My Reward

I’ve been a very good girl recently and Mom and Dad felt it was a good time to surprise me with a nice reward. They loaded me and Julimae into the car for what appeared to be a normal outing. We went into the store and wandered around and then Dad took me to the pet aisle. Mom and Dad unloaded ALL of the beds and let me pick one for my very own. We attracted quite the crowd and everyone was wondering which bed I would pick. I quickly narrowed it down to two, but there was only one that was just right for me.

Silvana taking it easy on her bed while we drive home

Movies

I got to spend the whole weekend with Mitch at his Dad’s house. I got to meet Mitch’s nephew Ollie and Petey, that’s Mitch’s other dog. I liked Ollie; he walked me a lot. On the last day, Mom, Dad and Julimae came and picked up me and Mitch and we went to a movie. I’ve never been to a movie before and I was excited to see the show. First we had to get our tickets and snacks. I was walking with Dad and we had to go through a maze. When we got to the end, I thought we would get a reward but instead, Dad had to hand over a lot of money. It didn’t seem like a very fun game to me. Then we went into the theater, found our seats and waited for the movie. The movie started and scared me awake. I spent the next half hour watching the movie until I got tired and fell asleep again. My favorite part of the movie was when Dad spilled popcorn on my head. I was a good girl and didn’t eat any of it, that got me a lot of pets and love from Dad and that made me happy.

People I meet

I meet a lot of people while I am out doing my job. Most are perfectly fine and look at me and smile, especially the kids. I’ve also had a couple of experiences that I would sooner forget about. Experiences like the woman I scared while we were shopping and the little boy that kicked me while I was sitting and being good.

Most of the time, the kids spot me first and tell their parents. It is kind of funny because everywhere we go we always hear, “Mom; there’s a dog. Mom, Mom, Mommmmmie; there’s a dog” or “doggie, doggie, doggie”. A lot of the kids ask their parents why I’m in the store. Most parents take the time to explain that I’m learning to be a guide dog. I don’t know if the kids understand what that means. I wish that more parents would take the time to explain to their kids what I’m training to do. The best experience I had was on my very first outing to the grocery store. There was a woman with a boy and she kneeled next to her son and pointed at me and told him that I was training to be a guide. She told him that I will be someone’s eyes. The boy smiled at me and I wagged at both of them to tell the mom thanks. Most of the time I hear ‘don’t pet her because she is working’, which is fine, but it leaves the kids a little confused about me.

We also had some strange encounters. There was one Mom that tried to convince her kids that Julimae and I weren’t dogs. I walk like a dog, bark like a dog (although I don’t do that anymore) and I wag like a dog. I’m pretty sure I’m a dog. Her son thought so too because he told his Mom that he was pretty sure we were dogs. There was also the time that we took the train with Mom and Julimae and some man said to Mom, “What’s wrong with you?” There was also the time at the grocery store when a woman stopped Mom to tell her she thought I was cute. She talked to Mom for a long time and she said that there were guide lizards. Dad tried to save her by saying that it was probably an emotional support companion but the woman insisted that the lizard was a working guide. I can’t imagine what a lizard would look like in a harness. But through the course of the conversation, we learned that guide lizards and guide ponies are acceptable to JetBlue airlines.

The fun thing about having a blog are the emails that I get and checking to see who reads about me. I’m big in Turkey and Canada. I’ve even had an email from a celebrity. I can’t say who it is but it came from Russia with love.

Baseball

We went to a Salt Lake Bees baseball game and we had so much fun. It started with a ride to the train. When we got to the train station we were met by Amanda and Rio. Rio and I are the same age but he is really big now. We rode to the ballpark stop and we all got off the train together. People thought it was really neat that we were there and being so good. We had to walk a couple of blocks to the ballpark and people driving by slowed down to look at us. Everyone was really impressed with how we lead our people across the street at the proper time. Once we got across the street, we saw Hannah, Kris and Roscoe waiting for us. Brenda and Lacole were there too and together we bought our tickets and went into the stadium. There were a lot of people and a lot of stairs but I handled it like a pro. Dad and I lead the rest of the group through the people and into the outfield area where we saw Megan, Snickers and Tartan waiting for us. We had great seats on the grass under the scoreboard. I liked sitting out there on the grass and it was fun to play with the other dogs but we were in public so we had to behave and show what good dogs we really are.

There were so many fun things about being at the park but there were two things that were my favorite; the train full of kids and Bumble. The train runs along a path in the outfield and kids get to ride it for free. The train was fun because the kids would get excited when they drove by us. Bumble is a really big bee and we got our picture taken with him. We also met some people that Dad works with and they were really nice to us.

We left the game a little bit early because Mom and Dad had to work the next day and we had to catch the train too. We waited a long time for the train and when it got to our stop, it was really full. Me and Dad had to stand and I thought that was really fun. I’m a pretty good train surfer. After a couple of stops, there was enough room for Dad to sit down and I thought that was a good time for a nap. Before I knew it we were back to our car and headed for home.

Hannah and Roscoe; Trielle and Snickers; Megan and Tartan; Bumble; Amanda and Rio; Mitch and my sister Julimae; Dad and Me