Football and the Queen

Her Royal Highness Berkeley has made it to two home football games. On the walk into the first game, we happened to pass by a lower division girl and her mom walking to the football field. I heard the mom ask her daughter, "Do you see the dog, honey?"

Then, in the saddest voice imaginable, the little girl said, while staring straight ahead, "Yes. She has her coat on. She's invisible. I can't see her or pet her."

I thought I might cry or laugh. I tried not to do either. We kept walking. I didn't make eye contact with the mom to see what she thought of that comment.



When we got to the football field it was still light and not too crowded. I was able to say hello to the kids I wanted to let know I had come to support them. Then we took HRH up onto the metal bleachers. The photo above shows her and Fred striking a pose. She did pretty well, even though they made a strange sound when she walked on them and they were a bit narrow and had a gap on either side. I think she will like them better when she is bigger.



We made the mistake of taking her for a pee break between the 1st and 2nd quarter. Every student who caught sight of her without her coat on rushed over for a quick pat. They all lined up nicely though and it was an orderly affair. We did eventually get her coat back on and took her out onto the field to watch the game from there.

The second time we took her it was Tailgate, which translated means EXTREMELY CROWDED and FILLED WITH EXCITED CHILDREN. HRH had a meltdown about 20 minutes into the game and we took her home. Sometimes it works and sometimes you take 'em home.

We still kicked butt and won the game.

HRH Berkeley Makes Her TV Debut

The NBC video finally makes to TV!

New student allowed to nap in corner.

They also did a print story. Courtney Cairns Pastor was our reporter and she did a wonderful job. There were three pages of photos, which they oddly don't have on the website. It's a great story though.

Sophie's Choice

Last week I dreamed I met Bingo's lifetime partner. He was in his 30s and in the military. I woke with a very happy feeling.

Jan had a dream that he was paired with a young boy with special needs. She also woke with happy feeling.

But the last report card didn't tell the whole story. It left out some key facts. Bingo was possessive of the water dish and wouldn't let others drink when he was drinking. He didn't want to share his toys. He growled. He would sit by himself in the yard and when the other dogs came to visit he would warn them off by growling. They called it possessiveness of personal space.

Growling isn't allowed. Nor is not sharing. Bingo had reached a point of no return and he walked right on by it. On Saturday we got the news:

"Bingo has been dropped from the program."

I don't think I really understood what he was saying to me. How could that be? I had a photograph. I had a dream. Then he started talking about possessiveness and not sharing and I wanted to scream at him that he had the wrong dog because my Bingo would never do that, but my throat was all full of tears and I couldn't see and there was a ringing in my ears. So I nodded and I walked away with Fred and Berkeley.

"What do we do?"

Then we had to decide what to do. I had been totally at peace with giving Bingo away to someone as a guide dog. That was his purpose. But what I hadn't envisioned was a situation where we would be faced with giving him away to someone as a family dog. I loved him. I wanted him. I didn't want anyone else to have him. I couldn't imagine giving him away, but we felt that we couldn't give him the attention that he deserved and continue to puppy raise at the same time. Three dogs is just too many. Bingo deserves to be the only dog.

So we made the very hard decision to let him go. He will be put up for adoption.

I thought you all should know. SEGD said the adoption lady would find him a good home and would ask them to stay in contact with us and let us know how he is doing. This, for us, was a real Sophie's choice. I really wanted him to be a guide dog. But I know he will succeed as a lovable dog. He was always first rate at that.

Now if I could just stop crying.

Our Bingo: Sweet Boy or Slacker?

I just received another report card for Bingo. I wish I had received this one first, followed by the first one second. We could have said he went uphill. Now. Well, the direction is not up. Only two ++'s. One of his ++'s (Clearances) turned into a W! AND!!! he went from 5 Ws to 8 Ws.

Oh Bingo! What happened? Did you not pay attention in class? Did you not get enough sleep? Are you and Jim staying up late and partying? You obviously haven't been listening.

Bingo!

Are you listening to me?

You aren't listening are you? Sigh.

Here are the comments from the trainers:

COMMENTS: Bingo is a sweet dog. He is a bit immature still and we are currently working on his distractions and manners.

