!

It feels weird to have not done any visits with Hope this week as normally we would have gone on three visits this week, but on the other hand, nice to have my evenings free so I can get ready for my big trip. Hope is having a great time with Laurie, yesterday she got to go hiking and geocaching all day and is getting along great with Kane. It's a big relief to know I don't have to worry about her while I'm gone...but I still really miss her!

Another road trip

Hope, Nick and I took off on Friday for another quick trip to Oceanside. My good friend Laurie is going to watch Hope for me while I go on vacation. Hard to believe it will be almost a month until I see her again. It's sad not having her around, but luckily I have Nick with me this week.

I worked a full day, came home, scooped up the dogs and we were on the road. Luckily, we didn't hit much traffic and got to Oceanside at about 10pm. It's such a long drive, I sure wish we lived a little closer.

On Saturday, we went out to breakfast with Marisa and her family. It's always so much fun to see her again and I always have a great time visiting with her family. Marisa has a good life that's for sure! It is so hard to believe that she is almost 8 years old, but she definitely has a mature look to her now, her face is turning really gray, but she is still that same sweetie she always was.

We were also supposed to meet up with Nick's brother, Najee's puppy raiser and her mom for breakfast, but it was storming so badly that they turned around because it was dangerous driving and there were so many accidents on the road. Wise move, it rained all day.

Yesterday morning, we went to the Beach Break Cafe for breakfast and Nick and I were on the road for the long drive home. It's such a long drive, but I always have a good time hanging out with my friend Laurie, the bonus was getting to see Marisa and her family.

The house doesn't seem the same without Hope here, she's like a fixture now. At least I have Nick!

Nick was excited to see that Laurie had a red heart toy like his!...

And, it wouldn't be the same without a BDC picture (from L to R: Kane, Hope, Nick)

River Bend redux

It was another beautiful day today and a holiday to boot, so I decided to take the dogs to the River again for more hiking, swimming, and geocaching. Today, we crossed the river and cached on the other side. It was a very scenic area that was full of lots of wildlife (herons, egrets, ducks, geese, jackrabbits, deer). I spent as much time taking pictures as I did geocaching. But I did find 8 geocaches today! We hiked 6 miles, although it didn't seem like that far as we stopped so often to look for caches and to take pictures. It felt so good to get out again!

We stopped at several places along the river to take pictures and to let Hope and Nick swim, well, mostly Nick swam...

This was one of the first places we stopped after crossing the river...

This was another cool place that we stopped at to let the dogs swim...

You can't see it very well, but there was a heron on the island across the way. We stuck around for a while as I was waiting to see if he'd take flight, but he never did... 

Same place, different angle, converted to black and white...

A fun couple of days with the dogs in the beautiful weather. They haven't moved all night! The baths will have to wait until tomorrow....

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a quiet day at home today for Valentine's Day, but here is a picture I took of my valentine doggies.  They don't look very happy, but they weren't cooperating.  I thought it was funny because it was like they were shaped like a heart. Or do I just have a weird imagination?

River Bend

I took Hope and Nick to River Bend Park to do some hiking and geocaching on Saturday. It turned out to be a beautiful day, we hiked 4 miles, found 13 geocaches, and the dogs had fun swimming in the river about mid-way through the hike.(click here for more pics)

It's funny, but Hope now refuses to swim if Nick is in the water ever since he learned how to swim last year and pushed her underwater. Can't say I blame her. So I have to put him in a down and make him stay with me and then she will go in, but only for a few times. Nick, on the other hand, now loves the water and loves to chase sticks. It's like the roles have reversed, go figure!

Unfortunately, I took my camera with me, but forgot to put the memory card back in, DUH. So this picture was taken with my camcorder camera and isn't the greatest. Oh well.

I'm still trying to figure out the software for the camcorder, so this is kind of pieced together. Not as easy as the Flip, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Oreo-dogs

We've had a sweet boy named Ethan visiting us for a few days.  The weather has actually been cooperating and I was able to take the dogs out for a hike and to play at the school (on the cement, since the fields are too muddy) this weekend.

I dubbed them the Oreos, if you look at the pictures, you'll see why! :-)

A small world

Last night, Hope and I had a visit at Sutter Rehab. I have taken all my CCI pups to Music Circus shows during the summer. We always sit in the same seats and have been going for years and there is a really nice older couple who always usher where we have our seats. The husband even brought dog biscuits for the dogs. What does Sutter Rehab and Music Circus have in common? Read on...

