Mine, Mine, Mine!

Daffy Duck

Jam, the dog who loves too much, tends to look at the world as his oyster.  It's all his.  Every last bit of it.  Consequently, he pees on a great deal of it.

He reminds me in many ways of Daffy Duck, a character who also was concerned with owning everything.  This scene is from one of my favorite cartoons with Bugs and Daffy.

 

Jam and Establishing Ownership

So, back to the peeing.  Jam generally pees on lots of items.  Sometimes this means walking into a new home and taking possession of the best pillow, the one previously owned by the small male dog in the house.  Method: Pee on the pillow.

Meet a new friend? Why not pee on their head?  Guaranteed to let the neighborhood know whose friend they are.  Jam's friend!

Where Shopping Is a Pleasure

My favorite place to shop is Publix, so of course I went to the Publix Paws booth to sign up for Publix Paws at Walkathon!! And I took Jammy with me while I signed up.  Jam was quietly sniffing the banner and sizing up the tote bag and the two water dishes that they were giving me (two dishes because Publix rocks!) and then Jam had a brilliant idea.  Why not own Publix? Why not become a part of Publix Paws? Really get into it? Make it his program?

Wait for it...

So, he peed on their sign.  In front of them.  Standing next to me.  While I was obliviously filling out my form.  That is until I looked up to see the wide open, staring eyes of Publix employees locked onto Jam.

I turned to catch him shake it off, so to speak, and lower his leg.  Quite pleased with his aim as it hit the paw print right on the money and  kinda blended in with the cornflower yellow of the banner.

I could only think that "Wow. I'm glad that banner is water proof, um, pee proof, and all the pee is beading up and running off it." 

"Bye! Love Publix!" I grabbed my tote and yanked Jam away from the booth.  

Jam, sitting by the Publix Paws banner, he loves Publix and so do we.

Despite the peeing, Jam is very grateful to Publix for all the treats and toys he will be getting in the near future from the Publix Paws program coupons.  He's hoping to pee on the toys.

Walkathon Was Great Fun!

Saturday was the Southeastern Guide Dogs Walkathon.  We had a group of six walking for Team Coach: Jan, Christina, Fred, me, Elizabeth and Carly.  Jan and Christina work with me in the library.  Elizabeth and Carly are my student library proctor leaders.  Everyone was played a major role in raising the $3640 dollars that resulted in our being able to name a puppy Dewey (after the Dewey Decimal System!).

The team at the start of the walk. 

 We all wore our Team Coach t-shirts.  They were pale blue and had an artistic b/w photo of Coach on the front with Team Coach curving over the top.

Cheryl, Christina and Jan with Coach sitting at our feet. 

 The walk was perfect.  There was a slight cool breeze and it was sunny.  It was a lovely day.

Here we are stopped by the water's edge waiting for Jan and Fred to catch up.

A view from the back as we are walking to the finish.

Jan took a great photo of Fred kneeling by Coach.

Here's a photo of Carly, Elizabeth, Christina and Cheryl at the finish line.

 After we finished the walk, we went over to the blind walks where the trainers had some of the phase 3 dogs out giving walks.  Carly and Elizabeth took a blind walk.  This stage is the stage that Jam is at.

Carly starts on her walk with her new guide.

Carly and her guide are making great strides.

Elizabeth has a chocolate lab for a guide.

 Later in the evening, Raichell, of the other student library proctor leaders was able to join us for the walkathon dinner.  The fourth, Keebler, had play practice.

Here we all are dressed up for the walkathon dinner.

 It was really great for all of the girls to be able to hear from the people who would be benefitting from their hard work what it meant to the guide dog recipients: the freedom it gave them, the way it changed it their lives.  It was also nice to get to see friends from far away and reconnect and to be able to chat with friends who live nearby.  All in all it was a great evening.

Stephanie, Carolyn and Cheryl.  Carolyn is our group's area coordinator
and Stephanie is her second in command.

Team Coach

Saturday is the walkathon and we will be walking with some of our student library proctors who helped us raise the $3640 that will allow us to name our puppy next year.  We will be there at the beginning at 9:30.  The kickoff is at 9:45 and the walkathon starts at 10.

If you want to pick us out from the crowd, we will be in light blue t-shirts with Coach's face on the front.  Team Coach: Walkathon 2013! Woot! 

Naming a Puppy: Almost Halfway There!

I'm excited and proud to announce that we are close to $1500 in our quest to name a puppy for the Walkathon for Southeastern Guide Dogs.  The Student Library Proctors are trying to raise $3500, which is the amount you need to name a puppy.  Our next milestone is $1500.  We just had a breaksale and sold almost $200 in donuts and bagels and ice cream bars!  It was lovely!

Here is photo of one of our previous breaksales that shows two tables full of Dunkin Donuts! 8 dozen to be exact!!

We have quite an energetic crew that is trying to reach this lofty goal.  I am so impressed and proud of them.  They have really worked hard and pulled off something great.  To have amassed this much already is amazing.  

We just received a note from Southeastern that we were a "Top Dog" fundraiser for raising over $1,000. Won't you be part of our success?  Email me if you want to get some raffle tickets or go to Coach's fundraising page to contribute.  We also have cute totes for sale for $15 plus shipping (unless you live in Tampa: 

Photo of our totebags with the drawings of famous authors on them.  The drawings were done by a  student library proctor.  Authors include: Shakespeare, Poe, Austin and Lee.

  

As a sidenote, what library-related puppy names do you think we should name the next male puppy?  So far we have:

• Dewey
• Booker

Harry Potter themed names include: 

• Sirius
• Harry
• Lupin
• Hagrid
• Fluffy
• Ronald
• Pigwidgeon
• Dumbledore
• Albus
• Aberforth
• Neville
• Dobby
• Firenze
• Buckbeak
• Severus

What is your favorite?

Doughnut: Get In My Belly!

We had a very successful breaksale last week, raising over $250 to name the next Southeastern Guide Dog puppy for me and Fred to raise (to donate go to Coach's walkathon page).  We added ice cream bars to our list of items for sale and they went like wildfire!  In addition we had tons of doughnuts.  Tons!  So many that in the crush of students clamoring for a doughnut, one tasty piece of fried dough hit the ground.

To say that Coach was on the doughnut like a duck on a junebug would not be an overstatement.  I was handing out ice cream bars and heard a cry:

"Coach has a doughnut!"

My first thought was "How?" and when I turned there were three student library proctors pointing in horror at Coach who was so happy he couldn't contain his joy.  He was trying to swallow the frosted, cream-filled doughnut whole, which is only thing that saved him, because otherwise, I think he would have successfully snarfed the whole thing down.  As it was, he was stymied.

I reached down to try and open up his jaw and pry the doughnut out and Coach decided that he was going to eat this doughnut no matter what!  It was a grand struggle.  He knew if he opened his jaw, the doughnut was gone, but he had to give a little in order to swallow.  I could also see gooey, cream-filled, slobbery doughnut oozing between his teeth.  His eyes were starting to bug a little because he hadn't taken a breath.  His mouth was filled with doughnut.

Before the breaksale madness, Coach hides under my skirt (it is a very long skirt and I am standing!).

Finally, breathing won out over doughnut and he opened up to take a quick breath.  I snatched out the nasty, slobbery goo-doughnut ball and proceed to throw it away.  About a third of the cream filling remained on my fingers.  

Coach licked his chops and stared at the trash can.  So close.  So close.