Confessions of a Puppy Raiser: We Don’t Talk About That.

Okay guys.  I’ve got a confession to make.  It’s something that I know all those who choose to be puppy raisers can relate to.  We very rarely talk about it for fear of looking or sounding weak amongst those who don’t understand or can’t fathom why we do what we do, but it is a very real series of emotions that only we can understand.

I opened up my email today and found CCI’s NW Volunteer update; a monthly newsletter sent to all volunteers with the happenings of our region.  November marked the last graduation for 2013, and while skimming through the newsletter my eyes stopped on the list for 2014.  One date inparticular dropped my heart into the pit of my stomach.  August 15th.  Yes, although it’s nine months away, this day has been lurking in the back of my mind since I recieved my cute ball of yellow.  August 15th will mark my very last day with Helaine, and it deeply saddens me that our time together is truly this fleeting.

I wish I could put into words the array of emotions that roll around in my mind and heart from day to day in regards to turn in.  I am so incredibly excited to see my puppy grow up into a mature and wise adult with a hunger to work and be of service to her forever person.  I cannot wait to see My Girl in what is known as Service Dog Blue.  I am thrilled at the thought of meeting her forever person and handing that leash over.  Truth be told, I have dreamed about this since before I ever knew I was going to be a puppy raiser.  My biggest reward in this will be the ability to address Helaine as either an SC, SD, HD or FD in the signature of my emails.  That is the ending that I am picturing every day.  I don’t want to see the ending of her story be anything but a working dog.

But then there are those feelings.  You know the ones I’m talking about.  The gut wrenchingly sad feelings.   The thoughts that run through your mind.  The “ohmygoshweonlyhaveninemonthsleftandit’sgoingbytoofastandIhaven’tevendoneallIwanttodoyetwehavenotime” thoughts.   And the feelings of pure and utter sadness that she will no longer be there to hug and kiss and play with, and that she truly isn’t your dog.  Can I just say that this roller coaster of emotions is one of the hardest, wackiest, scariest rides I’ve EVER been on?  And the worst part is…I just got on.  It’s not even close to the end yet.  Yeesh.  Can someone hand me an anti-nausea pill?

I know what some of you non-puppy raisers may be thinking.  You may be thinking that I’m weak or selfish for feeling the way I do.  Some may even think that if I can’t handle this than I why on earth would I become a puppy raiser, only to fall in love with a dog I can’t keep and have to give back.  I’d be lying if I didn’t think those thoughts of myself from time to time.  I do feel selfish when I get sad at the thought of saying goodbye to my best friend.  Some days, when Helaine doesn’t want to listen and she has a stomach upset and she doesn’t want to perform commands I wonder why I thought I was strong enough to be a puppy raiser.  I get what you’re thinking.  I do.

The answer to that is simple.  I’m not strong enough to do this.  Not on my own anyway.  If I had to do this all by myself with no support around me I wouldn’t be strong enough for all the bumps and detours along the way.  I am strong enough because of the friends and family I have in this crazy CCI world.  I’m strong enough because there is someone our there that is waiting for the call to come to campus and meet their Wonder Dog.   I am strong enough for this because I don’t need Helaine in my life.  I want her in my life.  I can get myself out bed, turn on the lights, pick up my debit card I drop on the floor a hundred times, get my own clothes out of the washer and shut a door or cabinet by myself.

Helaine changed my life and my heart.  She has brought out in me a better person, a better dog trainer, and a better puppy raiser.  To put it bluntly, she raised me.  More importantly though, she brought me out of a deep year of sadness and depression.  I am affected by the gray, rainy season and I battle depression when the gray is neverending.  But the thought of getting her pushed me through weeks of colorless, lifeless days.  Recieving her kept me active and out of bed, and now that I am on this end of it, I can say I am completely and utterly content because of my works as a puppy raiser.  Even when it’s pouring down rain, she has kept me eartside, rather than mentally checked out.  She’s a Wonder Dog, and that will be yet another reason I will have a hard time saying goodbye.

I would just like to say to all of you who go through the same emotional internal battles during your adventures as puppy raisers, you are not alone and your feelings are justified.  Do not feel ashamed or embarassed if you have a hard time during turn in.  Do not think you are weak or selfish because you grieve over saying goodbye.  It is normal.  Completely and totally normal.  You are strong, you are brave and you are changing a life, while yours is being changed as well.  Stand tall and proud to be a puppy raiser.  We’ve all been there, we’re all in this together.

Wordless Wednesday

I could stare at her as she sleeps for hours.  I just love her cute face. 

