Working-K9: Sandis' Blogs

Tuesday, August 31, 2010
I need a vacation from my vacation.

It was supposed to be some time off, a chance to rest and relax a little. That's not what happened. My human's mother and aunt lived for a short six-day visit, well technically only five days because they had to be at the airport very early in the morning on the sixth day.

I love it when my human's mother comes for a visit. She brushes me, pets me, and loves on me. She did all of that this time to, but not as much as I would have liked. The aunt that came along for the trip is considered moderately mentally retarded. I had met her before one other time, shortly after I came to live with my human. She wasn't very fond of me, mostly because I like to lick too much. This time was better because I am older and more mature.

They arrived on a Tuesday afternoon and after stopping to eat lunch finally made it here to greet me. Shortly after the neighbor kid came over to help with some yard work. The kid in my human's mother worked outside for a few hours while my human watched her aunt in the house. It stormed a little that evening, so the neighbor kid had dinner with us. It was a rather nice evening up until my human's mom decided to give me a bath.

The next day the humans hit the ground running. They had errands to run, a lot of shopping to do, and people to see. My human decided to drag me along. For the most part I didn't mind running around, I like to keep busy. Shoe shopping, however seemed to take a very long time and my human was unimpressed when I started to snore in the store. It may seem like we didn’t do much but we were gone most of the day and upon arriving home the neighbor kid had returned and was anxious to continue working in the yard. That may seem very unusual to you but you don't know my human's mother, she pays way too well and the kids know it.

That evening another family joined us for dinner. They had been neighbors but had moved away recently. My human and I still miss them terribly.

As the day before the following day was nonstop action and excitement. We all met up with another friend and headed to Phoenix to visit the Pueblo Grande Museum. The museum was partly inside and partly outside. We walked up and down and all around the ancient ruins. To me it all looked like piles of dirt, and holes in the ground but the humans all seemed very fascinated by everything they saw.

While my human and I thought the day was relatively cool and comfortable the non-natives visiting from Iowa did have trouble with our Arizona heat. So before leaving the downtown area we stopped at a restaurant or a relaxing meal a place to cool off. Once again I was caught snoring on the job. Really, can you blame me? I get to rest our cool floor under a table with a long skirt, so I'm in the dark, you can't tell me I don't get to doze off a little.

The following day we spent four hours waiting to get the ramp on van fixed before we could continue with our daily run of errands and shopping. You are probably wondering why we are doing so much shopping. It is mostly because my humans’ Aunt doesn't come to Arizona very often and she was on vacation. Since her two favorite activities are eating and shopping, and we needed to keep her happy, we did a lot of both.

The last full day they were in town the rest of the family, whom live in Arizona, got together with us. This would include my human's other aunt and cousin. Again there was more shopping and more eating, none of which I was really allowed to enjoy other than the occasional french fry that my human would offer me.

The days were long and the nights were too short. In fact I probably got more sleep then the humans did most days simply because I can flop down and pass out anywhere. This is a talent my human is secretly envious of. Yet, even with this awesome power of mine I still don't think I got enough sleep while they were in town, and I know my human didn't.

We have been trying to catch up on our sleep but haven't been terribly successful yet as the van required further maintenance and Atlantis came back sooner than expected. Still it's nice to have things getting back to normal once again.

Monday, August 30, 2010
Ella Visited

Ella came for a visit one day. Actually, she stayed nearly a week. Those of you who know me and have been following my blog for several years now, know that Ella and I are not the best of friends. You see when Ella is around I have to work extra hard because if I don't Ella will take over my job. She is one of the only dogs that will try to outperform me as a service dog.

For about a day and a half we had both Ella and Atlantis trying to outdo me as my humans' service dog. My human said that three goldens running around was more than enough. Thankfully she already had plans for a sitter to watch Atlantis for the next week and a half as her family was flying into town for a short visit.

The majority of the time Ella and I glared at each other from a distance. We took turns helping my human as needed. We tried to play together at my human's request but it didn't work. I think, she was hoping we would learn to be friends. However, I must say it is very hard to make friends with the dog that hogs all the toys.

The day before my human's family flew in Ella's owner picked her up and took her home. For some silly reason my human is still very fond of Ella and enjoyed having her around for those few days.

Monday, August 30, 2010
Gimpy Pigeon

I'm way behind on my updates, and since I don't want it to look like nothing happened in August I'm going to post several in the next two days.

Let's start off with the gimpy pigeon. The pigeon showed up one day knocking on the carport door. My humans' friend was over swapping birdcages when the pigeon appeared. The pigeon was obviously in pain as it was holding up its right leg which was swollen. The poor little bird hopped around on its' only good leg and was obviously looking for help.

