My Weekend with Marco

Because I'm a University student who also has a part time job, taking on a baby puppy would be difficult. That's why I'm so thankful for my "co-raisers" who bring me a pup whenever I feel the need for one. Last weekend I got to have Marco for the first time while they took Quinn to Edinburgh for one last big trip before he goes IFT. 

Let me just say, Marco is a pretty awesome puppy. Between him and Dulcie, I've had PPPs (that's practically perfect puppies for those of you who don't know) twice in a row now. Marco was nine and a half weeks old last weekend and he slept completely through the night and then went back to sleep for another hour after his breakfast. Seriously, from ten in the evening to seven in the morning. I was so lucky!

And, while he had a few accidents he didn't have as many as I was expecting. He got that if he showed me he had to pee and waited a minute for me to get the leash then he'd get to go outside to our courtyard and get a ton of praise and love. 

My favorite bit about him is that he's one cuddle bug. He's play and play and play and then he'd look at me. He'd properly stare at me for a while then come sit by me and look up as if to say, "I'm tired, can I sleep in your lap?" And because I'm a sucker...I let him. Shhh. Don't tell anyone. 

I don't really know what else to say about Marco except that I'm excited to get to know him more over the next couple of months. So far, he's a great puppy. 

Enjoy his cuteness! ENJOY...

Marco (yellow lab/golden cross) chews on a stuffed bunny

Marco cuddling up with me on the floor while I work on the PWAP facebook and web pages

One morning, he decided he would rather sleep in my lap...I let him.

Marco sitting like a good boy in the living room

Marco chewing on his teething keys.

Marco and the stuffed bunny.

Oh, one hilarious story I've got to tell you about is when we went to the grocery store. I carried him to the grocery store and then carried him through the grocery store. All in all, we were in the store for about 5 minutes as I grabbed a box of cereal or carton of non-dairy based milk...I don't quite remember. And we walked down the pet aisle and the little thief stole a stuffed toy from one of the shelves. Well, at the point I was committed to buying it for him right?

Fake Service Dogs and the Campaign Against Them

Any one of my readers who is also involved in the service dog community whether it be as a puppy raiser, a handler, or a training will have come into contact with this subject before. I've seen dogs in stores who were clearly not services animals. They were pestering other patrons, lunging, barking and a few have even been aggressive towards my puppy in training all the while their owner just stood there and did nothing about it while the manager looked on unsure of what to do. I've also gotten people asking me where I can get those cool vests for their pet because they'd like to bring their pet with them too and it has taken most of my self restraint not to slap them across the face and calmly explain to them that passing off their pet as a service animal was a federal offense.

The real problem stems from ignorance. Ignorance of the general public to what bringing their ill behaved pet into a store can do for public access issues for those who have actual service animals and use them to lead independent lives. Ignorance of shop keepers and store managers in regards to ADA regulations and what they are legally allowed to do and what they are not legally allowed to do. Ignorance of some of the online shops who probably genuinely believe that they are helping people register their service animal and that no one would EVER abuse the cheap "service animal" vests to bring their pets into public areas (poor, misguided souls).

Quite recently CCI (Canine Companions for Independence) have started a campaign to educate the public while making it harder for people to abuse ADA regulations concerning service animals to pass of their pets as service animals because they just want to take them everywhere. Guide Dogs for the Blind firmly backs and supports this campaign.

Below you will find a link to the CCI page where you can find links to an educational video and to the campaign page where you can add your signature. Please head on over and add your name!

http://www.cci.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=cdKGIRNqEmG&b=4127877&ct=13406355

M is for... (for real this time)

MARCO!!!!

Marco's "birth certificate" 

Marco's profile. Handsome boy.

Me and Marco.

Marco wouldn't stop moving, so the best I could do is a blurry picture.

Marco arrived in Aberdeen yesterday, but I just got a chance to meet him today. Let me tell you, the pictures don't do this little guy justice at all! He's super cute. In fact, I think it's safe to say that he's super duper cute. Haha! Love at very first lick.

I don't know when I'll get a chance to have him. We wanna give him a week or two to settle into Aberdeen at his "primary" home and then Quinn is going away early December, so I'll probably want to take Quinn before I take Marco just so I can see him again. 

Marco is a yellow lab / golden retriever cross. He looks like he's going to be a little fluffier than Frankie or Quinn, but still isn't coated. And, this is the first time I know ALL of his siblings here in the UK. 