Weekend Adventuring

Last week was long, and it seemed like I would never reach the end of it.  Helaine doesn’t come to work with me at this time, though I am trying very hard to get permission, and I miss her so much during the day.  Every morning I sit on the floor with her and feel terrible that she can’t come along.  She so willingly goes into her crate, but looks at me with her sad eyes and it makes my heart hurt.  In the 20 minutes it takes me to get to my office, I contemplate turning around to get her about a dozen times.  Realizing I’d have no place to keep her, I stick with my rational idea of leaving her home.  I will keep fighting the battle for her to accompany me.  Until then though, we’ll keep cramming as much fun and excitement into the weekends as possible to break up the monotony of the work week.

When I came home from work on Friday, we spent a good amount of time running around the back yard, playing fetch and just relaxing.  I had a major interview at work for a new position/promotion and I was overstimulated and exhausted.  Playing and spending time with Helaine always melts away whatever the work day threw at me.  After play time came Helaines second favorite thing in the whole wide world, dinner time.  She knows the drill.  Every night before getting her bowl, I take part of her dinner and we practice obedience.  We did a quick run down of the ones she knows well, and spent a little more time on the ones she knows but doesn’t yet execute well.  After giving Helaine the “Bed” command to wait for her bowl, I decided to give something a try.  I’ve been seeing pictures everywhere lately of puppy raisers practicing food refusal by spelling out words and placing kibble on their paws.  I was determined to try this with my sweet 16.5 week old girl.  The following pictures illustrate just what happened when she was asked to leave the food alone.

 

If she doesn’t look at it, it must not be there right?!  I’ll just let her believe that.  If you notice between her paws she has a couple of drool marks.  This was NOT an easy thing for her, but she did well and handled it long enough to get a good series of pictures and pick up all the pieces before giving her the OK to devour what was left.  GOOD GIRL!

Saturday started out slow.  We spent some time just playing and relaxing prior to starting our adventures.  My sweet friend Alicia was making the trip up to my valley from her home in the city and we were making a plan to hit the tulips once more before the festival ends.  Alicia came with me the day I picked up Helaine, and I’ve been working on convincing her to puppy raise.  After MONTHS of poking and proding and a few weeks of Helaine snuggling, I think I have her convinced.  She is one non-puppy raising friend who understands that these adventures take a little longer, and that sometimes I will be walking with a good pace and all of a sudden I’ll need to turn around abruptly to correct a bit of forging from my girl.  She understands that sometimes Helaine just doesn’t want to “hurry” even though she really, really, REALLY needs to.  She’s a good adventure buddy and I look forward to being there the moment she gets her sweet puppy.  She’s going to make a fabulous raiser. 

We went to a different garden this time around.  It was starting to rain and I knew that Tulip Town has an indoor display.  From the moment we walked in it was a scensory overload for me!  Too many sights, smells, sounds and people crammed into one tiny building.  Helaine, she handled it well.  She did a bit of forging but we worked on that and will continue to work on that as the weeks progress.  It was fun to get another set of pictures in the fields, and this time I was actually able to get a picture of the two of us together.  This is our first picture together since the day I brought her home and I will cherish it forever.  It’s not necessarily the best picture of me, but Helaine looks beautiful and that’s all that matters. 

I sure do love this girl.  I waited for her for a long long time, and I am thankful every single day that I sent that initial inquiry email about puppy raising for CCI, and that I stumbled on a puppy raising blog from one of the raisers in my chapter.  I still follow that blog but it’s much more fun knowing the family behind the stories and getting to watch the cutest little lab/golden cross grow up. 

After tiptoeing through the tulips round two, we headed to our favorite restaurant for some fantastic comfort food and good conversation.  Helaine fell asleep under the table within the first 10 minutes and slept through the meal.  She started going to restaurants with me at 10 weeks old, and I am so thankful that I started her so young because she already handles restaurants so well.  No one even notices her…well except for my friends who work at this restaurant. 😉

Our final destination was at Coastal Farm and Ranch.  I had only been in the store once, and I knew it would provider a lot of interesting things for Helaine to experience.  There were many different benches and tables for her to practice her “Up’s” and “Under’s” and it wasn’t quite as busy as our previous locations so it was quite relaxing to just meander through the aisles.  They have a life sized horse in one of the drive aisles and I was surprised when Helaine didn’t even notice it.  We snapped a picture just for fun. 

