Bringing in the Holiday Cheer with Puppies

You all know that tomorrow my Leader Mary and retired leader Candie are going up to the holiday luncheon to receive their new puppies. Both are getting female golden retrievers, one Miss N and one Miss M. I won't lie, I know most of the names for the "M" litter, but I'm not telling. Mostly because I don't know all of them, I don't want to ruin the names for other raisers, and because I'm not sure which one Candie is getting. I do have a personal favourite out of the ones I know of, but who ever knows.

But, the two golden girls are not the only puppies that will be welcomed tomorrow afternoon. GDB apparently had a lot of older puppies ready to go to raiser homes, but not enough raisers. So my other leader Nancy said that should would take on a starter puppy to get him out of the kennels!

She's been assigned a male black lab born on September 28, 2011 to Hurley/Genevieve; Litter Letter "H"! So, now we have name guesses for Miss N, Miss M, and Mr. H!!!! Mary said that she would bring little "H" home with Miss N tomorrow so that he could be a part of the Christmas photo.

I really can't wait to get home!

Pictues from Mom's House and Last Night's Meeting

My brother, mother, Rocco, and I all went to Huntington Gardens on Wednesday. I know we go to a lot of Garden type things, but I really enjoy them. They're fun and they're a great place to train the dogs. They're are kids running around and different flowers that they have to ignore. Huntington is great because it also has a tea room that serves "High Tea." It's a bit expensive, but my mother, brother, and I are not in the same place more often than not so we took this opportunity to have tea and scones together and those little finger sandwiches. Rocco also was able to cool down and sleep. Anyway, here are some picture from the gardens.

This was in the Chinese Garden. It has a lot of cool bridges around and I took the opportunity to practice his stay.
Next to a fish statue that ends a really long bridge.
A closeup of my boy on one of the bridges. He's so good.
As we were heading back to the entrance and the gift shop (I really like their gift shop because it's more of a bookstore. They had the complete works or Jane Austen in one volume, but I didn't get it) I say these pretty flowers outside the Chinese Garden.
Isn't he just the most handsome boy you've ever seen?

He poses so well. This was in the Bonsai Court where they have the most amazing Bonsai trees.
Another great bonsai tree. He actually tried to climb over the fence to get to it. :/
That, behind him, is actually a bonsai tree. It is an olive bonsai tree. They're my favourite.
There he is in the Tea Room after a big drink. Funny story: My brother forgot his sunglasses in the waiting room and our waitress brought them to us and I forgot Rocco's portable water dish on the table as we left and she ran out the door to give it to me. My mom laughed at both of us for our scatter brains and just as she finished scolding me our waitress ran out with her hand sanitizer that she had left on the table. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

You see that stroller? There is a great kids garden (it has jumping fountains that Rocco was completely in love with. I have a video, but my computer won't let me load them onto blogger) and Rocco made a lot of kiddie friends. He even went between a lady's leg to get to her baby. I was so embarrassed.

I love his tongue.

I have another picture of him just like this when he was 13 weeks old in my backyard.
My favourite picture of the day!

Ok, now that the Gardens are over I have a game for you all. You remember that I told you that the blow up mattress that I slept on the first night deflated all the way to the ground? Well, Rocco loved it! Even when it was completely deflated. So here is the game. It's called FIND THE PUPPY.

Did you find the puppy everytime? He just blended in so well with the sheets I was using.

There were a few times that we had all four people in the car and it was hard to get Rocco on the set in the back or on the floor behind the seats. So, since my mom and a forester, he was put in the back.

He wasn't too happy about being left back there for two car rides.

Now let me show you pictures of last night's puppy meeting. We had a small meeting because Royalty is boarding up at Guide Dogs because she went into heat again, Amici is at a sitters house because his family is out of town, and of course Townsend doesn't have to come anymore.

Tomales. He's such a cute dog.

Kendrick. He's such a good boy!
He's so big. He got switched to an X-Large jacket last night so that Rocco could get a Large.

My Rocco. He's so good and so adorable.

Rockford. He's such a happy boy and he's silly. Right now he's got puppy pimples.

I had a good picture of Colorado, but I accidentally erased it and I really don't want to load it again.

Only 2 weeks before Fun Day and the Name Game closes. So don't forget to guess the name of our new Golden Retriever and remember to guess if we're getting the largest or smallest male of the group.

Today's Adventures

One of the wonderful things about this job (I do consider Puppy Raising a job even if I don't get paid) is that I get to meet such wonderful people. Funnily enough most of these wonderful people are not blind or visually impaired. But I have met my fair share. Today, Mary and I helped out a blind lady who is also in a wheel chair. I absolutely love her Guide Dog Darwin. He's so sweet and so gentle and you can tell he's in love with her.