I would have gladly put the little creature out of its misery with one quick chomp, but my human would not allow my particular form of help. So us dogs were locked up, as my human and her friend prepared little dishes of food and water for the pigeon.

The pigeon stayed in the carport even though people were coming and going all day. Finally, another friend of my humans, who happens to be a wildlife rehabilitator, came over to collect the gimpy pigeon. She was able to give the bird proper nutrition and medication. Hopefully someday soon it can be released back into the wild where it belongs.

Friday, July 30, 2010
New Tag

I got an ID tag, its bran spanking new.
It is so pretty, it's all shinny and blue.

My old tag was cute; it was shaped like a heart and pretty pink.
But it got lost, and I can safely say it didn't fall down the sink.

Rather it's probably in the rocks out back, where I roll and flop.
Or maybe the puppy took it; she's a clepto and just can't stop.

Anyways, it doesn't matter much to me.
My new tag stands out for all the world to see.

It's not fancy or high tech, in fact it's rather analog.
It feels me with pride, to know that it says I'm a service dog!

Sunday, July 25, 2010
AZG Pool Party

Last year I attended the Arizona Golden's LLC pool party with Atlanta's sister Athena. This year however I was out running errands with my human most of the morning so my human let me stay home and rest while Atlantis went to the party. As you know I'm not fond of the water anyways, so I was happy to stay home and sleep.

Atlantis, picking up on my bad habits, isn't fond of the water either. Since I wasn't there I can only tell you what Atlantis told me about the party. She was so wound up and excited when she got home I was a little hard to follow at first.

She did say that they didn't force her into the pool and she was not happy about the situation. It took a while but she finally calm down in the water and started to swim properly. She swam after a few tennis balls in the water, which is something I would never do. Once out of the water she did her best to avoid being dragged back in but those darn humans are too quick and surrounded her several times. So back into the water she would go.

She thoroughly enjoyed running around the pool with all of the other dogs. Atlantis and the rest of the pack frequently walked over to my human to shake the water from their bodies and an attempt to flood her camera. The other humans found it very funny that one dog after another would come alongside my human shake the water at her.

Atlantis did get a small bit of revenge on the humans when she kicked Brian across the face scratching his cheek and nearly taking his eye. Ironically, that is almost exactly what I did to him last year's pool party.

Once pool time was over, all the dogs were let out into the yard to run around and dry off. When Delphina (Atlantis's half sister) wasn't around, the male dogs followed Atlantis around the yard. Acting as I would, she made no attempts to spurn their advances, in fact she rather enjoyed the attention and was happy to encourage them to sniff her butt.

Finally it got dark and it was time to come home, my human wonders which dog she'll have at next year at the pool party. Who knows maybe I'll go next year.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Summer Camp

Last week my human and I had the opportunity to go to summer camp for a day. Apparently this is something the Arizona Goldens do every year, we went along. Since part of the trip would be off road we piled into Brian's large SUV along with Lexington, Castle and Beckett. The drive was slightly over an hour which is apparently more than my human's titanium hips can tolerate easily, but once we arrived she took a pain pill and was all good to go.

After a brief meet and greet with the camp counselors the kids were brought in. There must have been 70+ children. This isn't an ordinary camp either. It is a camp for kids with cancer or who have survived cancer or have family members who have cancer. Brian did a brief presentation about service dogs; then opened the floor to questions. The kids all I asked surprisingly good questions about service dogs, what they do, and where the Arizona Goldens gets their dogs.

Lexington demonstrated many of the service dog skills, which everyone enjoyed. However the kids seemed more interested in watching the dogs do silly pet tricks. I had originally planned to help with some of the demonstrations but I was enjoying all the pending and attention I was getting and that was far more fun than actually working. So I let Lexington be the start of the day.

At one point however, both Lexington and I did demonstrate the "bang" trick. I dropped to the floor and covered my eyes, while Lexington rolled on his back and put all four paws in the air. Castle didn't know what we were doing but decided to join in and lay down between us. It was rather cute.

Beckett being only a few months old was there for the cuteness factor.

Once all the questions were answered the kids got up in groups and made the rounds petting all of us. This was by far my favorite part. It was rather funny listening to the kids try to decide which dog was their favorite. I would like to say I came out ahead, but he and I can't compete with the cute fluff of a doodle pup.

Afterwards we loaded back up into the SUV and headed back to Phoenix. We made one quick stop to drop off the doodles before heading back to Brian's house. It had been a long but fun day. I would have liked to think I could have napped once I got home, but since Atlantis was in the kennel all day I knew she wouldn't let me sleep.

I was nice, and ran a few laps with Atlantis in the backyard before turning her over to my human so I could retire to my cozy kennel.