Turns out one of the patients we visited last night was our usher! Somehow we got to talking about Hope as she said she was so well behaved and she started talking about dogs and mentioned Music Circus and how well behaved the dogs were there that attend the shows. She said she recognized me from somewhere and that's where we made the connection, she remembered us going to the show. At the end of the visit, she said she hoped she would see us this summer! I'll have to make sure we get our tickets for the nights she is going to be there so we can see her, even though I won't have a pup. :-(

This is a picture of Hope (on the right) and her buddies at Music Circus when she was a pup in training...guess we saw "Fiddler on the Roof" in 2006!

These dogs certainly leave an impact on people...who would have thought Hope would get to be a therapy dog for someone we barely even know, but see every year? It's a small world, that's for sure!

A couple trips to the Lake

On Sunday afternoon, a friend called me up to see if I wanted to go geocaching with her and her dog. I was planning on taking the dogs out to the river anyway to do some hiking/geocaching with them, its more fun with a friend, so of course I said I would join her. Lucky for me, it was close to my house, so all I had to do was load up my GPS and leash up the dogs.

We went to a small nature area called Mormon Island Wetlands. It was more of a drylands than a wetlands, although a bit muddy in some places from the recent rains. See my geocaching blog for a few more pics (click here) Afterwards, we drove down a little bit to the parking area for the lake and let the dogs swim.

Nick and Hope at the sign by the entrance:

Hope takes Nick for a walk... :-)

I was glad to see that Nick remembered how to swim! He had finally started swimming right about the time we turned him in. Good boy! The only unfortunate thing is Hope no longer wants to swim when he's around, last year he pushed her underwater at Salmon Falls to get the stick she had fetched. I remember feeling a little panicked as she totally disappeared for a second, but she came back up quickly...guess she doesn't want to deal with that anymore.

The dogs came home and crashed that night and I didn't have the heart to wake them up to give them a bath as they were both filthy. That was my excuse to take them out to the Lake again yesterday after I got home from work! Nick had fun chasing sticks, Hope just hung out by the edge of the water mostly.

Here are a few pics I took...

Flying dogs....

Posing for yet another picture!

Stories of hope and recovery

Last week, on the night Nick was on his way home from CCI, Hope and I had our usual visit to Sutter Rehabilitation Institute (SRI) before we went to pick him up at our friend's house. I arrived early at SRI because it was raining and I didn't know what traffic would be like.

While I was waiting in the lobby, I saw a display board that told the stories of two patients who were treated at SRI. Not a very good picture, but I just had to get a picture of Hope by the display, because we had visited with both of these patients! In most cases, we usually see the patients only once or twice, which is good, because that means they have been discharged and have gone home. We never hear anything more about them.  So it was nice to read the stories of these two individuals, and to see how their recovery was going. In a little way, Hope (and the other WAGS dogs) played a little part in their recovery I guess.

It was special to me to read about how "C" was doing, a young man that Hope and I did a room visit with the first time we saw him. Normally, we do a group visit in the hospital's therapy gym and the patients are brought into the room to visit with the 2-4 dogs that are there that night. In some cases, some of the patients are not strong enough to leave their beds, so if the therapist thinks the patient can benefit from a visit, we will visit them in their room.

"C" was one of those patients and his story is below. He was a young man who I have now learned was in an accident and was only able to communicate by shaking his head for "no" and sticking his tongue out for "yes".  I knew he had a lot of physical injuries as he had casts on his body and was really bruised, but it was amazing to see all the injuries he had when I read it on the display. I had Hope get up on the bed with him as his parents said he loved dogs and when I asked him if he would like Hope on his bed, he stuck his tongue out at me.  (The only time I can recall liking it when somebody stuck their tongue at me!! haha) The therapist took his hand and put it on Hope and he was able to pet her. Because there was not much room on the bed for her, she was partly laying on him and we kept asking him if he was ok or if she was hurting him in any way - he answered with his tongue (yes, he was ok) and shaking his head (no, she was not hurting him). It's times like this when I'm glad she's on the smaller side as its easier for her to get on the bed with a patient as in these cases, they are unable to scoot over to give her more room and we have to be careful to position so she doesn't harm the patient, which may include IV tubes, etc. He kept sticking his tongue out at us as I asked him questions like, "Do you like dogs?", "Do you like Hope on the bed with you?",  "Is she soft?" and "Do you still want Hope on the bed with you?"