Reading between the lines:
Bingo is sweet, but nuts! (Did you read the blog? We could have told you that! 8-)

To be honest, we were so surprised by the first report card and frankly, so filled with unexpected pride that we have been brought down low by Bingo's normal, goofy hijinks. I swear that when I got that first report card I thought it would be all Ws. He is Bingo.

So, WAKE UP Bingo. And listen to your teachers. And I expect to see 5 Ws and 3 ++'s back on your 3rd report card.

Her Royal Highness Is Presented to the Lower Division

On Friday of first week of school, I presented Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley to the Lower Division (see photo above). I first walked in with her and then picked her up (there were parent complaints last year that their kids couldn't see Bingo, because he was on the floor and their child was at the back of the room sitting. Sigh. So, you will see what we did to try to try to ward off those complaints this time.)
I showed them the video first. It was cute. They all started singing the words to Train's "Soul Sister" song. 8-). They liked the Lemon video clip. Then instead of telling them the rules, I wanted them to tell me what they remembered, because I had a feeling that they remembered everything.

When the St. Pete Times reporter was here on Wed. HRH was in the hallway and a LD class walked by. I had HRH sit down as they passed by. Every child was completely silent and did not make one attempt to get her attention or try to call her Bingo. They were Fabulous! So the first thing I did after the video, was ask which class passed us on Wed.

Long pause. No hands were raised.

"Come on. A class passed us by. You were perfect. You did all the right things! You remembered all the rules. Which class walked by us on Wed.?" Slowly a few hands went in the air, then a few more. "Everyone, let's give them the library clap for being so smart and remembering all the rules!" Everyone raised both hands and waved them in the air violently.

Then I asked them if they remembered what item of Harry Potter's was HRH's blue coat similar to? 50 hands shot up in the air. I was looking for one boy in particular, but couldn't find him in the sea of faces. So I chose a little girl who seemed to be vibrating with the answer:

"It is the same as Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility, which means that you can't see her when she has it on, which means that you can't call her name or act like you notice her." She took a deep breath. Good. She didn't pass out.

"Excellent answer! That's exactly right." Well, it went on like this with Lower divisioners getting it EXACTLY right all the time. That means that the ONE time I presented the rules to them, they MEMORIZED them and they STAYED memorized for an ENTIRE YEAR. They even remembered the specific question I wanted them to ask when she was out of coat: "Is this a good time?" I find that pretty impressive.

HRH, not so much. She just wanted off the darn cart.

Odds and Ends

My baby boy has grown up! Here is Bingo's In for Training portrait with the official harness. One of my friends pointed out that the harness is on the last hole, indicating that Bingo still hasn't lost any weight. (Big bones, I tell you!) That boy can hang on to a carb like nobody's business. 8-) When I was making the video for school, I said that Bingo always had his mouth open for photos and one of the kids said that he was always smiling. I liked that, so I changed the wording in the video.

When the slide popped up that Bingo had gone in for training, both divisions burst into applause. They love him. They've really taken to Berkeley as well. I think her Lemon Video endeared her to all of them. Plus she's so darn cute.

After I gave my talk to the Lower Division, one of the teachers told me later that one student was still confused and asked, "I don't understand. If Berkeley is blind, how can she help anyone?"

"No, honey, the dog isn't blind...."

Yesterday, I was out on a pee break with Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley and we were by the Lower Division drama room. There was a class waiting outside to go in. They saw HRH was without coat so I heard them say,

"There's Berkeley!"

"Look, she doesn't have her coat on. We can see her."

"I see her."

"It's Berkeley."

I turned and waved to them and HRH did a quick pee. I put her coat back on and all the lower division kids went, "SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

The Diva

By Fred
Berkeley and I had a nice lunch today at the beach. But first we walked down to the water's edge and she pranced along with her head held high, just like the polished media star she has become, raising comments from the sun-bathers along the way: what a pretty dog, what a good dog, etc.

I guess we need to find some sunglasses for her. She's had another newspaper interview and soon will be on TV with Cheryl and some of the Berkeley (the school, not the dog) kids. Stay tuned.

But has this attention gone to her head? Just the opposite. We've noticed a real change in her at home. She's more calm, less sassy. Even Willow has warmed up to her (a little). This video is from a few days ago.


Video Narration: Like usual, Berkeley is teasing Willow but this time Willow takes the bait and chases after her. Berkeley circles and runs. Then Willow runs away to be the chased one. Finally!