First Day Jitters

By Fred
In just a few weeks Dewey will be In For Training, and we'll be sad. It does not get easier, letting these wide-eyed creatures go after spending a year taking care of them and giving them every indication (in actions, if not words) that we are big creatures who they can trust to be good to them and to keep them safe and to not abandon them.

Yesterday Dewey and I made another trip to our favorite Dunedin restaurant but this time with a new waitress on her very first day. She was nervous from the start, bending over to get closer when I gave my order--as if I talk too softly and mumble (which I don't). Then she forget the order and had to ask me again. Dewey just wanted her to go away so he could nap.

Later she returned with my food but the plate was hot and she spilled some pinto beans on the floor just inches from Dewey's face.


Many dogs would have eaten a bean or two before the mess could be cleaned up. But not Dewey. He watched her calmly as she rushed to clean the floor near him. "What a good dog," she said, amazed.

"I know."

Then later I asked her to pack up my lunch to go, but she didn't--I don't know where she went or what happened to my food. But that's beside the point. It was her first day, so I gave her a nice tip.

Everybody has a first day. Dewey will have a first day of training soon, and he will probably be nervous. We feel fortunate that he's going in to work with some wonderful trainers and that they will learn what he special dog he is. Otherwise it would be just too hard to let him go.

He'll be fine once the jitters go away. Or maybe he'll be fine and it will just be Cheryl and me with the jitters...