Bringing Dewey Home

Friday we went to pick up Dewey:

Closeup of Dewey.

I was a little sad because we had planned for a big party to pick him up from school.  We had thought we would get a small 9 week old puppy, but there was a surplus of older puppies that needed to be moved to homes.  We had planned a vacation, for next week, which would have precluded our getting a puppy, but because I would be in a crochet class for most of the day, Fred had wisely backed out of joining me when it came time to buy tickets.  So he would be at home next week.

Dewey is 15 weeks old now.  He would have been 17 weeks old when we picked him up if we had stuck to the original schedule.  So, when we needed to make the decision of do we take Dewey early, we were able to say yes even though it meant no party, because we didn't want to leave him in the kennels when he could be at home with us.

Fred is kissing Dewey on the top of his head.

Of course it was love it first sight.

Cheryl is holding Dewey in her arms.

 Dewey is a quiet, gentle dog.  He seems to have more in common with Willow than Jam.  However, that may just be the honeymoon phase and the true Dewey will peek his head out in a two weeks.

Tara, Cheryl and Fred smile for the camera. Cheryl is holding Dewey.

Tara matched us up with a good one (of course, they are all good ones! 8-).

The kennel staff surround Melisa as she holds Dewey.

 The kennel staff gave us our last bit of instructions about Dewey.  They were super nice.

Even though Dewey yawns before his big car ride, he didn't sleep on the way home!

 Then it was time for his first car ride. We got him to busy first, which he did right away. Then we got some kibble and tempted him to the car.  It is a little harder with the older pups (at least in our experience with Coach), they don't know about cars and are nervous about them.  Dewey was nervous as well.

Dewey is hanging back from the car.

Fred tempts him with some kibble.

Dewey is tempted and walks up to the car.

Dewey puts his front paws in the car.

Dewey gets most of his upper body into the car.

 At the point where most of his upper body was into the car, we popped the back end into the car and shut the door!  Mission accomplished.

Fred, Cheryl and Dewey at the Southeastern Guide Dogs sign.

Then we took our photo by the Southeastern sign and were on our way home!!

Blue Coat Trumps All

Yesterday I was having lunch with some of the faculty and the communications director started to tell me a story about his son, who is in kindergarten at Berkeley.  He said, "My son loves Coach.  It's created a bit of a problem at home.  He tells me, Dad, I just want to touch him so much!"

Jeremy continued, "But he knows he can't because of the coat.  Every time he sees him, he says all he wants to do is touch Coach.  In fact, now he says, that if he can't touch Coach, I have to get the family a black lab."

Jeremy is kind of a serious guy.  He had a bit of a perplexed look on his face.  "You know, I'm looking around the house and we have a perfectly good dog at home he can touch."  He shook his head. 

The people at the table started to laugh.  He smiled but still seemed confused by Coach's appeal.  He mentioned again how Murphy, their spaniel, was a great dog, but his son just wasn't interested.

I said, "Bring your son by my office after school on Monday, Wednesday or Friday when I have Coach and I promise to take off the coat and let him touch him."  

Jeremy nodded, but I don't think he heard me.  I think he was still pondering Murphy and his son and why Coach and his blue coat were so appealing and if in the end he would be forced to get a black lab.

The Man Cave

Sometimes, Coach doesn't want to be bothered.  He has had enough.  He is over it.  He needs some shut eye.  That's when he retreats to the man cave.  Yes, I have a man cave in my office.  It's actually the small dark space under my desk, but Coach really likes it down there.

Coach lying down in the man cave.

One of his favorite things to do is have someone love on him and then all of a sudden he will leap up and walk away.  "I'm done now." 

He usually walks to the man cave and disappears.  He can be coaxed out of the man cave to see someone.  But on occasion, he does get a little grumpy.

Coach is sitting up in the man cave and is sticking his tongue out.

I think he was sticking his tongue out at me.  Seriously, little dude?

"Stay out of the man cave!"

Little buddy, the man cave is under my control.  It is all under my control.  At least, that is my story and I'm sticking with it!