"M" is for...

Ok, so little "M" isn't here just yet as there is still some tummy issues. But I just couldn't resist posting up this picture of little, teeny "M"!

Luckily, this doesn't really give away the breed though I suppose it's safe to say that some breeds are far less likely. Haha! I just can't wait to meet little "M"!

Little M Delayed

Little "M" won't be here until next week. The poor puppy got a little ill in the kennels so GDB is keeping the little one up there until everything is all cleared up. Nothing too serious, just a bad tummy. But they want to play it safe just in case (I can't say that I blame them).

Of course that means that you all have another week or so to guess the gender, name, and breed (I'll tell you a secret, I don't even know the breed!).

Dulcie Pictures

I've gotten a couple of pictures of Dulcie recently and I tell you, she just doesn't get any less cute. I hear that she's still doing well even though she is getting into her teenage years. Golden teenage years can be hilarious, but can also be frustrating. But I think she's going to be just fine. I do miss her, but if all goes well then I'll be back home in 6 1/2 weeks.

Dulcie at 7 months old

Dulcie in her pink cowgirl hat at the Responsible Pet Owner Fair

Dulcie in her pink cowgirl hat

Dulcie in her Yankee Doodle Dandy Halloween costumes

Dulcie in her Yankee Doodle costume

Dulcie in a witch's hat at the Lathrop Fun Day

Dulcie at the Pumpkin patch

Finalized Arrival Date

We finally got a date for when little "M" will arrive! Hooray! Little "M" will arrive on November 6th! So you still have time to guess M's gender, name, and breed.

Just as a reminder you can guess the following breeds;

Lab
Lab/Golden cross
Lab/Shepherd cross
Golden
Golden/Shepherd cross
German Shepherd
Long Coated Retriever (or any of the crosses)

Can't wait to meet the newest little one!

Educating the Kids

Yesterday I was walking through the grocery store with Quinn. Some rain (and 'bad behaviour') disrupted our plans of spending some time in the park, so I figured I might as well go and get food while I'm out. And I noticed two things while I was there.

1. Children are ten times as observant as adults.

Since yesterday was Saturday the store was crawling with children. I mean, it was a weekend and raining so what else are you suppose to do with your children besides take the food shopping with you. Not that I'm knocking taking your children shopping with you. Quite the opposite. I believe it is important for the children to help pick out the food and cook it. But, that's a different story. Anyway, I heard "Look mummy! There's a dog in the store!" and it's many variations about twenty times in the half an hour we were there. Some of them really cracked me up because their language was very, very British. (I'm in Scotland so I guess that's the be expected, but it still cracked me up.) And a couple of time when the child noticed Quinn, the parent was confused until they looked around and finally saw Quinn. 

2. All the parents seemed fairly well educated on Guide Dogs.

Seriously, every single parent said "That's a helper dog." or "She's training that dog to help someone who is blind." It was refreshing to say the least. I don't know what it is about the States, but about half of the time the parent will explain to their child that my dog is in training to be a service dog and they can't pet him/her without asking and the other half will actually tell their children to just go and pet my dog or won't do anything when the child runs up to my dog and starts petting them. Here, every parent I encountered explained to their child what my dog was and kept them from petting him. It was...amazing. 

It's time like this where I feel I should start up a youtube channel or something about service dog education. Because this is really the only way we'll see a majority of people not try and love on the dog and we're walking; get to them young. 

What I really wanted to say with this post is Thank You. To every parent out there who educated their children with proper service dog etiquette I can only say that you are making my job easier and are helping to ensure the safety of any working Guide Dog team. And that's pretty big. So, thank you! We all appreciate it! 

What's in a Name: Dulcie Edition

Another edition of "What's in a Name" only this time, for Dulcie. Dulcie's litter has a bunch of great names. I think it's one of the only litters I've seen that has a mix of great names and "eh" names. They are all pretty cute, but some of them don't really attract your attention. One thing is for sure, Dulcie's name is the best name out of all of the females in the litter. And that's not just because she's my puppy and I'm biased. She really does have the best name out of all of the females. 

DULCIE

Name: DULCIE

Pronunciation: "dul-see" or "dool-see" 

Meaning: Sweet 

Nicknames: Dulcie Doodle Doo, Doodle Bug, Doodle 

Fun Fact: Dulcie is the second of my own puppies whose name I guessed correctly before she arrived. The first, was my first puppy Freya. (I guess technically I guessed that I was getting Hilly before I was told, but I didn't really guess her name...I already knew it). Dulcie fits her name perfectly. She's an absolute sweet heart and has the sweetest demeanor. 

