Working Girl

Well, after what seems like forever, we were back at Dodd tonight. Mom was out of town for the last few weeks for work, in Germany. While glad to see me on Friday night, Chelsie also let me know she was VERY unhappy with me - this weekend, her car riding behavior was atrocious and "come" meant to look at me and walk away. Also, Ella, her chocolate lab cousin, came to stay on Saturday night - and for those of you that don't know, this is a one dog per household type of house. I am working to make up for my sins, and got off to a good start tonight when she got the empty peanut butter jar (dog peanut jar, I might add) I should also add that when mom is away, she goes to grammie's where she has full bed privileges, goes for many rides in the car, shares the recliner with grampie while he is in it and even gets half a cookie for going potty (she goes right to the pantry and sits quietly when she comes back in, according to grammie) Sounds like Club Med to me - where can I sign up?

I am always proud of her when she works, and tonight was no exception. I have not yet readjusted to this time zone yet (6 hr change forward in Germany) and I am wiped out. This is the latest I have been up in the last 4 nights - and fading fast. But I decided I would suck it up and go - and many people came up to us and said they had missed us.

We were there for almost 2 hrs - which is a very long time. Oddly enough, we probably saw less than 10 patients. The people we saw were in pretty good spirits and just loved dogs. She behaved well, so I just went with it. She did manage to remember the language she has known since puppyhood, so my commands were actually obeyed tonight. Probably our funnest patient tonight was a man that was on his way back to bed from his shower when he saw the dog - he literally said "Let me at that puppy dog" I said, be careful, we will wait until you get to the chair. He came over and sat in one of 2 chairs right next to each other. I told Chelsie to get in the other one so she was sitting right next to him. Like a champ, she jumped in her chair and sat there - and the family got a great picture. I prayed silently that she would comply and obey, and of course, she did. Although we did not see a lot of patients number wise, the ones we did see were glad to see us and Chel made a difference.

Last Thursday was Chelsie's 6th birthday - I can't believe she is 6 years old. She gets better and better ever day. Simple pleasures bring her such joy - we went to the park for a ball chasing session on Sunday, and I forgot how much she loves to chase her ball. She is very passionate about that - it is so hard to walk to the park knowing the ball is in mom's pocket. A loyal companion, she is my favorite snuggle buddy at night, and always knows when to comply with her old lady's requests. She is an active member of the community, as a volunteer, a canine good citizen and a member of the Wild Weaver Agility club. I never could have imagined the squirming little 15 lb furball would grow up into such a good girl!

Well, crash and burn time is arriving. We hope this finds everyone well and wish Auntie Jodi luck as she anticipates the arrival of Dolan James - today, he will make his debut.

Love,

Nicole and Chels