First, Chelsie wanted me to tell everyone what happened to her last week. She went to the dreaded "doggie camp" while her family went on vacation. We went to Myrtle Beach to celebrate Bill and Maggie's 40th wedding anniversary, and had a great time. Unfortunately, since grammie and grampie were on vacation with us, all three puppies got shuttled off to camp. As usual, mom made grammie be the bad guy - she dropped all three off at camp. Of course, then mom was the hero and picked up all three from camp. Tonight, when her grammie and grampie came over, she stayed VERY close to mom, despite reassurances from grammie that she was not going to take her anywhere. For those of you that think dogs don't remember, you have not seen my little baby angel in action. She wanted no part of grammie tonight - I told her it was not nice, it hurt grammie's feelings, but she did not care.

Amazingly, she made a full recovery today - although I think she was a very vocal girl at camp. I had a new TV installed today, and she gave a really pathetic bark when they came to the door. I laughed, it was so pathetic.

Despite the hot weather, we trooped off to Dodd Hall tonight, where there was a MAD game of bingo going on in the TV room on the 4th floor. Chelsie greeted the nurse coordinator in her usual manner, by scrounging on the floor to see if she dropped anything. It looked as though most of the people were in playing bingo, so I was not sure how our visits would go. Only one room was in isolation, so off we went.

Overall, it was a pretty successful night. We ran into lots of "friends" tonight - the old man we saw a few weeks ago with the leg amputation remembered us and asked us how our vacation was. Chelsie sat in a chair for about 15 minutes and let him pet her. He asked the strangest question tonight - I was speechless, actually. (Please, no comments from the peanut gallery) He asked me what I was going to do with her when she died - I was a little confused by the question, and his roommate yelled at him for asking such a question. I then learned his wife and 2 sharpeis were on the mantle in urns. I responded I did not know and that hopefully it would not be an issue for many years. We also spent time with his roommate, and I was thankful that he interjected. I was kind of weirded out by it, actually.

On another note, we also saw Bob - golden retriever Buddy Bob. We were walking by a room and I looked in and when he sat up, I immediately recognized him! Apparently he had been in another facility, but was back in Dodd - and missing Buddy - for another 2 weeks. Chelsie jumped on Bob's bed and he thought that was great. Bob is the only person I have given bed privileges to Chelsie - most of the patients are too immobile. But Bob likes it a lot, and I know it does a world of good for him.

Not sure what we did all night, but by the time we ended up back in the bingo room, we had been there for over an hour. I went into the bingo room, and had a few takers. By that point, my little precious had enough and I told her we could go home. On our way out, she gave one last final dose of therapy to the parking ticket attendant. We go to the same lady every week - usually she is inside her little booth, but tonight she was outside cleaning. She came right up to the car and Chelsie planted a big one right on her face - she loved it. She got a final hug after we turned in our ticket.

And finally, it is off to bed for my little working girl. She is resting comfortably in her "spot" on the bed, paws and body with a slight curl. This is the sign of one exhausted puppy.

We hope everyone is doing well and staying cool in this miserable heat!

Love, Nicole and the Chelsie Belle