What's in a Name: Frankie Edition

Ah, can't believe that I never did this for Frankie!

I love finding out more about my puppy's name. Normally when you get a dog you get to name it and that name means something to you. You don't get to choose your puppy's name when get a Guide Dog Puppy. And there are some pretty terrible names out there which means that not only to you not get to name your puppy, but you are stuck with a horrible name that you have to deal with and get used to. I've been lucky with my names so far. (Even though you may remember that I thought Hilly's name was the worse in the litter I really, really LOVE it.)

So, without further ado:

FRANKIE

Name: FRANKIE
Meaning: "free one" or "free man"
Nicknames: Frankie-boy, Frankenstein,

Fun Fact: Frankie was sponsored by Total Oil here in the UK. I can't remember exactly who he was named after, but whoever he was named after has a brilliant name. Right before his turn in date in March, Frankie visited Total Oil and the employees who helped name him.

Frankie Update: The Last

I just received word today:

Frankie is a Guide!

What a good job my little Frankie-boy! I loved that boy and I miss him a lot, but I'm super proud of him for making it all the way! I knew he could do it!

Quinn

Quinner Quinner Chicken Dinner. Quinn-B. Q.

Quinn in a bow position playing with a toy on a free run

These are the nicknames I have for Quinn. He's such a character while still being a mellow dude.

Quinn lying in the grass with a toy

He's a little on the softer side. I imagine that he would have been absolutely fine on the bus to work, but they cancelled the bus to and from work. There is a University Shuttle that I could take...but I have to have my student card to use it and unfortunately I can't find my student card at this point in time. And it seems to run at funky times. Anyway, we walked to work and while Frankie was calm, cool, and collected, Quinn needed a little more encouragement. He was fine perfectly fine in the end and even had a bounce to his step.

Quinn rolling around in the grass with his toy

He is absolutely stellar when out. I mean, he was darn near perfect at work. The only issue he has is some house behaviors. He got up on my bed quite a few times to get to a stuffed animal or my pajama bottoms. So, he got his household freedom privileges taken away. And he likes to play keep-a-way. For those of you who don't know, keep-a-way is a big no no.

Quinn in front of the flower beds in Seaton. Handsome boy.

Think about it. He goes on to be a guide dog and takes his person's socks or shoes and puts them in a different place or takes a piece of paper and won't give it back. Not good behaviors for any dog, but especially bad for guide dogs. He's working on it and I'm sure that he'll do just fine.

He turned a year old on Friday! So, turn in is just around the corner for him. I don't know if he and I will bond like Frankie and I did, but he's a good boy and I definitely like him.

Quinn on his walk near River Don

Another New Puppy

So, we will have another new puppy around here. Not my own puppy as my landlord still isn't allowing a full time puppy, but another puppy that I will help out with. Much like Frankie and now Quinn. Anyway, I have absolutely no idea when the new puppy will arrive nor what breed the little one is. All I know, is the name.

But I'm not going to tell you the name because how much fun would that be? If you have any guesses though and you guess anything correctly I will announce the winner on the blog. I don't promise any winnings or anything except for pride, satisfaction, and kudos. But a guessing game is always fun!

You can guess;

Gender
Breed
Name

Now, I don't really know all of the breeds they use here in the UK, but I can guess that the new little one won't be one of the experimental or rare breeds. So here are a list of breeds that you can guess;

Lab (Black or Yellow)
Lab/Golden Cross (Black or Yellow)
Lab/Shepherd Cross
German Shepherd
Golden Retriever
Shepherd/Golden Cross
Flat Coated Retriever (Liver or Black)

I will let you know when the new pup arrives! I'm pretty excited to have another baby around so soon especially since I got Dulcie at 13 weeks old. This new one will be 6 or 7 weeks old!

The name starts with "M".

Happy Guessing!

Back to Scotland

I've been absent as of late. Mostly because blogger has been in a poopy mood and that has made me frustrated. And I'm not terribly productive when I'm frustrated.

