Dewey's Last Day in Rudolph Library

Sometimes, your best moments come in the quiet spaces between times.  Between those times when you are supposed to be doing something.  Something supposedly IMPORTANT.  

I had just finished a meeting with the lower division librarian.  I thought the library was empty, but there were four lower division students left in it.  They had been very, very quietly waiting for us to finish what we were talking about.

"Is now a good time for Dewey to take off his coat?" While it was the red haired girl who asked, they all had pleading in their eyes. I did have somewhere to be, but it was so quiet and Dewey was so still. 

He looked at them.  He looked back at me. "Sure."

We are all gathered around Dewey who is on his back getting belly rubs.

The kids were ecstatic.  We started to talk about dogs as we petted Dewey.

They were all very impressed with his soft coat.

And then he did what he always does when he gets lots of love and attention: He smiled.

Dewey, on his back smiling.

Which made all of us laugh.  Or maybe someone said something funny.  It was just a lovely moment in the library with Dewey and the students.

Laughing in the library with Dewey and the students.

Walking Around Naked

Today, I made a major mistake.  I had Coach with me in the office and I needed to run over to another colleague's office and give her some paperwork.  I grabbed the folder and picked up Coach's leash.  

"Come on.  Let's go." Coach hopped up happily enough and trotted along beside me.  We walked through the library and up the hallway.  I stepped out of the library and started to walk through the Aye Arboretum.  Across the mound, I could see a couple of faculty members do a double take at me.  I was wearing a new outfit, but it wasn't THAT unusual.  Well, they were palazzo pants, but I thought they were rather stylish, and I got them on sale for $6! (I know! Seriously! Stein Mart rocks the sales, but I digress.) Then I noticed that one of the teachers was really giving me quite a look.

I mean, a real look.  Like a "what are you doing?" look. So I looked down.  

I had a naked dog.

OMG!  A naked dog.  A visible naked dog!!  Right there in the middle of everything! Holy naked puppy Batman!

I hot footed it over to the office and dropped off the paperwork.  What had I been thinking?  Walking out of the library without his coat on?  I don't know.  It was just one of those days, I guess.  Fortunately, I was not attacked by ravening hordes of students wanting to pet Coach.  Usually, the ravening hordes come out at lunchtime and we were having wings today.

However, later in the day, I did take off his coat for some specific groups to love on him.

Two girls from Coach Daly's advisory are petting Coach.

Coach Daly's advisory got to have some personal time with Coach.

At the Homecoming meeting one of the girls gives Coach a big fake kiss.

At the Homecoming meeting, I took off his coat upon request so the girls could love him up.  He is the most amazingly calm dog at being loved by oodles of sweet girls.  Jam would have been dancing on the ceiling.

Coach rolling around with his coat off.  Coat = Serious!

But after lunch, he was feeling frisky, so I let him roll around upstairs while we weeded books and waited for a freshman class to come and pick out reading material.  Yes, they still assign fun reading and aren't I the happy librarian who works at school where teachers love reading and want their students to love it as well.  I was in heaven suggesting books to kids. HEAVEN!!!

Bored Coach lying on the carpet sleeping.

Coach was mostly bored.  I ran around finding books.  He was in a sit stay or down stay.  However, at the end of the day, we took off his coat and he proceeded to be loved by very happy students.

A circle of students all petting Coach who is lying on his back.

Lesson learned: check your guide dog puppy for nakedness before leaving the office!





Off the Wall Comments

Bathroom Habits

So, during AP US History, one of the junior boys raises his hand and asks, not for help finding a monograph or in determining whether a website is credible, but asks me: "I know this is off topic, but where does Coach go to the bathroom?"

Oh.

Well, I paused for a moment.  Then I pointed to the grass outside at the south of the library and the grass  to the north.  "He goes out there and there. And he also goes over in the pine straw by the Dimmitt Gym."

"OK."  He nodded and went back to work.