A few weeks later, we saw "C" again, but this time he was well enough to come to the therapy gym to visit with the dogs. I asked him if he remembered Hope and he stuck his tongue out at me. He remembered her! That was the last time we saw him....so, it was wonderful to read how far he's come since he was released from SRI.

Be sure to click on the picture below to read their stories!

It made my day to read these stories...especially after receiving the news earlier in the day that Nick was released from Advanced Training. It served as a good reminder for me that Nick has so much to offer and will contribute in other ways like his "sister" Hope has been doing for the past couple of years, even if its not as a service dog.

After the visit was over, Hope and I began that journey, it was time to go get Nick at our friend's house, he was on his way home....

Our first walk - together again...

Since Nick came home last Thursday, its been raining so I haven't even had time to take him and Hope for a walk. This morning, it was finally clear, although it looked like at any time the sky might open up. I would have liked to have taken the dogs on a longer walk, but decided to stick close to home.

I'm happy to say Nick still walks nicely on leash, right next to me. That was the one thing about Hope that floored me the most when she came home from Advanced Training, she was totally forging and I had to work with her on that.

We only walked about an hour and since its rained so much I was surprised at how much the ponds near my house have filled up. My guess is that a lot of the rainwater from the neighborhoods flow into this pond. The ducks were happy too.

Nick is so much bigger than Hope as you can see in this picture!

The ducks are happy to be out too!

Luckily, the rain began after we arrived back home...

A Nick reunion

I invited a few of Nick's friends over for a playdate and dinner last night. Since our co-raisers didn't get much time with him it was nice to be able to enjoy a casual visit. Nick was also reunited with his brother, Spencer the beagle, too. He was so excited to see everyone.

My videos didn't really come out very good, and this was the only picture I took. But our good friend got some awesome "Couch Potatoes" shots on "Hope's Couch" that I will post later. I didn't take any pictures when she was taking hers as I knew hers would turn out better and I didn't want to mess things up with my flash going off or anything. This was taken after the photo shoot, Hope was barely hanging on as Carlo (in the center) and Nick (to the right) were totally hogging the couch. Spencer was nowhere to be seen, but will be in the picture I'll post later.

It was a fun day!

Nick is back!

Puppy raising is certainly a roller coaster ride for sure. The past five months have been no exception while waiting to see how Nick did in Advanced Training since his turn-in last August. Well, on Thursday of this week, after 5 months, Nick was released for "fearful behavior".

Even though I've always known I wanted him back and made no secret about it, it is still a devastating feeling to get the "call". Actually, this time was a little different because I didn't actually receive the call as CCI called one of my co-raisers, who then called me. Something I was not expecting, though I don't know how one can ever "expect" something like this.

They say the pups make their own decisions, the ones that want to "work" and be a service dog will do well in the kennel environment, the ones that don't will somehow communicate this to their trainers which will end up in their release from the program. Nick has been moved to different programs (service, then hearing, then service again) and has had 3 different trainers. I guess he'd had enough and wanted to come home.

Luckily for us, he was able to come home the evening he was released as a friend was able to bring him back for us from the CCI campus in Santa Rosa. He greeted us with a wiggly butt and that same sweet personality we all knew and loved, it was soooooo good to see him again.  But with his release, comes the end of a dream, having another graduate that performs a miracle for someone with a disability. As much as I wanted him back, I know deep down I always hoped he would graduate, its all bittersweet and a mix of emotions that is hard to explain unless you've gone through it.

When we got home, Nick bounded through the house checking everything out and immediately picked up a toy in his mouth. Hope was a little indifferent to him at first like he was any other dog, much different than the reaction she had to Sierra just a few weeks before where they acted like they did when Sierra still lived here. But after a while it was like the light bulb popped off and she finally started playing with him like she used to. It was so cute as Nick totally remembered his stuffed red heart toy I had saved that he got as a present from our friend Rachel on the day he arrived as a puppy. I guess they don't forget.