My last two weeks with Dulcie went well, but went by far too quickly for my liking. She really is just a stellar puppy and I know that she is going to go far in her life. Luckily, she is still with Mary and my puppy group back home. I'm very happy that I'll get to go home to my littlest golden girl when I go home during the winter break. Though, I won't say that it wasn't hard to leave her. I do miss my pupperdoodle. And on the 14th she turned 6 months old! She's a whole half a year old now. To celebrate, some pictures! I took these pictures a day or two before before I dropped her off with Mary, so about 2 weeks before her 6 month day.

Dulcie lying in the grass outside with her puppy jacket

Dulcie sitting outside with her jacket

Dulcie sitting outside with her jacket

Dulcie sitting outside with her jacket

Head shot of Dulcie with her jacket

My last 3 weeks with Hilly went by equally too fast. I really love that little black lab and there isn't a day that goes by that I regret my decision to adopt her as my pet...even when her food costs nearly $100 a bag. She has started to feel much better since being on prescription food and medicated ear flushes. Luckily, the last time we went to the doggie dermatologist there was no more bacterial fluid in her ears...just gunk. So she'll have to have flushes for a while and will continue on the prescription food until we can find an over the counter food that she can tolerate. She's allergic to poultry so that might be a challenge since chicken is a cheap protein which you can find in almost every single over the counter food whether it's actual chicken or a byproduct of it.

Hilly outside with her Ambassador scarf

Hilly got a new hedgehog and she loved it

Hilly lying on her back on the couch

Hilly lying on her back in her favorite spot between the fireplace and the writing desk

I definitely miss these two and my old golden girl, Arwen. Hilly and Arwen were definitely unhappy when they saw the suitcase come out. I guess there won't be many more times that I have to take out the suitcase and make them unhappy.

So, new term here in Aberdeen and a couple of new puppies. One of which is an 11 month old yellow lab/golden cross named Quinn. He's a transfer puppy and, from what I've been told, a very sweet boy. I was going to wait until I was fully adjusted to the time zone to take him for a little, but my friends needed to go out of town (they are picking up one of their puppies who has just retired from Guiding) so they are dropping him off tomorrow evening and I'll keep him until Sunday. I'm excited to meet him!

And there will be another puppy too! But I will post on that tomorrow. Just to keep you guessing.

Where Did the Time Go?

In two weeks I'll be dropping off Little Dulcie Doodle Doo with Mary. Can't believe that my time with her has almost come to an end. She's such a good puppy. I'm definitely going to miss her. Guess the only thing to do is make the most of the time I do have left with her right? *heavy sigh*

And in three weeks I'll be stepping on a plane to return to Aberdeen for my final year of undergrad. Seriously, where did my summer go? Guess it'll be time to get back to reality soon. Can't really imagine leaving Hilly for another year.

Question for Blogger Users about Pages

Hello there my faithful followers (if there are still any of you left),

I put pages up a while ago for each of my puppies. You know, the "Meet Freya" etc. up there at the top? Right below my cover picture? Yeah, you all know what I'm talking about!

Well, not all of my pages are showing up since I added Frankie and Dulcie's pages. I'd really like them all to show up and I've seen some blogs where there are pages across the top in different rows and such. If any of you know why not all of my pages are showing up and how to make them show up any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks muchly,
Raiser Erin with CC Hilly and PIT Dulcie

5 Months Old

Well, Dulcie turned 5 months old yesterday. It comes as a reminder as to how little time I have left with her and how little time I have left back here stateside. It makes me both sad and excited. I'm ready to be done honestly. But I am pretty excited to see what this last year of undergrad brings.

Since this is my dog blog, this post is meant to be about Dulcie. Dulcie is my easiest puppy so far. I thought I would be really bored with an easy puppy, but she is proving to have her own challenges while still being very easy. And she's got a great personality. She's stable and very eager to please. 

I would definitely call her a confident puppy. Nothing like Freya, but definitely confident. Confidence doesn't mean "not scared of anything". Confidence means being able to shrug off what does scare them and be able to work past it with grace. And that is Dulcie. She isn't startled by much, but when she is she shrugs it off and easily works past it. And it's not even for food which I love. She looks to me, sees that I'm ok and then starts to prance again with her big, goofy grin. I sometimes feel like, with our softer puppies, we pump up their confidence with food alone and for me, if a puppy needs food to be happy while working then they shouldn't be working. And I sometimes feel like we have come to be far too dependent on food. So, I absolutely love that I don't have to fill her full of food. She's such a great, little worker.

