Today

"I'd be happy with you getting a puppy in March..."

Those were Graham's exact words! To say that I'm a little excited would be a bit of an understatement. I'm so happy that I finally asked about getting a puppy of my own. He asked if I had any questions and I said no because I couldn't think of any. But of course as soon as I got home I thought of a thousand and one! Haha! They're just things that I automatically assumed would be the same here as they are at home and realised that they may not be. So, I'm writing out and email to send to him with the various questions.

Besides getting that good piece of news today I also finished up the boarder's agreement which means that Vale can come of an extended visit now. We've got one set up for about a week in the near future. *grin*

I don't know exactly when I'll be getting or what breed, but I know that near the end of March I'll be getting a new puppy to raise and mold into a good Guide.

I also thought I'd share this link. Reann's first litter is up on the Guide Dog Blog! The sire was "Alonzo" who was actually raised by the other group in town! Enjoy looking at Rocco's neices and nephews!

Tomorrow

I keep thinking about tomorrow and the puppy meeting. What I'm going to say, what they're going to say, what's going to happen, etc. I'm just...nervous.

I guess you never really know if getting a puppy is the right thing to do until you're holding it in your arms. Yep, nervous is the right word for it. But, I'm really hoping they'll be able to find an older puppy for me. While I really want a baby puppy, I know that an older puppy would be ten times easier for March. If I end up getting a puppy in June it'll definitely be a baby. But a March puppy really depends on what they have available for me.

Hope that everything goes well tomorrow. Fingers crossed. If nothing else, I'm definitely going to finish up the paperwork for being a boarder.

Phase Report

Halette     45Y4     LAB     F     8

I know this is a few days late, but I've been quite busy these past few days. Just running around enjoying the last few days of freedom before classes start again on Monday.

I thought I would also give you an up date on puppies in our group. If you look over the right side of the blog you'll see the phase tracker. There you'll see that our little Lance is now in phase 7 of training! Go Sir Lance-a-lot! He's only got one more phase to go before we all start thinking of class dates for him. Then our Danvers travelled all the way to Boring, Oregon to begin his training and is now in phase 1 which means he has passed his medicals! He's one of those puppies that we knew he'd make it if he passed his medicals so we just have to sit back and wait now! Good job LANCE and DANVERS!!!!

Now on to the "T Sisters", Teesha and Tippin. They had an eval on Wednesday and the all mighty Jim proclaimed that they were doing wonderfully and would be ready to go back for training whenever they were recalled. Hooray for Teesha and Tippin!!!! They are both on Breeder watch so we're hoping to get our first breeder out of one of the girls! (Still a little sad that it wasn't Freya, Rocco, or Hilly but I love that my first two babies are guiding and that my last one decided to be a mooch for the rest of her life. *smile*)

That's kind of it for the puppy group back home. I miss all the puppies and all the people a whole lot. I think my missing of them will lessen if Graham decides to let me have a puppy in March.

Waiting Sucks

Waiting has never been so hard! Ok, I lie. Waiting for Freya was torture as well. But this waiting is just as bad. At least  with Freya I knew I was getting a puppy and it was just a matter of...well waiting four or five months.

At this stage, I don't really know what's going to happen. That's the worst I think. I did get an email back from Graham asking if I would be at the workshop next Tuesday and if I was we could talk about it then. I am going to be at the workshop on Tuesday. Which means just a couple more days of waiting before we discuss everything and see what we can do. But, I don't know what he's going to say. He could ask me to wait until June or say that there's an older puppy that'll be ready in February. I've never liked the feeling of uncertainty and it's even less fun when you have to wait for something like this!

I'll just have to wait until Tuesday I guess to really see what's going on. Fingers crossed that I can get a puppy in March.

My Descent into Insanity

Well, today happens to be my birthday and I decided to do something special for it. Most girls would buy themselves some new clothes or shoes or make-up or something along those lines. What did I do for my birthday? I sent an email to Graham about a puppy.

Hence the post title about descending into insanity. There's a part of me that is thinking, "Why in the world did you send that!?" but then there the other part (the larger part) that is glad that I did. It's time for me to have a puppy again and I'm ready to jump into it head first. In the end, the pros definitely outweighed the cons. Being a puppy raiser (or puppy walker as I should get use to calling myself) is who I am. I was hooked from the first puppy meeting in June 2008 and I've been very good for the past year and a half in waiting.

