A Sick Coach (now on the mend)

By Fred
The big-dog party Saturday night was pretty exciting, but our normally rambunctious little Coach was unusually quiet under the table all night--understandably, so we figured, after the long day at the walkathon (we must have walked 3 or 4 miles in all). But Coach was already sick. We just didn't know it yet.

A panorama shot of the banquet room.

So we drove home from the party and got right into bed. My allergies were colliding with a cold for a perfect storm in my head. And then, at around 1 am, I heard Cheryl talking to Coach--he had just thrown up.

Let's be clear. Cheryl is the one on middle-of-the-night patrol. When our puppies are little she takes them out for potty breaks at 2 am, and she is up like a rocket at the first sound of distress. Her little engine is wound up tight, while mine is not so much. So even if I had not been sick Saturday night, she still would have been the one to get up. But I was sick, and it is an essential fact for this narrative (if only to make me feel less like a slacker).

Coach threw up several times during the night and he was no better by Sunday morning, so Cheryl took him to the emergency vet. The diagnosis: gastroenteritis. She brought him back home. He was not at all well. Very quiet. Very un-Coachlike. By evening time he still wouldn't eat or drink despite all of Cheryl's encouragement, some of which was extremely creative and compelling (no wonder she can talk me into doing things). He was really sick, poor guy.

A picture of Cheryl encouraging Coach to have some food.

By Monday morning Coach still wouldn't eat or drink, not a bit, so I took him to spend the day with Dr. Woodman. By Tuesday, he was only a bit better, but he would at least sip some water and we could see some improvement, and finally today Coach seems more like himself again. He's eating and drinking, though he has a way to go still.

We don't realize what a bright spark is inside our puppies until that spark goes a little dim. Humans can reach out for sympathy and whine and blow loudly into tissues, but this little guy breaks our heart without trying.

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! 

MUN Part II: Puking and Cafe Murano and Finding the Room!

The conference lasted four days and it was very well run.  A trifle long, but well run.  I had brought one of Coach's nylabone's but had accidentally left it at school, so we did a Petco run after lunch one day and came upon a fabulous find: The Kong Comfort Wubba!

I had been searching for these all over the place.  Michele had looked for them, I had looked for them.  Tampa has no comfort wubbas! They are one of the only approved toys that is a not a stuffed toy, yet has a stuffed toy feel.  So I got three.  For future puppies!

Here's a photo of Coach with his green wubba.  It's a fuzzy kong with legs hanging down.  It does not squeak.

Coach is standing in the wheel well of the van looking out the open door.

 Getting in and out of the Berkeley van required that Coach become very comfortable with a very high step up and down.  He didn't have any problem with it.

So we headed back and Coach seemed content with his wubba.  We saw the kids off to committee sessions.  

Michele and Coach are sitting in the lobby area as two of our students stand and look on (Max and Jake).

After the kids went to committee, Michele and Tim and Claudia and I would find tables in the coffee shop of the Hilton and set up and do school work.  That's where the small incident occurred.

Michele at a table in the coffee shop with Coach underneath.

It started out as nothing.  We were sitting and chatting and Coach was between us and another table.  There was a teacher at the table next to us whom we knew and we were talking with her.  Coach had his wubba.  All of a sudden he stands up and looks at me and then looks down and does a little bit of a hunch hunch with his back.  

There is the faintest sound of gagging.  Just distantly heard. Like a dream almost.  I stand up.  Then I sit down.  Then I look at Michele.

"Coach is throwing up.  Get us some napkins."

"Please." I added this belatedly.

"Oh no!" Michele pops up and runs for the napkins at the coffee station.  

Now I have a decision to make.  I can try to run Coach out of the hotel, which would take us through the lobby and in front of the front desk.  Or I could leave him where he was: on tile, hidden from view and relatively quiet.  

I went with hidden from view and on tile.  The teacher at the other table looked on in mild horror as Coach very calmly puked up a green hairball.  It was the fuzz from the green wubba.  I grabbed it in one swipe with the napkin from the tile floor and set it carefully on the table.  I glanced around and not one person has noticed or heard Coach throw up.  