I was most impressed by what we did next.  Earlier in the week, Helaine and I showed up to class earlier than usual.  I always love to sit back and admire the work of the older class and imagine the day Helaine performs all of those commands with ease.  One thing they worked on, was getting their dogs to do the “Bed” command from a distance.  Now, last week My Girl performed that from a good two-three feet away with no queues at all, but after seeing that class I wanted to experiment and just see what she did.  I picked a bed off the shelf, and stepped back between six and seven feet give or take.  From there, I calmly asked Helaine to execute “Bed”.  She did it.  She trotted her way over to the bed and she executed it perfectly.  I was most impressed with the fact that she didn’t break that command until I released her.  My oh my.  What a good girl I have.  The proof is in the picture!

I spent Sunday with my dad, and we went to our favorite produce stand on Fir Island called Snowgoose Produce.  We’ve been going there since I was just a little girl and it’s fun to continue the tradition in my adult life.  The have ice cream cones the size of your face, and loads of incredible produce, and interesting items.  I love this place and I will sing it’s praises forever!  There was a family ahead of us in line and they instantly started asking questions about Helaine.  Of course, I was answering them left and right but my dad really talked it up.  He has been my biggest puppy raising supporter for as long as I’ve been at this and he LOVES talking to the public about it.  He fields my questions when I can’t necessarily do it, for example when I was trying to focus on Helaine hurrying.  He’s like my personal agent.  Ha.  I put Helaine into a sit and I heard the mother say “See, you can have a dog like that some day.”  I won’t lie, my first reaction was a secret eye roll.  I was shown that I should never ever ever do that.  Ever.  We started talking with the mother, and she started talking about how her daughter will eventually be wheelchair bound and that they will apply for a service dog some day.  From there the conversation grew.  We spoke about CCI, how to get involved and how to apply for a dog.  Helaine showed off a couple of her commands and even shook a few hands.  What a little celebrity she was for a moment.  What an incredible story it would be, if some day I’m handing the leash over to that family.  I’m crying just thinking of how beautiful that would be. 

One thing that happened while I was talking up CCI really kind of annoyed me.  A woman comes up from behind me, and allows her dog to visit with Helaine BEFORE she asks me if it’s okay.  Of course, Helaine didn’t really know what to do but she stayed in a sitting position (and I’m really proud of her for that).  When she finally asked me if it was okay for her dog to meet mine, I politely told her no, and explained that I was trying to keep her focused on working and remaining calm.  The look on her face was shocked, with a mix of offended with a little bit of sad thrown in.  Like I had stolen her first born and sold it to gypsies.  I saw her again later on and she didn’t acknowledge me.  I really didn’t think I would offend her so much! 

As much as I hate how often we are apart during the week, our weekend adventures make up for lost time.  I certainly love this girl, and I am so thankful that we live in an area that is full of awesome experiences!   

Wordless Wednesday

I spent the afternoon in the sunshine with my niece Errin and Helaine.  I love that Helaine gets to grow up with a toddler.  Errin is over the moon in love with Helaine, and I know the feeling is mutual.  Kids and puppies, I don’t think there is a more precious pair out there.

Helaine’s First Sweet 16

Can you believe Helaine is 16 weeks old?!  Okay, so she’s not TECHNICALLY 16 weeks until tomorrow.  But considering tomorrow is Wednesday and I have one heck of a Wordless Wednesday picture in mind, I’m jumping the gun and posting about it today.  I cannot even believe that my girl is already 16 weeks old.  I remember bringing her home and saying “I love cute tiny puppies, but I really can’t wait till she’s 16 weeks old.”  At that time I had seven weeks ahead of me and it seemed like we wouldn’t get there.  But we’re here and now the day I brought her home seems like a lifetime ago already. 

Now, you may be wondering why exactly I couldn’t wait for her to reach the 16 week mark.  Well, the main reason is that she is now FULLY vaccinated and free to go wherever our hearts desire.  I also love this age because things are clicking and she actually understands commands and is eager to learn new things.  Don’t get me wrong, training has been quite lovely with this girl.  But now is the time that she actually has a list of commands under her vest, and she can execute them when asked.  She’s more reliable on the “Hurry” command, she can handle more outings and more places, and all in all things really start to pick up at the 16 week mark.  I don’t want to rush our time together, but I am quite happy that we’ve made it to this first milestone.

In honor of Helaine’s four month birthday, I decided to list four of my absolute favorite things about her! 