She also has a lovely, golden personality. She isn't too needy, but definitely needs her attention sometimes. And she definitely has the "I will be whatever you want me to be" attitude. She loves to please.

So, I suppose it's time for one of those "5 Things at 5 Months". Happy 5 Month Day to Dulcie and the rest of the "D" Goldens!

1. I love her focus. She is very observant of her surroundings, but when I ask for her attention to be back on me, she gives it. She notices things like birds and other dogs, but that's about all she does. There are rare occasions that she is too interested in the other animals, but it is definitely rare. I love that I have an observant puppy, but not a distracted puppy. Of course, this may just be because I have had super distracted puppies in the past and she is a breeze in comparison. 

2. I love her smarts. Now, I really love goldens. They are my favorite breed. But, most goldens you meet are a little...you know...ditzy. I guess this might go along with her focus, but she's one smart cookie. She picks up on things pretty quickly and doesn't often forget them.

3. This might be superficial, but I love her color! I love dark goldens or white goldens. I'm not much for the in between colors. But any dark golden out there can steal my heart in an instant. She's also got absolutely lovely eyes. She has dark eye-liner instead of that pinkish kind. She's actually such a pretty dog and you can tell that she knows it.

4. I love her happy, little personality. She's always just so happy! She has such an expressive face which tells me exactly what she is thinking. When she sits, she looks up at you and smiles like "Did I do good!?"

5. She is such a cuddler. For any of you who have ever met a golden retriever before you know that they can be a little very needy. I have one of my own and you have to pet her until she says she is done being petted...which could be anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour at a time. But Dulcie really isn't all that needy. She does love her attention, but she also likes her alone time. Truly, Hilly is more needy towards me that Dulcie is.

Really, I love this golden girl. I know that I am really going to miss her when I have to go back to school. The good news is that she will be staying with the group! I was worried there for a second that I would transfer her and then never hear from her again until graduation. I'm so happy that I can get constant updates about her while I am across the Atlantic. Here are some pictures of her at our fire station meeting this past Tuesday the day before she turned 5 months old.

Dulcie and Samar (aka Sam) sitting on a fire engine

Dulcie sitting on the fire engine

Dulcie lying down outside around the fire trucks

Duclie (with Galloway) very interested in the truck that was driving around 

Dulcie lying in her frog leg position 

Dulcie being very excited about meeting a fully dressed firefighter

Fun Day 2013: Part 2

Getting up bright and early Keno, Dulcie, and their two humans went down to the lobby for breakfast. It was just a continental breakfast so it wasn't fantastic but at least there was food right? We got out of the hotel a little later than we intended but got to the parking lot in time to try and catch a shuttle over to the campus. Unfortunately, they weren't using the shuttle buses like in previous years but the training vans they use to take students and their dogs out to routes. So only about 4 or 5 people could fit in one at a time and there was a crowd of people waiting and they were only running them every 10 minutes. So, we decided to walk. One of the people said it would take us 20 minutes because it was 4 blocks and I looked at him and said that I had done the walk plenty of times and it never took me more than 5. Low and behold, it took us 5 minutes to get to campus.

Things were a little different. They weren't giving out littermate books this year which I didn't like and I know a lot of people didn't like it either. They sent out a PDF a couple weeks before, so I printed it out instead. They also didn't have name tags. I always really liked the name tags for some reason so I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to write my name with Dulcie's. Don't ask me why. 

The opening ceremonies were like normal. After you've sat through one you don't really want to sit through another and another and another. So, every other year I'll sit through opening ceremonies but this year we got there a little late and instead we wandered around a little. In my wandering I met Amici's breeder custodian! She said she would have him later on if I wanted to meet him, but I could never find her again. That was a little disappointed, but I guess I should have asked where I could find her later. Ah well. 

Since Dulcie is young her littermate meeting was right there at the beginning of the morning. They changed where the meeting spots were located this year and I had a little trouble finding them. I even asked someone if they knew where they were and they said they weren't near the vendor booths. They were near the vendor booths. *le sigh* But I got there and everything was good! Three other siblings showed up at Fun Day, which isn't my best turn out but is definitely by far not my worst (Freya had one other, Rocco had none, and Hilly had all that were still puppies in training). Something that I think is really cool is that Dulcie's brother Davenport was only a starter puppy and he was being transferred on Fun Day and he was transferred to Belle's puppy raiser! I raised one of her grandpuppies and now we are raising siblings. Pretty cool I think.

