Here's a picture of Baby Vinnie for Erin...

Well... it looks like Marce might not be leaving me in October! I'm excited I will have her for another few months- but sad she's leaving in the spring when her allergies could flare up even more. Her eval went as well as could be expected- She wasn't terribly behaved- actually kind of good for the way she's been acting lately at GDB events- but still was being very "Marcella-like"- She's just not a mature dog. She is in "LaLa land" alot- and only pays attention to me because she has to- she likes to check things out. Funny thing- our CFR said "Oh she's Majestic's sister? I wouldn't even CONSIDER sending that dog back- why are we sending her back again?" LOL. She's just Marcella. I'm glad she will possibly have more time to mature. See I wasn't freaking out for no reason! Now I just have to wait until she emails Mick to ask if he can live with one less dog on the truck.
Oh Amber- to get a dog on food protocol your dog has to have focus issues and you need to talk to your Leader who will talk to your PRA who will then clear it through GDB... it has to be something that more focus on you would help. Guide Dogs have to be pretty independent thinkers and can't only rely on the handlers commands- that's one of the reasons it's a very controlled protocol. If your dog likes to work for you without it- GREAT!
And Vinnie was feeling Left out- Vinnie came from San Rafael too... He's a Drifter and Maddie puppy- both Black Labs (how wierd is that- he's yellow!) 2 of his sisters- Vail and Verona- I belive- became breeders and all of the boys were CC'ed in phase 8 for Relieving issues- how great is that- sheesh! The last sister I think graduated as a Guide- but not sure.
Hmmm... Vinnie's pretty sure his CC was all a set up so he could come home- he missed me :)

He came home and learned how to beg...

...And that he was allowed on the bed!

This month is where did you come from Month :) So Marcella came from San Rafael, Her mom is Kimmy (a Nagel and Lena puppy) and her dad is Faust (a Pickford and Rosabel puppy I think) Most of her family has been from San Rafael- at least as far back as 3 generations- and I'm sure a bit farther. :)
I've lived in UT my whole life- my Dad is from So. California and my Mom is from Utah. My maternal grandparents are from Germany brought with her parents to Chicago then to Utah(grandmother) and Utah (grandfather). My paternal grandparents have lived in California their whole life as far as I know- that makes me want to ask...
If you read this you have to post it on your blog "Where did you come from"- learn something new today!
Oh and BTW I completely messed my Matho homework up- i think I got like 50%- pretty terrible considering I've gotten 100% on all but one assignment- and that was like a 80 %!

AUGH! Math is driving me nuts today! I think I get it right and I totally blow the problem! Makes me so angry! It's solving systems of equations with 3 variables... any help would be appreciated... I think I should take a break before my brain is fried! I only have 1/2 hour left at work... I don't know that I will finish it at home... of course I will.
Marcella's final eval is tomorrow- Wish us luck! She did really well today- except we were practicing come- and she had *NO* interest whatsoever in the food! Is that MY girl?!?! She loves the FIR! What's up with that? She was just too interested of the smells of the duck pond- she should be coming with distractions- but alas- she is a "remedial come-er" I'll let y'all know how it goes tomorrow!!

Yeah so Target did a lousy job anyway on the pictures- I have never had a problem before-- but whatever. I'm going to take her somewhere else right before she goes back as long as she's not in heat- I had to at least buy one (plus a free 8x10) just in case I couldn't take her picture before...
I'm such a slacker- I should be studying for my test I have to take before 3:00- plus I didn't go to Math today- I can't believe I slept in so late- 10:30. Well I got up at 6 for family prayer and scripture study- then went back to sleep.
I went and saw "The Devil Wears Prada" last night- It was really good. Not somthing I'd buy- but a cute show and well made. I really like Anne Hathaway- I think she's a good actress- plus she's one of the prettiest not-fake people out there.
Marcella was very good at the Puppy Truck yesterday- we got a new puppy, Cuiro (like the cabinet) in our club. A Female Black Lab and it made me want a puppy. It's so hard to have Marce go back now because the truck won't be coming again until the spring- so I either have to take a puppy now or not get one until the spring- or take my chances that a transfer will be available soon... Sigh...Must go study for real!

Okay so I'm terrible at posting pictures- and abviously flipping them around in blogger...sigh- me and my computer skills (I promise I know how to use a computer decently!)