1)  She is always always always happy to see me when I get home.  When I walk through my bedroom door and let her out of her crate, it doesn’t matter if she has to Hurry or not she will crawl into my lap and just love on me.  I work in the Health Insurance industry and I have a really stressful job.  She is always capable of melting away my stress just by giving me the unconditional love she was born to give.  I love her for a lot of reasons, but this one by far tops the list.

2)  She makes me laugh every. single. day.  The last few weeks without her noticing, I’ve been observing her while she plays by herself.  She has gotten to the point where she will throw her toys into the air or across the room, just so she can fetch them and shake them around.  When we are outside in the yard, she tucks her tail and will run as fast as her short little legs will go.  She is a comedian.

3)  She loves to learn.  Training has been relatively easy simply because she’s alway wanting to learn and work.  As I’ve stated, she is familiar with 25 of her required 30 commands.  While she doesn’t necessarily execute them on command every single time, she does know what they mean and how to perform them.  I still think 25 commands at 16 weeks is impressive.

4)  She has the confidence of a lion.  She hasn’t met a challenge she can’t overcome.  She has had a couple moments where she isn’t sure about what she’s seeing but she quickly gets over what little apprehension she had and continues on the adventure.  Stairs have been a breeze, and changing surfaces has had little effect on her.  She can handle anything I throw at her (so far) and I hope she keeps this type of confidence up!

Helaine is remarkable and I know that she is destined for greatness.  She has so much ahead of her and she’s going to change the lifes of so many people.  How do I know?  Well, she’s already changed mine.

Spring has Sprung

I know I’ve mentioned before that I live in Washington State.  More specifically, I live in the beautiful Skagit Valley.  Most days, I really like it.  It’s been my home for almost 12 years and it’s where I can always find peace and comfort.  It’s particularly beautiful during the month of April, as the annual Tulip Festival begins and the hundreds of acres worth of tulip fields create a quilt of color across the valley.  I had planned all week to go out to the street fair and fields with Helaine, rain or shine.  Of course, I was really hoping it wouldn’t rain and I watched the forecast all week.  However,  I found myself cursing my home state yesterday.  As I sat in my car while the rain gods dumped the wet stuff by the bucket full, I cursed this state and even uttered the words “I hate you!”.  20 minutes came and went, and the rain subsided.  Thankful and apologetic, I slipped out of my car and let Helaine out to hurry.  The sun began to shine and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.  Washington state, maybe you’re not so bad afterall.

Once Helaine was finished I waited patiently for an old friend to show up.  She and I have known eachother for about 14 years.  We were in 4-H together many many years ago but haven’t seen much of each other in probably eight of those years.  She is currently raising for a guide dog organization based in Seattle, and has a beautiful German Shephard named Ranger.  She got him as a transfer about three weeks ago and he has made a lot of progress in the short time she’s had him.  She has raised for CCI in years passed and has been anxious to meet My Girl, so this was the perfect opportunity.  When they arrived, we quickly began catching up and meandering up and down the street fair meeting many curious people and facing many interesting smells.  Helaine wasn’t necessarily on her best behavior.  While I was interested in keeping her focused and away from other dogs and off people, I was more focused on watching how she reacted to large crowds, strange sounds and dogs of all shapes, sizes and sounds.  She handled everything just how I thought she would–Perfectly. 

After the streetfair, we took this outing to my favorite tulip field, RoozenGaarde.  They have acres of beautiful tulips, and an amazing display garden.  For five whole dollars, you’re free to venture through both.  Going through the tulips with my puppies is always my favorite outing ever.  As I was taking a picture of Helaine, one lady said “Is there anything cuter than a puppy in the tulips?”  My answer is and always will be, “I don’t think so.”  We spent about an hour and a half here, and then it was time to go.  At 4 1/2 hours long, it was her longest outing to date and she handled it so well.  She ended up sleeping the rest of the afternoon, only waking up to go outside or eat.  The girl has her priorities!

Overall, this experience was good for the both of us.  Up until this passed weekend, we hadn’t experienced a massive crowd together.  Neither of us really knew what we were in for.  I am so thankful that I have such a confident girl who is comfortable with anything I ask of her and any situation I bring her to.  We’ll return next year, and it will be incredible to see the differences between now and then.  Until then though, we’re going to keep moving forward one day, and one adventure at a time!

High Five

My experience with Helaine over the last six weeks has been quite the rollercoaster.  Between the initial sleepless nights, tummy troubles, incessant whining and barking while in the crate (while I’m away), and her picking anything and everything up off the ground to chomp on, I’ve had my work cut out for me to say the least.  But the last six weeks have brought to much joy and such a sense of accomplishment already.   