Close up of Coach under the table.

Coach looked up at me again as if to say, "I'm not done," and yakked up a smaller green fuzzball.  Then he went to sleep.  Wubba forgotten in his post-puking haziness. The wubba was taken away and disposed of.  Poor Coach.  Jam loved his wubba, he would chew on one leg and just get it soggy, never  damaging it.  But in Coach's case, he was a nibbler and the wubba wasn't a good toy for him.

Afterwards, the team went to Cafe Murano for dinner and we had such a fabulous dinner that we went back the next night.  They were wonderful with Coach as well asking if he needed a water bowl.

I did put together a little video of Coach's zoomies when he first got to the room, how he managed with all the foot traffic around him and how he quite amazed me with his ability to find our room.  I would say find our room when we got off the elevator on our floor and he would take me to our room.  He would do it even if Michele walked past the room.  He was great!

Here's a shot of the whole team.  They were a great bunch to travel with.  Very fun and always upbeat. You can't ask for more then that when traveling!  And we took home an award as well.  Yea team!!

The whole MUN team, Mrs. Timothy and Coach.

Coach's MUN Trip Part 1

Every year  I take our Southeastern Guide Dog puppy on a Model United Nations conference so that the puppy can experience a hotel room.  Usually we take them to the KnightMUN conference at UCF so that they only have one night in the hotel.  However, this year Homecoming was during KnightMUN, so we didn't go.  That left GatorMUN or FHSMUN.  These were all multi-night conferences.  Since Michele and I usually room together and she could only go to FHSMUN, we opted for the FHSMUN conference so that I would have a back-up person if I needed one.

Coach in front of the Hilton Altamonte Springs sign.

We were taking two vans to Altamonte Springs, which is on the other side of Orlando, for this tournament which was going to take place in the Altamonte Springs Hilton. I would like to add a little note here that if you need to stay somewhere with your guide dog puppy, that choosing a Hilton would be an excellent idea.  When we arrived with nine students, four adults and one black goldadore and all of us trooped in through the doors (Tim had already checked us in) and decamped in the lobby for Tim to hand out keys, as kids started to peel out and head for their rooms, Michele and I and Coach became more and more visible. Yet at no time did one hotel employee do anything but smile and look welcoming.  In fact, the entire time we have been here, every employee has been friendly, welcoming and happy to see us. I highly recommend the Hilton.

Coach did great on the elevators (he's an old hand at elevators) and he was very excited to see the room.  He also enjoyed the full length mirror, but not as much as some other puppies have in the past. Because we usually do this trip in Oct, when we have a tiny puppy, we bring a crate for the puppy to sleep in.  This time we just had Coach on a tie down.  So the first night was quite a trip.

It began with Coach being a little confused about where was Fred? Because when he goes to bed at home he usually sleeps on Fred's side of the bed when he is on tie-down.  When we turned off the lights, Coach went into high alert.  Uh oh.  That's not good.  The light was streaming in under the hotel hallway door and shadows could be seen walking past the door.  Coach was watching.  Intently. Then someone went into their room. We could hear the door shut. Click.

Coach let out a loud big boy bark. EEEP went my heart.

"No! No noise Coach."

"Down."  I tried to get Coach to go down, which is very hard to do when you are lying in bed, yet half leaning out over the side of the bed trying to grab the leash and give a correction.  Hmm.

Coach jumped up into a sit. The air conditioner had just turned off with a thump!  Coach let out a half hearted mini-bark.  In my head all the people in our hallway had just poked their heads out and were talking to each other:

"Did you hear that dog?"

"It's coming from room 626!"

"We should call the front desk and tell on them."

"It's outrageous!!"

This is worse than the ukelele playing kid in the elevator!  And what the hell was he up to?  And where was his high school advisor?  And what were they thinking allowing him to bring a ukelele? Seriously! Oh, back to barking...What should I do?  Would I ever get to sleep?  Would he ever calm down?  Would people ever quit walking up and down the freaking hallway?

Wait a minute.  We have extra pillows! I got up and turned on the obnoxiously bright lights and took the multitude of extra pillows that they stuffed onto our bed and pushed them under the door so that all the light and sound was blocked out. Problem solved!

