Saturday, July 19, 2008
Service Dog Awareness Night

Sing with me now!!!

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."

Ahh yes a night at the ball park. Lots of people, food and fun oh and I was there! Actually lots of dogs attended this game. This was Service Dog Awareness night after all and dogs came from all around the valley to strut their stuff. I was with the Arizona Goldens LLC (AZG) as a representative of owner-trained dogs and the "refresher" courses the AZG offers.

We had to arrive very early to get in place before the public stormed the halls in search of food and their seats. Needless to say this made for a very long day.

Maybe I should back up a tick. Before we even got in my human had people approach her with questions. Did she have any flyers or cards to give these curious minded folks? No, she was nearly useless but I still love her and my utter cuteness had such allure that the people agreed to stop by the booth later. They all did too. I rock.

People came to pet the dogs all night. At first my human tried to keep them off me and kept redirecting them to the AZG dogs but that proved to be an act of utter futility and she allowed the out pouring of affection that oozed my way. At least my job was easy. I only had to sit there and let people shower me with attention. My human had to talk to talk to these people and explain service dogs and what AZG does. If you know my human you know she's a very soft spoken woman. Shouting above the constant noise of the chatter and the frequent screams of joy from those watching the baseball game proved rather changeling. Still she did her best.

Lexington was really the star of the show however. He's one of the AZG dogs and he got to throw out the first pitch of the game. Ok so technically he carried the ball from the pitchers mound and gave it to the catcher but if you consider the crowd, the lights and the noise this was no small task. And he performed beautifully! You go man!

Now are you sitting down? You better be, this part will shock you and I don't want anyone getting injured while reading my blog. My human ate a ballpark hot dog and didn't share it with me! I know it's unimaginable. She actually and selfishly ate the whole thing all by herself. To top it all off, she really seemed to enjoy it! The nerve!

By the 7th inning most of us dogs were getting a little tired. Many sprawled out on the floor to rest. The endless flow of people didn't slow down but at least they didn't care that we didn't get up to greet them anymore. This was about the time my human decided we should go. She didn't want to get stuck in traffic on the way home and wasn't sure how long the game would run. We said our goodbyes and hit the road.

It was fun and very crazy but all worth it. Granted my human paid for it the next day (arthritis and all) but she didn't care. She's hoping we can do it again next year. Maybe next year I'll get some of that hotdog too.

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