Toddler Time

One of the exposures that Southeastern Guide Dog puppies in training are supposed to have is time spent with toddlers and babies.  So it was with great pleasure that we went to have lunch with our friends Christy and Eliot, because not only would we be able to see their new baby (Fred was now over his flu-like cold), but we could bring Coach and let Lydia meet him.  Lydia had met Jam before, but he was a little bit too rambunctious for her tastes and she spent most of the time in her mom's arms looking down at Jam.

Coach would be a whole different ballgame, so to speak, for her.

Lydia is lying on the rub a few feet away from Coach but looking at him as he lies between Fred's feet.

 Lydia is a very self confident, almost 2 year old, little girl and her new sister Vivian seems to be a quiet sleeper (albeit a beautiful sleeper!).

Near the end of the visit Vivian opened her eyes for us!

We all went out for a lovely lunch at the neighborhood Greek restaurant and Coach and children all did very well.

Coach is lying next to me and Lydia is petting his body.

When we came back for coffee, Lydia decided she could chance a pet or two with Coach. One of the things that Coach does like to do is lick you, so if Lydia managed to get her face close to his, he would give her a big lick on the face which made her jump back.  I would immediately tell Coach in a stern voice, "No kisses."  Lydia would also look at Coach and as she got near him she would say, "No kisses!"

Lydia is petting Coach on the paw.

He got lots of praise because he was calm and just let her pet him.  She was able to pet him on his paw and on his body.  And he even got a pat on the head.  She still made sure she told him no kisses though.  Just in case.   I really am amazed at his calm demeanor.  He was still and calm and waited for her to come to him.  There was no lunging or jumping.

Coach and Lydia are looking at the camera.  

 I think Coach may be a ladies man!

Student Library Proctor Retreat

Coach likes laps.  He has fallen into Christina's lap and has his butt sticking up in the air. Christina is laughing.

On Saturday we had our student library proctor retreat where the idea is to train the proctors and also to bond as a group.  We also want to get all of their photos for the bulletin board.  We were going to take their photos with Coach.  We decided to take our photos as well this year!

Coach and Jan are sitting side by side.  Jan is peering over his head and has her arms around him.

 Jan and Christina work in the library with me.  Jan is the library assistant and runs the library proctor program and keeps the library running smoothly and she took most of these photos.  Christina is our collections development librarian and also helps with middle or upper division classes depending on where the need is.  They are both super to work with and Coach loves them.

This is a long distance shot of Coach and one of our student library proctors having a quiet moment. She is sitting and he is getting his ears rubbed.

 We had a full day planned of different activities such as designing t-shirts with our theme (literature is a treasure) and games like musical chairs.

Coach has decided that enough is enough and he should take a break under the atlas stand.

After a few of the games, Coach decided he needed a rest and he found that the atlas stand was a good place to hang out under.  He is very good at deciding when he is tired and walking away from people and lying down either under my desk or on his bed, essentially saying "I'm done!"

Close up photo of Coach under the atlas stand.

But, he's so cute, no one ever gets offended.

Annie is reading a book to Coach who is looking up at her.

 The kids all thought he was the best and even tried to read to him for a cute photo op.

All of the student library proctors got their photos with Coach.  Here is one with Alex and Coach.

Overall, the retreat was a great success.  There was much eating, bonding and game playing.  I think they may have learned how to shelve books.  I'm not sure....

We'll teach them that again!

Show Me Your Pearly Whites

Three teeth in four days.  At least three teeth that I have managed to hear cracking as Coach, our Southeastern Guide Dog puppy, happily crunched on them as they fell out in his mouth.  Me, the ever hysterical, "OMG! What have you got now in your mouth!" mother, I am constantly vigilant about those kind of noises and so I dig deep in his mouth and pull out jewels like the baby molar below.

But it is apparent by the tiny little stumps of teeth in his mouth that little Coach has been losing teeth for a while now.  He should look like one of those prize fighters that didn't win; the ones laid out on the floor with the stars circling their heads and little birds tweeting above them.  But no.  He's a much better fighter than that.  

I tried to take a nice photo of his new baby incisor, but what a struggle I got! It was like holding on to Voldemort in worm form.  Sheesh!  All I wanted was a photo of his mouth.  You wouldn't think that would be a big deal.  

Evidently, it is.  So, instead, you get a nice crisp photo of his incisor.  Soon he will have all adult teeth.  He will be a big boy.

That makes me a little sad.