Davenport and Danube were fairly light while Downton and Dulcie were both pretty dark. So I guess it might be easier to pick out puppies from the litter photos that GDB posts on flikr.  

Littermate meeting - from left to right: Davenport, Danube, Downton, and Dulcie

Littermate meeting - from left to right: Davenport, Danube, Downton, and Dulcie

Littermate meeting; puppy pile. All the "D" puppies playing together.

Puppy pile. The "D" siblings playing together

Dulcie (back) with her sister Danube (front). They were best friends!

After the littermate meeting I really didn't do much else. This was the first year that our club did a booth so I really helped out the rest of the time. It was weird. There wasn't really much I wanted to do. There were tours of the new dorm, but I had already seen them and I didn't really want to walk through the kennels because Dulcie had just recently started to not react to other dogs barking at her. There were little games, but nothing too interesting. I almost partook in the recall game, but Dulcie and I hadn't worked too hard on that yet so I decided not to. Plus, Dulcie is still so young that I didn't want to overstimulate her. So, I just sort of hung out at our booth in the shade most of the time and spent far more than I meant to at the other booths. Oops.

But overall, it was a good day and I think both Dulcie and I enjoyed ourselves. She was dead tired afterwards and handled all the stimulus beautifully for a puppy of her age.

Dulcie showing off her purple leash (that I made) and the yellow flower for her collar I bought for her

Dulcie making an oh so funny grin at the camera

Dulcie and me on the bench out in front of the gift shop

Dulcie and me on the bench in front of the gift shop with our baseball gear on

I'm so bummed that I forgot to get a picture of her and me in front of the sign out in front of Guide Dogs for the Blind! I hope that means that I will be back before her recall so that I can get a picture of us then.

Fun Day 2013: Part 1

So, this post has been a long time coming but I've just haven't found the time to sit down and write in the past couple of weeks. Been a busy bumble bee I suppose. 

Fun Day is a big event put on by GDB for its puppy raisers, breeder custodians, graduates, etc. They hold one annually at both of their campuses. I have yet to make it to a Fun Day on their Boring, OR campus (in fact, today is the Oregon Fun Day) but I really hope to eventually. I hear the campus is absolutely stunning. Anyway, California Fun Day was a couple of weeks ago and of course Dulcie and I participated. 

Every year a committee puts together a Fun Day theme and this year was MVP. So, yes I wore my baseball jersey and yes I did put a hat on Dulcie for a picture. I only ever do it for Fun Day so there ya go.

Any good trip starts with a car journey. We don't live to far away from the San Rafael campus, but it's still a fun drive. And a drive is always better with company so I went with a friend and her 11 month old puppy KENO! Same friend I went with last year and again it was a lot of fun packing my little mini full of two dogs, two people, two crates, and all of our stuff. Especially since Keno is a little bigger than Hank. But we managed it just fine and were on the road. And luckily we didn't hit much traffic and made great timing. 

The trick for this year was finding a little something to eat. Normally on Friday we have pizza out by the pool with our puppy group and then we all go out to a club dinner on Saturday. This year there was a leader meeting that Friday evening so we all had to fend for ourselves. And thus we start on the funniest story of the weekend. 

We FINALLY decide to try and find this Thai restaurant so we load ourselves and the dogs into the car and put on the GPS since we aren't too sure of our surroundings in San Rafael. It turns out that it was in a little shopping center that was just at the bottom of the hill from our hotel that would have taken us about 10 minutes to walk to. Unfortunately we missed it on the first go around in the parking lot so decided drive out through the back and circle around. So, we get to the exit and there are no cars in the street and I think, Shoot, I can't actually remember which side of the road we drive on in the states. So I say out loud with the hopes that my friend will correct me if I'm wrong, "We drive on the left in America yes?" Getting no response I turn to drive on the left when all the cars start driving towards us and I quickly get over to the right. Apparently she thought I was joking. We both (and everyone else we told about it) had a good laugh about it. And we had our Thai and it was delicious! 

Then we went back to the hotel room, hung out by the pool, and relaxed for the big day ahead of us. Dulcie and Keno played very well with each other and didn't make too much noise or get too rough. Which is a good thing when you're in a hotel room. 

Dulcie in the hotel room with a silly expression.

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing.

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing

Dulcie and Keno playing

Part 2 tomorrow.