So...how many of you guessed that I would put in for a puppy before I even had a chance to puppy sit? Haha! To be fair to me, I was a puppy sitter back in October so I waited a good long while.

Anyway, I'm not making any promises as to when I can expect to be holding a new little puppy in my arms. It really is up to Graham as to when that happens. I put in my preferred dates to receive one and we'll just have to see what happens. But it's nice to know that something is finally starting to happen.

Happy 2nd Rocco!

Baby 13 Week old Rocco

Rocco helped me vote for the first time.



Rocco in his cowboy outfit.

Rocco at my dad and stepmom's wedding.

Rocco wearing a goofy grin at Desconso Gardens.



Anoter goofy grin, only at a baseball game this time.



My handsome boy with his handsome smile.



<>

Rocco in Arizona over Christmas in 2010.



Rocco at just a few weeks under a year old.

 

<>

Rocco on stage in harness at Graduation.

Well, my handsome, little boy. I guess you're not little anymore, but you still are the most handsome! Happy second bithday Boy! I hope you're being spoiled rotten today.

Estee's First Litter and Pros&Cons

Estee's "G" puppies are finally home with their BKs. *big grin* Here are pictures of all of them. There's one black pup amongst the five yellow pups. There appears to be 3 males and 3 females though one of the names isn't really gender specific so I'm not too entirely sure. With that said, yes, I do know all of the names. But, I'm not going to post them up as I don't want to ruin the surprise for any raiser who might be getting an Ozzie/Estee puppy. None of my names were used *sad face* but they're all great names. There's one little girl's name that I absolutely LOVE!



The little black puppy of her litter. This is the one that isn't gender specific, but I think he's male. 

A little yellow female. She's got a wonderful name.

A little yellow male. He looks like the biggest to me.

Another yellow male. He's got my favourite out of the male names.

A yellow female. She's darker than the rest.

A little, yellow female. She's the one with my favourite name.

 Aren't they so cute! And they're so little. I think they're either just under a month or just over a month. If I didn't have puppy fever before I definitely have it now. Speaking of puppy fever...

Yesterday I couldn't focus on studying. I have an exam today and an exam tomorrow and studying much more seems a little pointless. I'm going to do as well as I'm going to. That doesn't mean that I'm not doing a last minute cram session tonight with a friend for the Psychology exam, but last night was really hard for me. So, I got to thinking about what I should do about a puppy of my own. Since I couldn't make a final decision I did what I always do when I just can't decide. I made a Pros&Cons list to clearly understand where I stand at this moment. Here's a photo of my pros and cons list.

My pros and cons list.

 My pros are "German Shepherd possiblity, A healthy distraction, puppy breath, expercise again, stress reliever, get it off my mind, it's who I am, and lif is boring without a puppy. My cons are "Needing to balance between school and puppy, 4 hour roleplaying games, little space in the flat, social life, the costs, the heart ache, and I would have to do more cleaning." As you can see, the pros outweigh the cons by number if only by one. At this moment I'm trying to decide if the cons outweigh the pros in gravity though. I've raised 3 puppies and I know how much time it takes...especially a baby puppy. But I know I'm up to the task. What did I decide? Well, it really is a tie so I decided to email Graham after my exams are finished and say something like, "I would really like a puppy of my own and I think I'm ready for one. I've been thinking about it and the best time for me to get a puppy would be at the beginning of my spring break which starts March 23. But I would like to puppysit once before fully committing. Would it be possible to put me on a list for a puppy for the end of March but take me off if, after I puppysit, I realise that it's not the right time for a puppy full time? Then the next best time would be beginning of June since it's the start of summer break and I'll be here for all but 3 weeks of the summer." I'm also going to say, as much as it kills me, that I would prefer an older puppy. One that is done with shots and can go everywhere...but I also want anything but a Lab. Haha! So, I could to a baby puppy if that's necessary for a not Lab. But know that the longest I'll have to wait for a puppy is five months is really exciting!

Also, I'm having trouble with my comments on this blog. I can view them, but I can't reply to them. Someone (can't quite remember the name right now) asked me to send them my email address so they could invite me to their blog. I'm just gonna post it up here for you since I can't find you on my followers and I can't reply to the comment. dramaqueenEEA92@gmail.com