Marcella is so darn cute! I love this picture of her because she's not looking like a crazed maniac with her tounge hangin out!
Playing with her favorite toy- the Jolly Ball- yes it is flat. I don't know how she did it- but she likes it better that way!
The Flat Jolly Ball and it's favorite doggie- Marcella!
Looking rather bored in this picture "Mom Why are making me sit here?"
Yet another picture I can't figuire out how to flip in Blogger- I'm sure there's a way with HTML I'm just too lazy and my computer is just too slow!!

Enjoy Marcella the Marshmella and Vinnie the Beans (don't ask where he got that name- it's slowly evolved over time to just be The Bean)

Marcella is an ANGEL today! I love this girl... :) I have her back! So tomorrow we're going to get her recall pictures. I had a great time setting up the appt...
Today on the phone:

Me: Hi I need to make an appointment to get pictures taken.
Lady: Okay- when do you want to come?
Me: Tomorrow after 4:00pm
Lady: We have one availiable at 4:40, is that okay?
Me: Okay sounds great
Lady: Now who are we taking the pictures of?
Me: My Guide Dog and I think my mom wants me in some
Lady: What?
Me: My GUIDE DOG-
Lady: Oh Okay
Lady: And what is her name?
Me: Marcella
Lady: And How old is Marcella?
Me: A year... (odd question normally they don't ask)
Lady: Okay and is she your daughter?
Me: No! She's my GUIDE DOG
Lady: Oh we don't do pets
Me: No- really I've been doing this forever and I'm pretty sure it's okay.
Lady: Are you sure?
Me: Yes I'm sure- She's a service dog- we always come there for pictures
Lady: Okay- then I'll see ou tomorrow then...

People are Crazy :) Must go do laundry now...

Just curious... what is the worlds facination with "papered" dogs... This guy was asking me about raising puppies and he asked A) How much are they? and B) Are they papered? Whatever... He also wanted to know if they were purebred- then he told me about his papered and purebred Black Lab. Ugh. Looking at Marcie's jacket- I think it's time for a washing...

Alright... I switched to Blogger Beta-- just for you Amber... because I want to know why you want to know about Falina! :) Anyway...I've decided I'm a little spaztic... I think Marce is coming into heat at least once a week... It's been exactly 6 months and I'm really hoping she just waits until she goes back... probably not going to happen- because life is like that. She'll go in today while I'm in down town SLC with Lindsey and intact Carlise- or tonight while I'm at the retirement Party for Pantera (how cute is that!? I want Panteras person, Becky, to get one of MY dogs!). Anyway... That's my thought for the day... Oh and I don't like the whole- using your G-mail account to log in... I dont' even use my G-mail account! That stinks!

Here's what I have written about Marcella in her final report. I write in it regularly so i can remember and compare:

____________________________________________ 11 Weeks-10-18-05~ Marcella has been here for about 2 1/2 weeks. She is a sweet little girl with her own ideas. She is very smart and already knows sit, let's go, come, and her name- although we are still helping her and continue workig on them. She loves to "tell" us what she thinks of things such as the crate and tie-down but will fall asleep and snore loudly for hours. She loves to play, be pet (especially on her tummy), and just hang out. She especially lives new toys and will get bored with toys she's played wtih too much. As I said before she's such a smart, sweet puppy and will hopefully learn quickly to become a great Guide Dog. ___________________________________________________14 1/2 weeks: Marcella is a great puppy with lots of energy and spunk! She is a quick learner and is getting better all the time. Right now we are working on staying still for more that 10 minutes :) She loves to be up and walking/moving with me.________________________________________________________________4 Months- 11-23-05~ Marcella got her final shots today. Yay! No more carrying a 26 lb puppy around! She has improved so much cince I got her and hopefully will be soon able to join me at work. She made it through an hour of church last sunday- although she was wide awake the whole time- she sat quietly at my feet. She has become more responsive to corrections and is alot more responsive to praise. At first I was worries that she just didn't want to work for me- but she has proven me wrong. She has just today started to unerstand "down" and will do it to eat. Marcella really is turning out to be a wonderful dog.___________________________________________________5 Months- 12-25-06~ Marcella is turning out to be a great girl! She is getting her comands and is mellowing out. She loves to be near me and she loves to please. She is just starting to enjoy "come" again. (She "forgot" some for a couple of weeks :) Can't wait until she comes into heat and "forgets" things again.)I think she will be a wonderful dog as she gets older. She has been on a Halti for a ocuple of weeks and seems to do well. She corrects well but she needed too hard of corrections. I'm hoping this will doften her neck up for when she's bigger :) (Although I don't think she'll get much mroe that 45-50 lbs) She is really starting to do really well with my 3 year old and one year old brothers. They can climb all over her and no problems. I know Marcella has great potential. ____________________________________________________________-6 months 2/7/06~ Marcella is such a good girl. She has started on the FIR and loves getting food for something she already enjoys. Marcella does really well at work. She loves coming just to sleep under my desk. The people there LOVE her and enjoy having her around (she she enjoys the extra attention)She does well walking around the house but needs a draging as she will still "counter surf" every once in a while. Marcella is doing very well in her Halti and is very managable on her flat. Marcella has surprised me by how much she has learned and changed. She is a very loving sweet girl.
_________________________________________________________
almost 9 months 4/29/06Marcella came into heat in March and just recently came out. She did well but had a hard time staying home all day- she would much rather be out doing things. She is doing well and has been weaned off of her halti. She is great on her flat collar. She has very few issues (unless you count endless energy- she's ALWAYS ready to go!)She goes on a walk with me at least 3x a week that are at least an hour long- and is very good. She is not dog distracted- for that I am grateful.She is an itchy dog though- she was having problems with ear infections but not they are udner control with more frequent ear cleaning (about 2x a week) I really hope it is not allergies- she's a great dog and it would be so sad to waste that. Marcella weighed 56.5 lbs at her last weigh-in____________________________________________________________7/20/2006- 11 monthsMarcella has had quite a few adventures the last couple of months. First we moved back with my parents but we were only there for a couple of weeks before we headed off for housesitting at another raisers home for 2 1/2 weeks. She was good, for the most part and loved having 3 new dogs to hang out with. I was very impressed with how well she did. She then follwed me to another housesitting job- we've house sat there before so she is used to the routine. Towards the last day of that she started doing things that were very "Un-marcella-like" (Chewing things, jumping on counters, not listening) She went back on leash and is now just starting to be allowed on a dragling in the house (one room at a time- and not in the kitchen- she likes the garbage) and loose in my rom. She is a very smart firl and likes to see what she can get away with I've noticed that practicing obedience several times a day keeps her in check and reminds her who's in charge. :) She also got accompany me to graduation in Boring for my last dog. She was great in the car .Kind of antsy and pushy at the house we stayed at though. The next week was state Fun Day and after we put her on a training collar she did great! She also got to head to San Rafael for Fun Day. And she did SO WELL! She went to San Francisco and was great! I was very impressed. She has had problems again with ears but the GDB Vet thinks it's an infectin that never really went away. Hopefully that's it!Marcella has a great personality and lots of confidence.____________________________________________________8/7/06 One yearToday we worked on food Distractions because she has learned to sit under my 18 month old brother and wait for food. She I put her on a long leash and let her walk around. After one good corrections she gave up and started following me around. We will continue working on this and from her reaction today I think she will be over this soon!________________________________________________________________9/11/06One month to recall and Marcella can tell. She is due to go into season anytime now- it's always at the worst time. :) I know lots of people will miss her and are cheering for her to become a great Guide Dog. Her ears are doing great- she only has to have them cleaned 1-2x a week now and hardly ever bothers them. She still "scoots" on the ground (probably needs her anal glands expressed again) and flea bites/licks herself on her rear-end. (She isn't barbering though) but other than that she is doing great. I just changed her food so I'm hoping it will get rid of all the problems :) We are wishing her luck and crossing our fingers she will make a great Guide Dog!

Less than one month to go til recall... I hope they find me a puppy... I will miss my girl so much!
Off Topic: Scariness! Look what happened at work like, literally 2 minutes after I walked in!
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=485728

Oh Amber: It is 4 months. Obviously they are *not* reading their puppy manual and their dog probably is fat- but she sure is cute :) Cessna's sisters name was Coral--- I think only one from her litter graduated :(
Marcella is going to graduate :) Right? She's being very good right now. She was absolutely perfect yesterday. I'm very impressed! (of course she did have a head collar on because I couldn't find her training collar and she was being whiney in history)
I really should be doing homework- but guess who doesn't want to... I want to chat on AIM and Yahoo Messengers- I'm terrible!

