Saying Goodbye..

Yes it's true I am leaving on Wednesday... I'll miss you all, but will be back in 18 months. Hug your puppies for me and don't forget me!

Mission Info

Okay so not that it will be interesting to many of you but... I have a private blog set up for my mission. My mom will probably be the one posting on it- my current address, what I'm doing, and if I'm still alive ;) But if I know who you are and would like to be invited so you can write me LOTS OF LETTERS *ahem* send me an email at gdprchika@yahoo.com or comment and I'll see how quick I am about inviting.
I will post the pictures from Vinnie's brithday one of these days. I need to get down to the school to do that because this computer at home is slow (my dad's a computer guy- go figure!)
As boring as this blog currently is- it will get even more boring June 13th when I'm gone for 18 months. I think I just need a puppy... :)

Leave of Absence...

Yes, I know my blog has been empty for the past 2-ish weeks. I have been housesitting, babysitting, dog sitting-- you name it. Anyway... Happy 7th birthday to the Vinnie in my life :) and Happy 3rd Birthday to Miss Maryjo. I have pictures of Vinnie's "birthday party" at the hike we took on Saturday with his buddy- Ginger, my friend's sister's Golden Retriever. Will post the pics tomorrow!

Soul Sisters?

My last graduate, Maryjo- went to a woman with a sister with the same type of blindness as her so when she brought MJ home she decided to get a Guide Dog. I just recieved this today- I thought it was a funny coinsidence.

"My sister just called and she also has a female black lab. Her name is, are you ready for this, Bobbie Jo. She asked if she were Maryjo's sister and they said no, it was just a coincidence. She is about a year and a half old and weighs 51 pounds. So she will grow a little more. I just hope she doesn't look exactly like Maryjo. My sister said that she had hoped to get a yellow lab, but she already loves Bobbie Jo. I am so happy for her."

Good Luck telling the two "Jo's" apart- it sounds like a match made in heaven! Both girls are about the same size- and sound like they have similar personalities!

Airedales can't be Guide Dogs!

Meet Sophie! Doesn't she look like a teddy bear? Sophie is a 3 year old Airedale Terrier who gets the joy and pleasure of having me for a puppysitter-- only that she really doesn't like me because I won't let her mouth me or jump on me or eat my food... or anything else that a Guide Dog Puppy is not allowed to do. Pretty much she really doesn't like this "Guide Dog puppy rules". I'm not torturing her- because I did let her sleep on the bed with me last night :) I love having a big dog on the bed- especially one that doesn't shed- not that it matters since the cat seems to think the best place to sleep is on my face!
Anyway, so funny story about this girl: Her owner started a GDB puppy then she decided she wanted to get an Airedale so she started looking for a rescue Airedale. So she found this 9 month old female Airdale and called on it- they said unfortunately since no one responded to the ad they gave her to some neigbors but would keep her in mind if it didn't work out.
Later on she found a 3 year old Female named Zoe- she fell in love and decided to keep her and rename her Sophie. Well about a month later she gets a phone call about the 9 month old. The neighbors couldn't keep her and wanted her to go to her. So she went over only to find the dog was named Zoe as well! So now she has 2 Zoe's that are both in name transition- Big Zoe is now Sophie and little Zoe is now Rosie. Whew! Good thing she took little Zoe with her! :)

She wasn't too happy about having to sit still for a picture

...or about being in the crate........... This is a cat- there are 3. I don't really know their names
I think this one is Hobbes (SAM!)

He's going to...

Nope- sorry Natalie- not Canada! My little brother is going to the Philippines Naga Mission. Me? I'm glad I'm headed to Portland- home of GDB as well as GOOD DRINKING WATER! ;)

Why I love YouTube...

I'm babysitting my 2 year old brother this morning. My Dad left the house this morning to take my brother to soccer and my mom is out of town for the weekened. So I was left with the 2 year old. As soon as Dad leaves- Aden starts crying... why do I love YouTube? They have every childrens television show known to man! This morning after watching 4 or 5 episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine and a couple Bob the Builder episodes- with a few Kermit the Frog clips thrown in- he is happily playing in his room!