After making it through the “get to you know you” period, our bond really started to strengthen.  I will admit, the first couple of weeks were spent in an overly exhausted stupor, and they were also filled with many tears of frustration as I woke up every 2 hours with a puppy suffering from the yucks.  I’m so glad those days are behind us now.  We both feel so much better now that we can sleep through the night.  I’m a girl who likes my sleep, and I know Helaine is a fan of her sweet slumber as well.  Now if only I could get her to quit singing the songs of her people at 5:30 AM on a weekend, things would be even sweeter.  One step at a time I guess. 

One thing I have had plenty of success in, is training.  Helaine is incredible.  She loves loves loves to learn and she is so proud when she learns something new.  While we have stuggled with her whining while cradling in class, and of course the crate freak outs when I’m not home, everything else has come with relative ease.  I feel so fortunate that I live in an area that has a contract trainer available.  While I drive 1 hour and 15 minutes to class (one way) every week, I wouldn’t trade the knowledge of our trainer, or the companionship and sense of family amongst the other raisers for anything.  Our trainer…she’s awesome.  She intimidates me quite a bit, but she is truly lovely.  She has taught me so much in such a short amount of time, I often feel like I’m new to this whole dog training thing even though it’s been 14 years. 

I’m proud to say, that Helaine has learned 25 of her required commands already, and we just introduced two more in class this past Wednesday.  While she is no where near considered a master, she knows what they are, how to do them and ultimately how to get the food!  She can execute most of them with very little correction while we’re at home.  When we get to class, she loses her mind a bit.  For example, she absolutely refused to down or roll during our last class.  Boy was that frustrating.  She would start to lay down, then look up at me like “okay I did it see?”  I’ll cut her some slack.  Afterall, she’s only 15 weeks! 

My proudest class moment to date happened during our class on Wednesday.  We were practicing many different commands while having a little bit of fun with the obstacles all around the room.  The final command we were asked to do was the Bed command.  One by one, our trainer walked around the room and asked us to do Bed.  Well, when it was our turn, I was initially worried because Helaine had started anticipating what I was going to have her do.  She broke the heel position before I had a chance to give her the command, so I quickly asked her to Heel and apologized to our trainer for her anticipation.  What happened next was a delightful surprise.  All it took was “Helaine, Bed!”  and from two feet away, Helaine stood up, walked to the mat, and completed the command perfectly.  No body queues, no corrections, she just up and did it.  That was total redemtption for refusing to down and roll.  We earned what our trainer dubbed, High Five of the night.  I was pretty stoked, and I was beaming inside and out.  She is my good girl. 

So even though we’ve had our fair share of struggles in such a short amount of time, she is progressing well in her training and I’m learning something new every day.  Struggles turn to strength, and I know that we are definitely on the right track to growing a strong, confident and fabulous puppy with a burning desire to learn and work.  I am so proud and honored to be captain of Team Helaine. 

 

Wordless Wednesday: Helaine’s Favorite Hobby

Can Helaine and I switch places for just a day?  I’d love to catch as many Z’s as she does. 

Rain Rain…

GO AWAY!

This is the song I’ve been singing to myself all weekend.  The last few days of March and the first few days in April were uncharacteristically warm for early spring, and I got used to it when I knew I shouldn’t.  Washington State is known for rain, rain, an occasional sunny day, followed by more rain with the possibility of a windstorm followed by loss of power for hours on end.  Maybe I’m exaggerating, or maybe I’m not.  Can you tell I’m a bit jaded?  Don’t get me wrong, I love the beautiful state I have been blessed to call home, but would a few weeks of warm consistent sunshine be too much to ask?  Apparently it is.  Stupid question.

Alright, now that I have the rain rant out of the way, I will move on to the real topic of this post.  I woke up Saturday morning craving adventure.  Helaine hadn’t had a good outing in about a week and I wanted to get her out there and do something fun!  When I took her outside in the morning, it was overcast but wasn’t raining yet.  I figured we would walk around the outlet mall, picking and choosing which stores to go in to for a quick trip around and back out the door.  I got my girl all fed and ready to go, and decided to hurry her outside once more before putting her in the car.  In the five minutes we were outside, the sky opened up and drenched us both.  We were shivering and miserable, and I decided I was going to bag the trip and try again on Sunday.  We spent the day at home relaxing in the warmth and dry, and played downstairs in our basement to try to get her energy out.  It almost worked…almost.

