Working-K9: October 2010 Posts

Monday, October 25, 2010
Dad's Visit

I've been trying to decide what I should write and how much I should say about my humans' fathers visit. He was in town for a little over a week mostly to do some household repairs, but thankfully he managed to have fun too. I must start off by saying that we only see him once a year around the holidays. Both my human and I simply adore this man and could not express properly how excited we are when he is around. It's not just because of what he can do to help, nor is it the fact we don't see him often, rather it's because we both enjoy his company so much. My human's mother often tells her how much alike she and her father are. It is true, they do think alike, eat alike, have many of the same interests, and have the same sense of humor.

It is too bad he couldn't have stayed longer; there are always more places my human wants to take him so he doesn't spend the entire trip working. At least this time they were able to work in more fun than usual.

If you see the pictures already, you probably already know the majority of what the two humans were up to during his stay so I'll just stick with the most memorable moments from my perspective.

The new patio swing is awesome addition to the home. Sadly my human will not let me sit on it for fear I will get a toe stuck or break a paw. Not to mention it swings rather freely and she worries it'll scare me. She might have a point there. I generally do not like things that move out from under me. I'm still trying to talk her into adding a cushion to the swing so maybe I could try to climb up someday.

The biggest project was the new doggie door. Correction, my new doggie door! At first I didn't know what was going on as he dismantled the old doggie door then got the power saw and started sawing away at the wall. This project took several days because apparently my human's house isn't of standard measurement, and none of the parts fit properly. To top it off the power drills battery is rather old and didn't hold a charge very long. This required a lot of starting and stopping throughout the project. My goodness my human read canine body language and was able to take me out every time I had to potty.

When the new doggie door was finally installed I was a little apprehensive about using it. It was quite large and had to flaps, both of which were so clean I can tell where they were. That may sound silly to you but when you can't see something in front of you, then suddenly it hits you in the nose, it's kind of scary. It took me a few days to get comfortable with the new doggie door; and to dirty the flaps just enough so I could see them before hitting them. Now I just love my new doggie door. I don't have to bend over and squeeze through the small hole anymore.

One thing you can count on when my human's dad comes to visit is really weird weather. He always brings rain, that's just to be expected, but this year he also brought hail. Seeing hail fall from the sky is very unusual in the Phoenix area. Naturally both he and my human were very excited by this storm, and while I didn't understand their enthusiasm I could feel it and join in the excitement. I even went out in the rain briefly, which is something I rarely do because I do not like to be wet. After a few seconds I realized my mistake in both humans laughed as I rolled around on the living room floor trying to dry myself.

Because neither my human nor her father cooks very much, we ate out a lot. By we, I actually mean they, ate out a lot. I went along but had to be a good little service dog and stay quietly under the table.

Most was pretty standard run-of-the-mill fast food restaurants, but a few were special occasion stops. One of those special stops being a Hooters restaurant on her father's birthday; so he could have wings and a beer. The other special stop was a place called the Heart Attack Grill. It was the first time any of us had been there. My human was sweet and gave me a few french fries before we left. Apparently the food at this particular restaurant or minded them both of how food used to taste before everyone decided that it was unhealthy to cook everything in lard.

Naturally everywhere we went everyone thought I was so cute, so sweet, and so well behaved. Ahh if they only knew the truth about me. Muhahahaha!

During his stay we also rearranged my human's office, attended my human cousins baby shower, took dad to the "Monsters on Main Street" 2nd Friday event, put up Halloween Decorations, installed a kitchen sink, worked on the van, and went to an Air Force museum. I think he had a pretty good time.

My personal favorite part was when the three of us would sit on the sofa together in the evenings and watch TV. I'd climb on my humans lap until she couldn't breathe under my weight, when turn to bump in to her father with my large and heavy head until he'd nearly spill his drink. Then he'd pet me and I'd ooze down next to him and slowly extend my hind legs until I was playfully kicking my human and pushing her from the sofa. She's complain so I'd get up and turn back to give her some loving as my tail started to beat on her fathers face as I got comfortable again only in time to get too hot between the two of them so I'd hop off the sofa and in to the kitchen for a cool drink. I especially enjoyed the wide-eyed look of terror on their faces as I'd return to the living room and break out in to a running leap to regain my position between them on the sofa often knocking them around a bit. Ya that was fun!

I could probably prattle on all night about all the crazy stuff we did what he was visiting, but I won't. Just check out the pictures and enjoy them as much as we enjoyed having the dad around.