Anyway, we went grocery shopping this morning and helped her put them away and emptied the garbage and cleaned the litter box and cleaned out her fridge. It was a lot of fun! I really like seeing working guides in action especially wheelchair guides. Now, Mary's going to kill me for telling you guys this, but there was a really funny incident involving emptying the trash. After getting back to this blind lady's place my job was to basically make sure Rocco and Colorado didn't get in the way. So I watched them decide where to put things in the fridge and decide what to throw out. Well, the trash can got pretty full so they decided to empty it. Mary tried and tried but she couldn't get the trash bag out. So both of them were pulling on the can and pulling on the trash bag and they finally got it out. There's got to be a joke in there somewhere. One of those "how many blonds..." jokes.

This is Darwin.

Isn't he cute? Yes, yes he is. And he's sweet too.

At one point Mary and Darwin's partner walked (well Mary walked) to Rite Aide and left me in charge of the dogs because it was too hot for them to walk. Darwin sat like this, staring at the door for most of the time. The other 1/4 of the time he was sitting in my lap. :)

That was my adventure of the day. Rocco did great and he wasn't scared of her wheelchair at all. I think he and Darwin became really good friends too!

Anyway, for Maddie and Meghan here is basically what you will be getting. Of course it'll be your dog, not mine.

This is what I call "Freya's Corner". It's on my desk and I have...well, pictures of Freya. The hand done one in the middle is what you two will be getting. This was Freya at about 6 months I would say. It was done by my good friend and she's agreed to do pictures of your pups. Meghan, I still have not received your pictures. No pressure or anything, but just in case you sent them and I didn't get them at least now we all know. Again, my email is EllaBella2010@gmail.com or you could send it to dramaqueenEEA92@gmail.com Maddie, if you think of a picture better for this since you know what it is now please sent it. :)

Pictures from Last Night

Here are some pictures from last night. I didn't take a whole bunch because I didn't want to interrupt the speaking and what not. I also didn't get any good pictures of her Guide, Keebler, and her late husband's now retired Guide Latrel. Latrel, for those of you who follow my name game, is my number 1 choice for a name. :)

Our good boy Winston. He did so good the whole time.

Mr. Kendrick. He's such a sweet boy! And he got big!
Who would have guessed that this little guy...
Would turn into this moose of a dog!?

Tomales being a good boy.
Tomales and Rockford having a little fun before settling down.
Amici! I love this boy!
We tried to get Amici to smile but he needed a little help.
Does anybody else's dog lay like this? Colorado loves it!

Tears on My Pillow

Tonight's meeting was at a blind lady's house. We do this occasionally because it helps us as puppy raisers see the finished product and understand why we have so many strict rules. It went really well. You would think that 9 dogs, 7 of them puppies in training, would go crazy when in one little room together. But no such thing happened. Sure, the puppies wanted to play but they settled really quickly.

We listened to Ms.E talk about what it's like for her to be blind. I really like her. She's nice, easy to talk to, and she loves Golden Retrievers. Anyone who loves Goldens as much as I do is alright in my book. :) Anyway, near the end of the meeting we got on the subject on graduations and what not. I announced proudly that I did not cry at Freya's graduation...except at the very end when I had to say Good Bye for good. Even then, I just got a little choked up. When somebody said, "Yeh, but you really wanted her to graduate." I really wanted to say in a defensive tone, "But I want all of your dogs to graduate too." or "But I would've taken her back without a second thought!" That's when I realized that no one in my group has seen me cry about Freya. No one, save Mary and Brenna because they took me up to our recall day. I tried hard not to cry, but really! How could I not? So, I'm going to recount want recall day was like for me in hopes that those of my puppy group (who are, mostly, all on the first puppy) and those of you out there who are on your first puppy too will realize that we all go through the same thing. I'm doing this because we have 3 dogs who are about to go back and 2 of those are first time puppies.

So the morning of February 20, 2010 Freya and I woke up a little earlier than we normally did on Saturdays. I took her for her last walk and she kept looking up at me not really knowing that she wasn't going to go around the lake ever again. What did I do on this walk? I cried. Then, when we got home I fed her her last meal and again, I cried. When Mary and Brenna came to pick me up I was scrambling around trying to get things ready. I think subconsciously I was stalling because I really didn't want her to go back. Freya laid at my feet the entire time and occasionally set her head on my lap. Every time she did I would look out of my window. Why? Because I was crying and watching the scenery generally calms me down. A lot of stuff happened in between that and arriving at GDB but I'm not going to bore you with the details. I will just say that I cried more. When it was time to put her in her kennel...I couldn't do it. So I walked her around by myself a little more and cried and hugged her. Then it was time for me to put her away. I stayed in that kennel for a good 5 minutes just sitting with her. Then the outdoor door was opened and she went to investigate. She came back in with a huge smile as if to say, "Look Momma! Look what's out here!" So I cried some more and left her. On the way out I met Falla and her raisers and showed them where Freya was. She jumped up on the gate and she had this giant smile on her face. I see that face from time to time. We left and i cried some more. When I got home I went into my room looked at the empty crate, looked down at my empty leash, and cried and cried. I laid in bed for an hour crying holding onto my leash. And I still cry. I cry a lot about her. When I look at pictures or think of her at all I cry. I miss her dearly.

