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.