Piano Music is amazing!

http://www.jonschmidt.com/catalog/freestuff/dumb_song.mp3

The above song is a great song... because I love Bumblebee Tuna... But also because I am a nerd and absolutely *love* John Schmidt piano music. Maybe one day I will show you I can actually play the piano- yes I know... scary- life without dogs makes you realize you DO have other hobbies ;)

My Life...and Blog is boring

Now that I don't have a puppy or a dog in training, there is nothing to write about- quite sad. Although this week has been finals week so really my life has consisted of studying, working and studying. I only have one more to do today as well as write 4 one-page papers that I can totally double space and use huge font. lol. Not too bad. I'm fairly sure that after this week I will be glad! I will be housesitting for a friend who used to raise- but she now has a 13 year old mixed breed dog and a 3 year old Old Navy dog (What's the breed again? Terrier...Airedale! That's what she is) so I will have some good time to relax and recover from this week.
My little brother got his mission call last night, yes there will be 2 of us out at the same time. My family is crazy. He's not going to open it until Saturday because he is up at BYU-Idaho until then. Not thinking I would be able to see anything, since I couldn't see anything in mine, I jokingly peeked in the corner- Yeah, so pretty much I know where he's going. Not telling until Saturday though, which is a killer for me- I'm awful at keeping secrets like this! If anyone would like to guess- feel free... I would be impressed if you got this one.
Oh, and Thank you to Jen for helping me out with Photoshop yesterday! I will post my creation later on today!

I knew it!

After re-applying mascara 3 different times Thursday night after class I got the call. Marcella has been Career Changed for POTENTIAL Allergies. I'm really frustrated with the reason because I feel like she wasn't even given a fair chance. She's only been there 3 weeks. Plus her sister who had the same issues was pulled for breeding! What's up with that?!
GDB will find her a great home and hopefully I will hear from them soon! I'm a serious believer in retail therapy, I wanted to go buy a new outfit on Thursday night- but decided it would be much more fun to dye my hair Friday afternoon:

No News is good news?

Our CFR just put this out about 15 minutes ago-- obviously she hadn't heard anything yet because she would have said in her report... Cross your fingers... I have a huge headache from all this worrying...why do we do this again? Remind me again... I'm only 21-- gray hairs and wrinkles aren't supposed to come this early!

Madera 4H04 LAB F 2 NO SR

Marcella 4H06 LAB F 1 NO SR

Majestic 4H05 LAB F tentatively selected for breeding

Mitchell 4H03 LAB M 2 NO SR

Gone...

She's gone... not on the report. That usually only means one thing (well 2 if your dog is in phase 10- but I doubt she was pulled for class in phase 1)... I'll keep you all posted. Cross your fingers it's a fluke- although it doesn't happen all that often.

The Bandito

(Picture #1)

Meet Bandit!

This is Bandit, Baffle's brother. I have him for the night so I can bring him to a preschool class tomorrow... Which picture should I use for our website?

(Picture #2) (Picture #3)

(Picture #4) (Picture #5)

I'm working on getting the movie to work... Will upload later :)

Pictures to share

For Anna:
I was driving to drop off Baffle and had to pull over to take a picture of this sign for you...yes I am a nerd. (almost as bad and wanting to take a picture of the licence plate!)

For Coreena (and Ally):
Here is Logan, Loden's brother. He seemed very sweet when I got to walk him around, but *very* glad to get off the truck ;)

I'm Baffled!

Tonight I get to puppysit a cute girl named "Baffle" until tomorrow afternoon so she can get the experience of going to school. For all you GDB folks Baffle is a Kentucky/Cedar puppy born May 2, 2006. She is *very* sweet- especially since she came out of season- I hear her sister Berta (from Lindsey and Megan's club) has also been expecially sweet since coming out of heat.

Recovering...

Well... as evidenced that she is still in phase 1 and no longer on breeder watch- Marcella is now recovering from being spayed. I'm not really surprised- remind me why we went through 3 heat cycles with her again?

Madera 4H04 LAB F 2 Yes
Maile 4H09 LAB F 8 No
Majestic 4H05 LAB F 1 Yes
Marcella 4H06 LAB F 1 No
Mitchell 4H03 LAB M 1 No

Go Marcella!

Welcome home Sister Goforth!

Mickelle, Lacey, Shawna (Lacey's Friend), and Stephanie (Shawna's roomate)

Today I went to the Airport to see my friend who used to raise puppies in Coreen, Ally, and Tabatha's club. She just returned from a mission in Dallas, Texas- she made me really excited for mine! I can't wait...

To make this GDB related: Check out this article our little local paper did on Guide Dogs: http://www.clippertoday.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=74&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=20510&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1005&hn=clippertoday&he=.com

College life

Because I have such great friends, I now know that Marcella is alive and well at GDB

Marcella in her kennel watching community run/ Marcella wants to play too!

She hasn't changed a bit-- biting that lip still!

Phase Report Day!