Anyway, I'm sure all other puppy raisers have the same story with a few changes here and there. So, there you go all the first timers. We all do the same thing. It's ok to cry and I sort of wish that I had shown my group a little more how much a miss her. I get asked all the time how I could ever give up my dog. I say because it makes it all worth it when someone says to you, "My life is easier because of you." Then I ask why they have children. Isn't like the same thing? I'm trying to fill a part of myself with my puppy raising and helping the world in the process. Isn't that why we have kids? Because we want to fill that weird spot that feels empty without kids and to process society and help the world.

*Pictures of the meeting to come tomorrow*

Townsend

It occurs to me that I rarely talk about my puppy meetings and my puppy group. So instead of telling you all about my hiking trip with Rocco today, I'm going to talk about my group.

Today was a very special puppy meeting. At least, it was special for me.

My group is comprised of 8 wonderful puppies and their raiser. There's Winston, a yellow lab male Jenkins/Bubbles puppy who is one of my personal favourites. Probably because his raiser and I shared a room during Fun Day last year and Winston and I got really close. Then there's Tomales, a black lab male Bingham/Raven puppy. He's a great puppy but he can be a little naughty. Then there's Colorado a male golden retriever CCI Zorba/Garcelle puppy. I love him! But I love Goldens. Royalty is a female Atrus/Indiana puppy. She's a black lab so of course I love her. Then there's Rockford. He's a yellow lab male Samuel/Sarita puppy and he and Rocco could be twins. Next up is Amici. He's a black lab male Cabby/Robin puppy. He's so mellow and sweet and I really like him. Then is Kendrick who is just about 2 weeks younger than Amici. He's a yellow lab male Dutch/Gracie puppy. He's quite the sweetheart. Then there's my puppy Rocco.

You might have noticed that this blog post is titled "Townsend" and yet you did not hear me mention a Townsend yet.

Last June we received three new puppies. This was a joy for me because our consisted of Freya and Harvard for the longest time until finally we got Winston. Then these three puppies, Tomales and Townsend (yes they're brothers) and Colorado. I immediately fell in love with the little one named Townsend. Now this is not something that I have ever said to anyone, but I figure it is right to mention it now. Townsend was my favourite of the three new pups. That's really impressive for Townsend seeing as Colorado came with him and I'm a big Golden Retriever person. But no, I fell head over heals for the little black lab. And I say little because it wasn't until recently that he started to fill out. He's always been lanky and thin.

Well, the reason that could not mention Townsend in the list of puppies is because he was just Career Changed. He never went off to "doggie college" but it was determined that he wasn't happy working and that it was no longer fair for us to ask him to do something that made him stressed and nervous. I was very sad when I heard the news so I can't even imagine what his raisers were going through. I even started to cry...and when someone asked me about my group I said, "Well, my group has 9...8 puppies." I again started to cry.

So that is why today was a special puppy meeting. It was Townsend's first meeting as a pet. Yes, his raisers decided to keep him on as a pet. He was so happy and so relaxed. It was great to see him so happy and carefree. So I make him up a goodie bag. He got some of my homemade treats because he's a pet now and can have biscuits. And I made some cupcakes for the group.

If you can't read what these say it's, "PROUD TO BE A CAREER CHANGE"

This one (or should I say these?) says "WE <3>

Here are some pictures of Townsend from tonight and from earlier. I wish I could find this one picture I was sure I had of him. I had him one weekend and he wound up on the bog bed in my room on top of one pillow and the other one over his head. He was so cute and yes, while Freya was with me she had her bed, her two pillows, and a blanket.

A birthday celebration for dogs in the Visalia group and our group. We had about 6 turn one about the same time. (Townsend is on the left. He's the smiling pup)

The two brothers turning away from each other.

Here is one from tonight. Right after the meeting so he was panting because it was so hot.

He looks so happy.

He really is a cute boy. I really, really like him.

So, even though Townsend is no longer a puppy in training I still feel he's a part of this group. I'm sure everyone does. And now, it's time for my dirty little secret. Besides Winston (because he and I have spent quality time together) Townsend was my favourite puppy in training. That's including Royalty and Colorado. I love, love, love Royalty but there was something about Townsend. Anyway, that's my dirty little secret. I don't really have "favourites" but Townsend come uber close. :)