I woke up Sunday morning to the sound of pouring rain again and I was instantly annoyed.  This time I was determined to  outwit mother nature and her need to rain on my parade.  When the rain broke, I took my girl outside to hurry, which she did in record time.  I can always rely on her to get down to business.  I gathered her things and raced out the front door, and the rain was picking up again.  Once we got in the car, we were both in pretty good shape.  Not much rain touched us and we were still looking pretty sharp.  Ah ha…a victory!

We pulled into the parking lot at our favorite store, Petco.  I think she loves it so much because we always always always walk out with a new toy in hand.  I worked for Petco a few years ago as a certified dog groomer, and I still have lots of friends there, so we go and visit every couple of weeks.  After a good visit, we approached the register with our bounty.  Helaine got a new Nylabone ring that she absolutely can’t get enough of, and a “durable, chew proof” monkey.  Notice the quotations around durable and chew proof?  My monster was born with the jaws of life.  She can chew through almost anything.  I’ve never had such a destructive puppy!  Needless to say, she chewed through parts of it in about five minutes.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with this girl. 

I think the coolest part of this trip, was what Helaine got to experience!  She met a baby Wallaby.  He was in a carrier worn on the employee’s chest, it kind of resembled a front pack for kids.  Helaine didn’t even react!  I think it was because she was getting attention to the human attatched to him.  I so wish I had a picture.  What a fun experience for her!

Helaine in the grooming Salon. 

The rain was still coming down as we exited Petco, but I was still determined to visit one or two more places.  I had a couple of items I really needed from the local Fred Meyer and I decided to test my girl a little bit.  (Side Note:  Fred’s is my favorite grocery store, and I know it like the back of my hand.  I had two items I needed, so I knew exactly where to find them and which path I would take.  Any other store, I probably would have used more caution in.  This time I decided to push her limits a little bit, but only because I knew she could handle it.  And guess what…She did!)  We hurried in the bark in one of the planters and sped walked to the front door.  After a quick “wait” we proceeded through the sliding doors.  She was excited, and I could see it in her cute little puppy prance.

I grabbed a hand basket, and Helaine sat in a Heel, looking up at me and waiting for the next command.  With a quick “let’s go” we were off on our journey to our first item, Eggs.  We dipped into the frozen food section and all of a sudden Helaine puts on the breaks.  I whip my head around in fear that she has found a perfect place to Hurry.  Thank goodness my fears were not realized, she just saw a display that worried her.  With a little bit of love, she was confident enough to carry on passed the intimidating display and we were back on track.  We weave in and out of people and carts (who knew it would be so crazy) and get to the eggs.  I command a sit, and she does, looking up at me with her big, brown melt-your-heart eyes. 

After taking an extra long time browsing the eggs and seeing how long I could keep her focused, I decided it was time to move right a long.  The entire time, turning heads and causing many to comment on how cute she is, but only two people asked to pet her.  I allowed only one person the opportunity to greet her.  The first time her focus was a little off and she wasn’t ready.  The second time, she sat perfectly and accepted the greeting!  She’s got a long way to go with calm greetings, but this was a little victory. 

Our next stop was the soup aisle.  They were having a great sale on all soups, so it was quite the challenge to get there.  Once we wiggled our way through the sea of people, and found what we were looking for I decided I would snap a few quick shots of Helaine, looking adorable and minding her manners.  This is, afterall her first REAL shopping experience.  I know I posted a few weeks ago about our Safeway and Walmart adventure, but this was the first time we walked in, around and out without having to carry her.  It was a milestone!

“Eggs?  Check!  Soup?  Check!  Puppy Treats?  Puhhleease!”

She’s got this being out in public thing down!

After taking a few pictures of the cutness at the other end of the leash, we were close to her limit and I knew we had to get out of there fast if we wanted to keep the outing successful.  Lucky us, we got behind THE slowest. Lady. Ever.  And by ever, I mean like the history of forever and beyond that.  She just would not move.  While I try to be as patient as possible, I was on a mission to make this outing a positive experience and save us from embarassment!  So after following her for a few aisles, I weaved around her into the self check out, took five minutes to ring myself up and pay and out the door we went.  It was at that moment, the sky REALLY opened up, and dumped not only rain, but pellets of hail right onto us.  That ended our outing right there.  We were both soaked to the bone.  At least we got in a couple of good experiences.  Well played Mother Nature, Well played.

One last picture, Helaine fell asleep like this between Petco and Fred Meyers. Notice her front feet barely touching the floor? It amazes me the positions she falls asleep in.

Wordless Wednesday

Nothing like an Easter cradle in the grass.