McLean Puppy Chronicles: What happens when you do the unthinkable and open yourself up to raise a puppy to give away to someone else: You create joy and freedom for a visually impaired person. We're puppy raisers for Southeastern Guide Dogs. Read about our journey.
This last weekend was homecoming weekend. The weekend started on Friday afternoon with an all school pep rally where the upper division won the spirit stick. Coach was not very impressed and slept through most of the cheering.
Coach is sleeping on the bleachers.
We also got to hear the awesome Highlander band play. Coach was not disturbed by the pipe and drum band, but listened thoughtfully. No howling. Then it was back to napping.
Coach falls asleep on my foot.
After the pep rally, Christina and I got ready to man the concession stand at the Straz Family Field House. The Girls Volleyball team was playing our rivals Tampa Prep and we beat them handily in three straight games.
Here is our concession team: Emily, Jessica, Isabella, Christina, Carly, Alex with Coach lying down up front.
We had a little bit of a panic as our water hadn't been restocked, but that got taken care of and we were good to go.
Coach finds a spot near the fridge so he can lie down and be cool. Christina is smiling down at him.
We sold drinks and candy. Next time I think we will bring some other snacks like donuts and bagels as we will have the morning and afternoon slot at the headmaster's challenge.
Coach falls asleep by the fridge.
Meanwhile, Fred arrived and took Coach to see the volleyball game.
Fred and Coach watching the volleyball game.
After the concession stand session was over, we cleaned up and then Coach, Fred and I went to the football game. That was a bittersweet game. We had great weather, but CCC was a tough opponent. We lost 35-21. The first half we didn't score, but we came back in the second.
After such a long day, I didn't have the heart to have Coach come to the Homecoming Dance on Saturday! Let the boy rest.
Coach with colorful balloons in the background.
But I did bring some balloons home for an exposure. More on that later...
What a week it has been! On Monday, Jam rode with me to school to his first day of a school filled with students. It was quite exciting.
As you can see from the photo above, Jam has taken his full water bowl and flipped it over preferring that it be a chew toy. Of course, now, it looks like he had a giant pee on the floor! Great! This is what the morning crazies are about. Jam doing crazy things and me trying to get him calm to start the day.
Because our convocation was at 8 am and he usually has an 8:30 poo, I needed to make sure he had done his business and was extra tired out. The morning crazies can last from 7:30 to 9 am. So we did several sets of stairs and series of left-lefts and right-rights and hallways so that his little brain would be exhausted by the time we hit the auditorium.
Then we started our walk to convo. It was pretty cool the looks that Jam got. What was even more impressive was the way that the middle division students remembered all the rules. As I was walking down the hall, there was a great big group of them and they all caught sight of him at the same time.
"It's the new puppy!"
"You can't look at him!"
"Don't say his name."
"Turn around!"
So they all straighten their posture and turn around. They were so cute. We passed on by and entered the auditorium.
I thought that Jam did an exceptional job of dealing with the crowds, the clapping and the pipe and drum corps band. Both Bingo and Berkeley had some reaction to convo. Bingo would surge forward at clapping and Berkeley would get bored and bark to be taken back to my office. Jam was very calm and quiet.
But by the end of the day he was so tired that he couldn't hold his eyes open. He was comatose!
Later on in the week we did a small photo shot with some middle division faculty for his presentation to middle. Of course, I was a complete dunce and when I went to go up on stage because I started calling him Berkeley:
"Berkeley, forward. Pause. Good boy. Berkeley, sit. Long pause. Good boy. Berkeley forward up."
The kids were aghast! I had no clue I was even doing it and was wondering why he wasn't following directions well. BECAUSE I WASN'T SAYING HIS NAME! The Middle Division Director told when I came up to the microphone. Horrors!
Sigh. In front of 350 people I did this.
Then on Friday, he attended his first class with me. He was awesome! I was running the computer and lecturing when I noticed there was a little current of Ahhhhhs spreading through the room. I looked up at the teacher.
"Jam's watching the screen."
Sure enough, Jam was focused on the screen watching my explanation on how to set up an iGoogle page. He was fascinated by the mouse movement. When the mouse finally got low enough he leaped up and tried to grab it.
The kids loved him!
Here he is at my last class of the day. Calm and quiet.
Christina looked at him from behind and said he had some "junk in the trunk" and perhaps he needed to move up to the big boy coat.
He is a little big in the booty, but the big boy coat is still a couple inches out on his tail, so it's the puppy coat for a few more weeks. Although he is in the middle of a growth spurt, so who knows.
For the second year in a row, we've done what's called a Wrap-In where the three divisions get together and decorate presents for children's charities in the bay area. We were fortunate to be paired with Pre-K again. They are super fun.
My first stop with Her Royal Highness (HRH) was this little boy who, when asked if he wanted to pet Berkeley, responded with, "The only dog I don't like is a big dog."
"OK." We went to the next small child.
As you can see we had much better luck at this table. They liked big dogs, which is sort of a laugh as HRH is a runt at 50 pounds and 7 months. She's a delicate flower.
Here we have HRH's fan club. Caroline supplied HRH's Christmas collar (there is a Mrs. Claus hat that goes with it, see below). Caroline is on the right and Katia is on the left. HRH was phenomenal. She visited each child calmly, let them pet her and didn't like or chew on them.
The third member of HRH's fan club is Pilar. They even matched for the wrap-in! We had to take a photo. Later that afternoon we had the holiday convocation (12 Days of Christmas, Jingle Bells, etc.) and HRH got to experience her FAVORITE BAND, the Highlander Pipe and Drum Band. (She does not like the pipe and drum corps.) Here's a short video of her reaction to them playing at the convocation. She dealt with it like royalty: strained about the ears, a little tension about the eyes and a few darting glances at the exits.