His personality seems the same, that sweet, cuddly, affectionate boy is still there. He seems a little taller and maybe a little filled out than what I remember, but I don't know if I have just forgotten how big he was since Hope is so small. I have found that you often forget some of the little details about the pups you have raised when you don't see them for many months.  Hope has this one gray hair on her back that she had as a small pup, when she came home, I had forgotten that. I let Nick sleep on the bed with me on his first night home, but I had totally forgotten how LOUD he snored. Oh well, its so nice to have him back, I'll forgive him! haha

This is a picture of Nick and Hope on his first night home:

This was taken a couple of nights ago...I guess this says it all, he is home! And Hope and I love having him back in our lives.

And a video of him playing with his favorite heart toy...(sorry for the TV noise, I thought when I put the movie together I had put music in to replace the sound, guess not, and I'm too lazy to re-do it....)

Nick, although I'm disappointed you didn't graduate, I'm thrilled to have you back. The decision was all yours and we will have a wonderful life together.

I also have to throw a shout-out to my wonderful co-raisers, Kathy and Gloria. A long time ago, we made the decision that if Nick was released, he'd come live with me as they already had two dogs and didn't really have room for one more. I know Nick's release was as hard for them as it was for me, but in some ways his release was even harder for them as they had to give up Nick again. They will always be a part of Nick's life and we've always agreed that they can have "visitation" anytime they want and will watch him if I have to go out of town and can't take him with me. It was a mutual decision, but I know that Nick knows how much his "peeps" love him whether he lives with them or not! :-)

The Red Ball

I didn't get a chance to put this video together until today, but it sure brings back some good memories of Zuleika/Sierra, kind of a "Then and Now" for her. When she came for a visit a few weekends ago, she found the red ball that she had gotten her head stuck in when she was around 9 weeks old. It was like she remembered it and it obviously has not scarred her as she was happy to play with it even now as a "big" dog at 3.5 years of age.

I guess they never do forget! It was bittersweet to watch this as Molly is in a portion of the video, I still miss her...

Snow Dogs in Truckee

Hope and I drove up to Truckee for the day with some friends and their dogs on Saturday. A huge storm is expected, but Saturday was blue skies, clear and just beautiful. We hiked up a trail that was nice and packed (so we didn't need snowshoes), had a lot of people and dogs, but wasn't too crowded at all.

My pictures didn't come out very well, so its good that my friends all take better pictures than I do. Here are some pictures of Hope...

And of course, a group shot! (L to R: Hope, Brumley, Olina, Milano, Jersey)

And a video!

A fun day!

Another trip to L.A.

Last weekend, Hope and I headed to L.A. for another HOPE AACR meeting and training. I ended up driving by myself again as our other HOPE friends Mary and Mason couldn't leave until the Saturday before the meeting. I wanted to split up the driving, so I decided to go down on Friday. Luckily, the traffic wasn't too bad and I got there without having to drive through too much traffic.

Here's a picture of Hope on the hotel bed (I did bring a sheet from home for her to lay on, even though the hotel is pet friendly, I'm not that rude!). She was comfy!

On Saturday, we met our friends and dogs and took them to Huntington Dog Beach in Huntington Beach, also known as Surf City, USA. What a great beach, a full mile of off-leash heaven for the dogs. Here are some pictures from the beach, the dogs had a blast!

Hope poses for a picture:

Group shot, from left to right, Titian, Hope and Kane and a cute surfer-dude in the background!

Hope has a sandy face from rolling in the sand!

And a video...

After the beach, we went to a cool outdoor Cafe in Huntington Beach that was totally dog-friendly. They even had a menu for the dogs! The cafe was right next to a really nice park, so we spent the afternoon geocaching after that. We were then invited to Titian's house for a BBQ and more playtime. Hope was exhausted that evening, but got excited when her buddy Mason arrived that night.

We went to the HOPE meeting on Sunday, and then had the long drive home. It was a good meeting and training and its always nice to see our friends. Hope still doesn't like wearing her cape, some things never change I guess...

Hope asks, "Do I really have to wear my cape?"

Lots of driving, but its all worth it!

Sierra's visit to Folsom

Sierra came for a visit a few weekends ago. It's always fun to see her and her family. This was the first time one of my pups has ever come back home to my house, so it was fun to know she still remembered the place. Apparently, she ran right up to the front door when she got here. She and Hope immediately started chasing each other round and round the dining room table, just like they used to when she was a pup. It was fun to watch.

Sierra even found her big red ball that she got her head stuck in as a puppy. She came running down the hall after she'd found it, it was too cute, it was like she remembered that ball!

We had a great visit!