Change of Color

Earlier in the week I had a freshman class that was called for lightening, meaning that only three students showed up because the rest were being held on the other side of campus.  The four of us were having a great time talking about books and Coach.  Then Rachel, out of the blue said, "I love Coach best of all.  Sometimes I want him to have a pink coat so that only I can pet him."

Pink and black.  It is very fashionable.

Giant Balls in the Hallway

On another day when I arrived for class I happened to see giant balls in the hallway.  Now, it isn't every day that Coach gets an opportunity to interact with giant balls.  So, of course we had to run down and see what his reaction would be.

Coach went up and sniffed them.  Then he poked one a bit with his nose and it moved, but it didn't startle him.  He glanced up at me as if to say, "Yeah, it's a giant ball.  So what?"

Some days you just don't know what school will throw at you!  

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.

Jam: Not Being Helpful

Some days there are themes.  Today's theme was Unhelpfulness. Really, Word dictionary? Unhelpfulness isn't a word and helpfulness is?  Yet there is an unhelpful.  You, Jam were unhelpful today.

Take for example, when I got up and left Jam sleeping.  Snoring actually, during the full study hall this morning.  Sure, I had hooked his leash to my chair instead of the table, but that was such a small mistake.   What harm could there be in that?  And after all, he had been so good in his stays.  Letting me go into the workroom and grab a bottle of water or pick up some paper.

I stepped over the sleeping guide dog puppy and walked into the library workroom to ask my question.  Unfortunately, that led to another question and then another.  

BAM!

I ran out into the library to see the table next to mine, which had been filled with freshman boys all standing but one.  The one was laid out with his legs extended to my former chair where he was pressing down with all his leg strength. Jam was on a tie down to that chair and was at the end of it.

In front of Jam were two upper classmen (Alison and Caleb) who told me that Jam and the chair, which, by the 47th law of physics that states that things tied to you will follow if you are strong enough to drag them, had woken up and tried to find me.  Alison and Caleb it should be noted were surrounding Jam but more importantly they were not touching Jam BECAUSE HE HAD HIS COAT ON.

So, my unhelpful guide dog puppy in training had put in action several students who had followed all the rules and been supremely successful in stopping Jam and holding him steady where he was and not violating the sanctity of the coat. 8-)

I love my students.  They are so wonderful.  I quickly relieved the freshman boy as he seemed close to expiring.  Then Jam and I took a walk.

Later, Christina and I started a weeding project.  We were trying to determine whether we had 90 feet of shelving weeded or if we still needed more books to weed.  So we were measuring with ribbon.

Jam at my feet licking the ribbon.

As we were walking around the shelves measuring and letting the ribbon flutter behind us, Jam would wait for a big curl to fall and then he would go to sleep on it as if it were a treasure to be protected with his body.  Soon enough we would come to a screeching halt as his body weight would hold us in place.

"Jam!"

Jam at my feet while Christina and I measure out the ribbon.

Sleepy, blurry, doe eyes looking up at us.  So if unhelpful isn't a word and if Jam wasn't particularly helpful, then what happened?

Wait a minute.  Wasn't there some old trope about letting sleeping dogs lie? But didn't I do that this morning? Maybe, for Jam, it's more about, sure, let the sleeping dogs lie, but make darn sure you are there when they wake up!

I Never Dreamed I Would Do It Too!

There are just some things that you don't ever imagine yourself doing.  In fact, often times, you have dreams about them.  Anxiety dreams, they call them.  Where you dream you are naked in class or in a business meeting.  How will I give this presentation without my clothes?  It's a very upsetting dream and usually indicates a disturbed mind, or at least that you are disturbed about something.  I think.  Whatever.