Madera 4H04 LAB F 1 Yes

Maile 4H09 LAB F 7 No

Majestic 4H05 LAB F 1 Yes

Manila 48J8 LAB F 1 Yes

Marcella 4H06 LAB F 1 Yes

Mitchell 4H03 LAB M 1 Yes
Nothing new this week... but it was good to see she's still there in phase one and not spayed (she just came out of season this week- I'm guessing that's why she's not spayed) :) ... sigh... I miss that girl. Hopefully next week she will be in phase 2. I know at least one dog from her string was CC'ed for elbow (or hip) dysplasia-- so I'm thinking that part is over with *relieved sigh*...but you never know. I wish I could see into the future- this drives me nuts!

You know you're a Guide Dog Nerd when...

...You notice the licence plate in front of you is the same number as the tattoo number of your 2nd puppy and want to take a picture of it. Don't worry I didn't.

I'm Waaaaiiiting

Waiting for the report... Waiting...waiting... not like it will change that much this week-- it just helps to have a little bit of news from Marce... I got a postcard from GDB the other day saying the sappy things like "Thank you for being so selfless in training Marcella for future work as a Guide Dog" and "A puppy is a little ball of fluff attatched to our hearts with a leash"... okay maybe not that sappy- but still! Vinnie wanted a easter picture like everyone else-- but, well... he didn't realize what a terrible photographer his mom is...and his mom didn't realize how excited he would get when she layed down on the floor to get it at his level :)

Not so boring...

Aww I forgot how much I love Phase report days :)

Dog Name Tattoo BRDEVL Breed Sex Phase Breeding Campus
Watch
Madera 4H04 LAB F 1 Yes SR
Maile 4H09 LAB F 7 No SR
Majestic 4H05 LAB F 1 Yes OR
Marissa 4H07 LAB F IN CLASS No OR
Marcella 4H06 LAB F 1 Yes SR
Mitchell 4H03 LAB M 1 Yes SR


Happy! Mojave was CC'ed a couple of weeks ago and Marissa is in class in OR:) Awww... I'm impressed. I didn't think I'd hear from her for at least another week!

I'm so boring!

This blog will be really boring to read now-- except on Phase Report days...So I decided that I have a boring life without a Guide Dog Puppy. I get up, go to school, go to work, come home, do some homework, and go back to work, come home and sleep until I get up at 6:30 to do it all again... What a life. Ugh! My cousin Kelsey is here for the week and I feel like I've hardly been home-- yup that would be my life. Tuesday nightg after puppy class though I went and played Tennis with my friend-- that was happy! I'm going to go again this week-- sometime.

I'm excited though because I now only have about 3 weeks left of school and having 2 jobs... wait that means only 3 weeks left of school to do term projects!! Ack!

The beginning of training...

Well... That's it. She's gone :( Marcella is now in California... They called last night to make sure she had had her heartgard-- too bad I wasn't home to talk to them and ask how she was doing...

I did so well. I was very impressed-- She was put on the inside first crate on the bottom and layed down to chew a bone they had for her.

I witnessed the two saddest sights in the world-- the puppy truck with my puppy on it-- and an empty leash and puppy coat on my seat on the way home...

I kept this hanging up until today as a reminder of Marcella... Make me proud, Marcie!

For those who don't know: She will be headed back to the San Rafael campus of GDB and will be starting out with her physicals (phase 1 and 2-ish) once they get to phase 3 she will be in an actual training string and will begin harness work. Marcella is still not spayed yet so she could be on breeder watch for a couple of weeks until they decide if they want her for breeding. Her sisters weren't on breeder watch for very long so I'd asume they don't want a breeder from this litter... but you never know...Cross your fingers she makes it through the Preliminary stuff and can start Guidework soon!

In your dreams...

The other day Marcella was dreaming about being a GSD... since she didn't get to meet Ontario she didn't realize that GSD's don't look like this:





I don't know how we got it to stand up-- but it was like that for like 10 minutes.

The other day I came upstairs after a pre-church nap and I see my big guy like this:

No, he is *not* allowed on the couch- but he thinks it's okay if we are not home. It's hillarious because when he hears the garage door open he will usually jump down and act like nothing happened (yeah, the big imprint on the couch with yellow hair was already there-- uh huh) Think he's spoiled?-- yes we do!

Silver Lining

Okay so the one good thing about Marcie leaving is I can clean my room and it should stay clean. Vinnie doesn't really like my room because it has wood floors (and heaven forbid he sleep on HARD floors!!) and he doesn't like my bed- it's too tall. Anyway I was looking at signs of Marcella the other day and noticing the nose prints on the windows in my car, and the black hair pushed up agaist the wall (I PROMISE I just swept!) and of course who could miss her stinky crate-- and I realized I can't wait to clean my room. It sounds really sad but it's true. It's mostly because she's in season I haven't cleaned the crate since last week- it's just going to get dirty again. And she sheds like mad when she's in heat so I might as well just get it all at the same time. -- the nose prints? well... I need those to miss her with for a couple of days after she goes... sigh... we're back to the sadness.