Photo of the three pillows stuffed at the foot of the door.

Coach sitting by the side of the road.

Coach relaxed and went down. I relaxed and went to sleep.

Tomorrow: Dinner at Cafe Murano and puking.

Don't forget! If you have been following the blog for a while and you have a favorite post, you have an opportunity to to nominate it for your favorite pet blog for the 2^nd Annual BlogPaws “Nose-to-Nose” Social Media Pet Blogging Awards!  March 8th is the deadline.  Click on the following categories to submit an entry:

1. Best Blog Design
2. Best Blog Writing
3. Best Humor Blog
4. Best Bark Blog
5. Best Meow Blog
6. Best Wiggle Blog
7. Best New Blog
8. Best Cause Blog
9. Best Video on a Blog
10. Best Photo on a Blog
11. Best Facebook Design
12. Best Twitter Design

You will need to know: 

Blog owner: CD McLean

Blog Address: http://mcleanpup.blogspot.com

Blog owner's email address: mcleacd@gmail.com 

Announcing the 2013 BlogPaws "Nose-to-Nose" Social Media and Pet Blogging Awards!

Nominations for the BlogPaws Nose-to-Nose Social Media Blogging Awards opened this week!

Hello McLean Puppy Chronicle Readers.  If you have been following the blog for a while and you have a favorite post, you have an opportunity to to nominate it for your favorite pet blog for the 2^nd Annual BlogPaws “Nose-to-Nose” Social Media Pet Blogging Awards!

The “Nose-to-Nose” Awards is the only awards program in which pet bloggers and microbloggers are judged on their expertise, creativity, and performance in one or more of 12 categories.  The entries are then judged by a panel of experts, so it is not whether someone gets a lot of votes (popularity), it is whether the writing or design is amazing.

So if you have a favorite dog or cat or ferret or rabbit blog, please vote for them.  There are many categories, so there can be many, many winners!

Here are the categories:

1. Best Blog Design
2. Best Blog Writing
3. Best Humor Blog
4. Best Bark Blog
5. Best Meow Blog
6. Best Wiggle Blog
7. Best New Blog
8. Best Cause Blog
9. Best Video on a Blog
10. Best Photo on a Blog
11. Best Facebook Design
12. Best Twitter Design

Finalists will be announced on or about March 15th and the winners will be awarded during a live red carpet awards ceremony on Saturday, May 18th at the BlogPaws 2013 conference in Tysons Corner, VA. 

And if you feel Coach is worthy, he would be so happy, if you were to nominate his blog.  If you do, here is the info you will need (along with a big kiss from Coach!)!

• Blog Homepage:  http://mcleanpup.blogspot.com

• Contact Name for Blog Owner: CD McLean

• Contact Email for Blog Owner:  mcleacd@gmail.com

But don't delay!!  Nominations open at 12:00 PM EST on Wednesday, February 27^th, 2013 - and close at 3:00 PM EST on Friday, March 8^th. 

Girl Scouts

By Fred
Last night Cheryl and I took Coach to a girl scout meeting along with eight or nine other puppies and their puppy raisers, all stuffed into a small room that was filled with the type of kinetic, silly energy that only puppies and girl scouts can generate.

A photo of girl scouts in the back, my wanna-be-a-girl-scout wife grinning impressively and posing with Coach in the middle, and some other puppies and puppy raisers

Then add the fact that at least two of our group's puppies are males almost 1 year old and still not fixed (Coach and Coastie). And at least one of the female dogs had really caught their attention, severely so, making them even more stupid than human teenagers.

The girls were sweet, and several of them asked for Coach's "card" (he has his own business cards).

Later we played doggie tic-tac-toe, where the dogs are supposed to sit in the squares like Xs (the black labs) and Os (the yellows), but the aforementioned hormones and pheromones had all the dogs distracted until the Xs and Os were all mixed up and scrambling into other squares until the games had to be declared a draw. Even our good-boy Couch could not sit still for a minute, if that can be believed. But it was all big fun.

Here's the closing ceremony.