Wow... people are idiots... I'm at work and this guy tried emailing his professor via typing his URL (the professors website URL) into the "To" field. Then he thought it wouldn't let him log on-- because of the "10 parking tickets... I didn't think it had already been 21 days" LOL...
I decided I'm going to make a list of things I need to do before Marcella goes back:

• More Tie down time (she hardly gets any- because if she's not with me- she's in the crate)
• Not so many people petting her. She's always been so good at people petting her- but recently she's decided her toungue doesn't have to stay all the way in her mouth.
• of course she needs her recall pictures taken. Kiddie Kandids used to do them until people saw us and started bringing their PET dogs in then KK said no more GDB pups- now we do Target and they LOVE us. Everytime I go in they ask when we will be back with a new puppy.
• Work on "Come" It's her best command- until last month when she "forgot it" Even with the Food Induced Recall program- she'd rather see the food and I'm not going to lure her to me- she's too old to see it. Now it's back to the short leash- no more long leash.
• being perfect--- but just perfecting it of course :)
• going on a hike. I want to take Marce on a fun hike where she can go swimming.

Got to run-- this guy is mad because he doesn't want a Student ID card and is trying to pay me to print it for him... Idiot- people who think they can take advantage of me make me mad.

Last night I had the first realization that my girl is leaving me :(I'm surea lot of it had to do with that fact that I got home late from work last night and knew I had to get up at 5:30 am for work the next morning. I'm going to mis sher so much! I want her to stay- but I know she will be a great guide dog. I'm ready for GDB to get rid of her allergies! I hope the food change to Eukanuba does the trick because she will make such a great Guide Dog. It's been a rollercoaster ride. I'm like you today Erin- I wonder why I raise.

Why do we torture ourselves this way?

Oh BTW I'm not so worried about her at GDB anymore. When I went to take Angel back home I met the new Guide she got- a FBLXG named Gigi. She totally is Marcella! She even looks like her. She's so goofy and fun- but is a smart girl and a great little worker. I'm so glad I got to meet her- I think Marcella will do well. Watch for Marcella at GDB-SR in 4 more weeks...

Hi from Marcella on the floor of the computer lab :) Marcella had a long day yesterday. My grandma had a knee replacement last week and since my family was out of town, my cousin and I were in charge of helping her and my grandpa out. Anyway- I didn't realize I would be spending the night Sunday (thank goodness for my emergency bag for Marcella I keep in my car.) I had PJ's I had left in my car so I was okay- except I only had PJ's and I wasn't going to wear my dress I wore to church the next day too. So poor Marcella had to chill on tie down most of the day. (I wasn't going to walk around the neighborhood in my PJs LOL) She was a little whiney- and wouldn't go potty until like 1:00 pm (anohter reason she didn't get to go on a walk), but other than that she did okay. She doesn't really like my grandparents house because she knows she has to be on tie down and lay down the whole time- BUT she LOVES to go out on their deck and play. They have a deck that is fenced all the way around. Yesterday I drank the rest of the cranberry juice and her the hard bottle to play with. She LOVED it! After about an hour of romping and playing with it she did much better. Less whiney and more sleeping- of course it was her naptime :)
Anyone else have a place their dogs don't like to go?

Another day...full of work. It's been kind of busy today at the Computer Lab- but not too bad. I'm excited because today at my other job, Maceys (it's a grocery store- not the clothes store) we get to wear jeans and they are buys pizza for everyone. But Poor dogs are going to be at the house all day... tomorrow maybe I'll give them a nice long walk... If I can take 3 huge dogs.
Marcella hasn't shown me she's ready to back today. She's acting very immature and doing things she would never do. I think she's protesting the shortening of her puppyhood :) Although like Lomax and Liam- she is excited to pursue her degree with a major in Harness Science, but has already perfect the art and earned her certification in JollyBall Mechanics. I told her if she graduates I will bring her: HER Deflated Purple Jolly Ball with the rope that doesn't stay threaded through because she shakes it around so much and so hard... The funny thing is- she doesn't chew on it- she just carries it around ans shakes it. Whatever, Marcella! She'll love GDB and enjoy the new stimulation. With school started and everything- she thinks mom is BORING!
I want another puppy- BTW Amber, it's a MYL 6-ish month old sweetheart. I'm puppysitting him for a week in November- but hopefully he'll be mine by then. I'm such a bad person! I shouldn't plan things like this!!

Anyone who wants to send me their puppies- feel free... This is the 3rd time I've had to drop off a dog without a new puppy-- you'd think I'd be over it. Between Cessna and Maryjo there was almost 3 months! HOW DID I DO IT?! I hope they find me a transfer puppy-- and fast or I may go nut sfrom withdrawals~! Although it will be nice not having to worry that I'm gone too long and that the puppy needs to relive or eat.... But I'll be doing Lots of puppy sitting- until I get my own once again!