My dreams usually involve monsters and whales and dark water. No, those are nightmares.  Usually, really strange things happen like a baby with a golden arm appears and then something else happens.  Let's just say that once, on a hike up Sabino Canyon in Tucson, AZ with some friends we were talking about dreams and I told one of mine.  One of the girls in the group looked at me a little strangely and said, "You should really see a Jungian therapist.  They would love to get a hold of you."  Somehow that sounded vaguely threatening, so I never did go find a Jungian therapist and gradually, the whales, the dark water and monsters faded away to plain old anxiety dreams of nakedness. Like everyone else has.  I like to think that my happiness in raising guide dog puppies had fostered a sense of contentment and well being that has provided a safe haven for my subconscious to go on vacation and not have to dream up such elaborate scenarios at night.  Until today.

Two years ago I told a story about Bingo doing the poo hunch in the middle of Westshore Mall and that I picked up his 50lb self and ran him out the door (which was quite a distance away! Pretty good for an middle-aged, out of shape lady!). Crisis averted.  Carolyn then shared one of her poo stories which made me laugh so hard I though I was going to shoot coffee out my nose.  I apologize Carolyn.  I sincerely apologize.  I completely understand now why you did what you did.  But I get ahead of myself...

Today, we took the Jamster to Home Depot.  As we were walking in, I thought to myself, "It's about 3:30, he had a big pee.  That's good. Is there something else I should be thinking about?" Then my pea brain went off to think about Bed, Bath and Beyond, which was our next stop.  What did I need, blah blah blah.  We went in and started walking around.  Fred had a HUGE list of things he needed.  So I said I would go look at bathroom towel racks where I took a lovely photo of Jam as he looked at  himself in the mirrors.  I also got some cute video.

Jam, lying down, in front of some mirrors in the bathroom department.  You would think this would be foreshadowing, wouldn't you?

Then we found Fred and he sent us on this wild goose chase to find shelf doodads, and we wandered up and down aisles and couldn't find them.  We met back up Fred and it is now about 4:15.  The sweet spot for Jam as far as poo goes is right after breakfast, sometimes a 10 am poo and between 4:30 and 5:30 pm. He is REGULAR.  No fooling around.  So as we start to turn down the aisle I feel a little tug on the leash.  I look down and it's the dreaded poo hunch!

CRAP (so to speak!).  Now I have two choices: Let him poo (not a choice!) or take him out (we are far from the entrance).  But, and here's the big question: Has he actually committed himself, or is he just hunched like Bingo?

Mind you all of this is going through my head in a fraction of a second as Fred is walking off down the aisle.

What do I do?  I have to check to see if he is committed.  Otherwise I can carry him. So, I

I reach behind him.

I reach behind him and I feel for poo.

Yep.  He's committed.

In a big way.

It falls into my left hand.  Oh my God.  I have poo in my hand.  My dog just pooped in my hand.  I look up and there are people in the aisle.  Did they see him poop in my hand?  This is a real life anxiety dream only I am fully clothed and holding poo!  And my dog is going to pump out some more!

I leap up.  I can't carry him with a hand full of poo, so a RUN down the aisle with poor Jam running after me like his underwear is around his ankles.  We run as fast as we can to the exit.  Mind you, Jam CANNOT POO IN COAT.  So my main goal (aside from getting poo out of hand) is to get the coat off of him and let him shoot poo out his butt in a safe place.

Right there by the exit is an orange bucket with a garbage sack.  OMG I have to get this poo out of my hand.  I stop for a micro second to throw the poo into the bucket and in that microsecond Jam has squirted out another poo WHICH I HAVE CAUGHT!  OMG.  I throw that one away as well and run Jam out the door and over to the median grassy area and yank the coat off of him.

I can hear the sigh of relief as he finishes his poo.  I can also her the laughter as one of the Home Depot customers walks out to his car.

I tell myself, I have on all my clothes.  It could have been worse.

New Coat Arrives!

On Tuesday Her Royal Highness's (HRH's) new coat arrived in the mail! Here she is posing with her new coat on. You can see NO BOOTIE! On Wednesday when we went to school, HRH was very interested in making sure that the Dean saw her in her new bootie covering coat. Here she is with the Dean. Notice the thumbs up sign! The new coat says Guide Dog in Training instead of Puppy in Training. That's a nice change.

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."