New Puppies...

So thinking about Marcella leaving and how I'm not getting a new puppy kind of makes me more sad about her leaving than usual. I know it's for the bestm but at the same time I really want to just email Guide Dogs and have them put a starter pup on the truck for me... Must resist though. It's really hard with 6 wonderful pups like this:

Vinnie---- Judith and Novak

Cessna

Maryjo---- Marcella

Vinnie, Cessna and Novak---- my Handsome boy in the bath, I want another one just like him

Picking up Marcella (a little happy am I? It was super windy too)

I am going to miss it...

She's baaack :)

Marcella says thanks for all the puppy kisses and tail wags- she is feeling much better and is enjoying her last week as a PIT as normal Marcella :) Now of only she could get over this heat thing...

BTW Happy 100th Post to this blog!!

Grey's Anatomy--- Guide Dog Style

Today Marcella woke up and didn't want to get out of her crate, very unusual since she had been in her crate since 8 pm the night before. She had woken up twice during the night, which is quite normal for her when she is in heat to have diarreah, but she didn't have any problems. Finally when she got out- I noticed she was limping quite obviously on her back legs, she had a hard time getting up the stairs and was having a hard time moving. I called my leader and told her since We were both headed to a leader meeting with our CFR so I thought I could just get approval for for her to get to the vet while I was there. Well after much work and many phone calls we got ahold of my vet on his cell phone. Poor Marce has a pinched nerve! How sad is it that my work sent me home to "Care for my sick daughter" I was losing it every 10 minutes and everytime my mom would call me with an update. A trip to the vet and 2 shots later Marce is still down for at least 48 hours and it's not hard to keep her down. She is normally a very bouncy puppy but she has been in the same position all day. Wish me luck trying to get this one to walk to get some circulation going in her hind end, per vet reccomendations. :S

Virtual Tour of GDB

Finally I got it to work! I figured out how to make a movie of the power point presentation I made forever ago... finally it will hopefully work for me!

Some Jokes...

1. How Do You Catch a Unique Rabbit? Unique Up On It.

2. How Do You Catch a Tame Rabbit? Tame Way.

3. How Do Crazy People Go Through The Forest ? They Take The Psycho Path

4. How Do You Get Holy Water? You Boil The Heck Out Of It

5. What Do Eskimos Get From Sitting On The Ice too Long? Polaroid's

6. What Do You Call a Boomerang That Doesn't work? A Stick

7. What Do You Call Cheese That Isn't Yours? Nacho Cheese.

8. What Do You Call Santa's Helpers? Subordinate Clauses.

9. What Do You Call Four Bullfighters In Quicksand? Quattro Sinko.

10. What Do You Get From a Pampered Cow? Spoiled Milk.

11. What Do You Get When You Cross a Snowman With a Vampire? Frostbite.

12. What Lies At The Bottom Of The Ocean And Twitches? A Nervous Wreck.

13. What's The Difference Between Roast Beef And Pea Soup? Anyone Can Roast Beef.

14. Where Do You Find a Dog With No Legs? Right Where You Left Him.

15. Why Do Gorillas Have Big Nostrils? Because They Have Big Fingers .

16. Why Don't Blind People Like To Sky Dive? Because It Scares The Dog.

17. What Kind Of Coffee Was Served On The Titanic? Sanka.

18. What Is The Difference Between a Harley And a Hoover ?! The Location Of The Dirt Bag.

19. Why Did Pilgrims' Pants Always Fall Down? Because They Wore Their Belt Buckle On Their Hat.

20. What's The Difference Between a Bad Golfer And a Bad Skydiver? A Bad Golfer Goes, Whack, Dang! A Bad Skydiver Goes Dang! Whack .

21. How Are a Texas Tornado And a Tennessee Divorce The Same? Somebody's Gonna Lose A Trailer

2 weeks more!

Hey Everyone... So as I was on the phone this afternoon I got a wonderful email-- I get to keep Marcella for the last 2 weeks!! I'm excited (who'd ever be excited about keeping their dog while in season?) I'm sure excited and I'm sure Marce is too-- she's been VERY good the past 2 days :)

Tuesday Pictures

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Monday Pictures

Monday, March 12, 2007
Monday in the City