(no subject)
It has been almost two months since I had the energy/time/focus/will/interest to try to update y'all about what's been happening with me, Billy and Gypsy.
We are all doing well enough, Gypsy is settling into retirement and Billy continues to amaze me with his awesomeness.
A little bit more than a month ago, Billy and I went on a road trip to South Carolina.
My friend Kate had to move back to Hawaii to await the return of her husband who has been deployed for quite some time. She packed up all of her things into flat rate shipping boxes and a few suitcases, shoved everything into her car along with me, three dogs, a cat and a mouse that had escaped in her car about a week prior. We knew devil mouse was still in the car because it stank to high heaven!
Her GPS wasn't working so we had to take mine. When driving from CT to points south, there are a number of ways to go. Kate was living right on the NY line, just north of Danbury, so we felt the fastest way to go was to take the Tappan Zee Bridge. The other option was to go south to the George Washington Bridge and drive through New York traffic. So we plugged the final destination into my GPS unit and headed out.
My GPS is obsessed with the GW. Obsessed. Right away it wanted us to go that way, and really on the map it's a shorter distance because it dumps you right onto the New Jersey Turnpike, but it takes longer because of traffic. So we go the way we know to the Tappan Zee. Every single exit we past, my poor GPS would plead and beg and cry for us to come to our senses and head south to the GW. It kept doing this all the way to the Tappan Zee, and even tried to convince us to get off on the last exit on the approach to the bridge. We could SEE the bridge, and it wanted to go over the GW. Finally when we were half way over it sighed and accepted that we were going our own way. It got back at us latter when we were driving through Manassas, VA and wanted to get Subway for lunch . .. . we drove about forty minuets out of the way just to get lunch!
We did the whole drive in one day (about 14 hours). We had planned to stop in VA to get a hotel for the night, but I was still going strong and Kate hadn't even had a turn at the wheel yet so we pressed on to Richmond and then to North Carolina. About half way through NC we encountered a storm (it had been cloudy/rainy all day). The storm quickly became a hurricane with golf ball sized hail in some places (lucky for us never where we were). We just kept driving along, sometimes faster than others, and soon enough we were in South Carolina. Her parents lived not that far from the high way so soon enough we were there and finally able to get some sleep.
We drove on a Wednesday and spent all day Thursday driving around and being tourists and checking out where Kate went to college.
We visited this neat old fort that I can't remember the name of. And of course, we had to put our dogs on something to take a picture . . . cuz that's what we do.
And we took pictures of each other. And I'm fat. Kate is skinny.
Then we stopped for lunch at this wicked awesome taco joint and I had the BEST taco of my life. It had mango and all sorts of other things on it, but mostly mango. The boys got water. Typically when I eat at a restaurant I polity refuse anyone who offers to get water for my service dog. The restaurant is not obligated in anyway to provide water for my dog and I don't really want there to be a mess. But it was hot out, there were not to many other patrons and Billy was clearly thirsty so I allowed it.
Notice how so far I haven't said a word about Billy's behavior or training? The reason why is because I have nothing to say! He is completely over his fear of the car. He showed no hesitation getting in our out at all the whole trip. He went places he had never been and showed no worry at all. It's like he suddenly realized that he has a job to do and nothing was going to eat him.
The next day (Friday) we went out to meet up with someone we only knew through face book service dog groups. She has a Standard Poodle service dog named Bravo.
We went to an aquarium that was so much fun. And as usual, a picture of the dogs:
Billy was a little more reserved this day. He has a problem with the noise made by refrigerators and other low hum noises. We are working on it, but an aquarium is basically one big hum noise. He did good and followed all commands and had moments of relaxation, but he did tremble and shake a bit whenever we stopped moving.
We visited the Lemurs first. Dixon was fascinated by them.
We watched them for a while until it became clear they were becoming agitated by the dogs and we moved on. I feel conflicted about bringing my service dog around caged wild animals in a setting like this. So I do my best to observe everyone's stress levels and create distance when it's called for.
There was a bald eagle that watched us walk by but barely moved.
And, of course, lots of people that were curious about the service dogs. We all try to be good ambassadors, but sometimes . . .
The otters were curious,
and the gators didn't even notice we were there.
All in all it was a lovely day with lots of challenges and successes. Billy and I worked on some of his basic positioning skills and he gave a wonderful alert while we were watching them feed the fish in the big tank. We sat there for a while and he snuggled in my lap, let out a deep breath and chilled.
Saturday morning at o-dark-early I rolled out of bed and packed my bag and set off for Billy's first plane ride. I would tell you all about it here, but I think this post is long enough.
For the continuing adventures of Kit and Billy (and Gypsy too) please tune in sometime later today or tomorrow.
We are all doing well enough, Gypsy is settling into retirement and Billy continues to amaze me with his awesomeness.
A little bit more than a month ago, Billy and I went on a road trip to South Carolina.
My friend Kate had to move back to Hawaii to await the return of her husband who has been deployed for quite some time. She packed up all of her things into flat rate shipping boxes and a few suitcases, shoved everything into her car along with me, three dogs, a cat and a mouse that had escaped in her car about a week prior. We knew devil mouse was still in the car because it stank to high heaven!
Her GPS wasn't working so we had to take mine. When driving from CT to points south, there are a number of ways to go. Kate was living right on the NY line, just north of Danbury, so we felt the fastest way to go was to take the Tappan Zee Bridge. The other option was to go south to the George Washington Bridge and drive through New York traffic. So we plugged the final destination into my GPS unit and headed out.
My GPS is obsessed with the GW. Obsessed. Right away it wanted us to go that way, and really on the map it's a shorter distance because it dumps you right onto the New Jersey Turnpike, but it takes longer because of traffic. So we go the way we know to the Tappan Zee. Every single exit we past, my poor GPS would plead and beg and cry for us to come to our senses and head south to the GW. It kept doing this all the way to the Tappan Zee, and even tried to convince us to get off on the last exit on the approach to the bridge. We could SEE the bridge, and it wanted to go over the GW. Finally when we were half way over it sighed and accepted that we were going our own way. It got back at us latter when we were driving through Manassas, VA and wanted to get Subway for lunch . .. . we drove about forty minuets out of the way just to get lunch!
We did the whole drive in one day (about 14 hours). We had planned to stop in VA to get a hotel for the night, but I was still going strong and Kate hadn't even had a turn at the wheel yet so we pressed on to Richmond and then to North Carolina. About half way through NC we encountered a storm (it had been cloudy/rainy all day). The storm quickly became a hurricane with golf ball sized hail in some places (lucky for us never where we were). We just kept driving along, sometimes faster than others, and soon enough we were in South Carolina. Her parents lived not that far from the high way so soon enough we were there and finally able to get some sleep.
We drove on a Wednesday and spent all day Thursday driving around and being tourists and checking out where Kate went to college.
We visited this neat old fort that I can't remember the name of. And of course, we had to put our dogs on something to take a picture . . . cuz that's what we do.
And we took pictures of each other. And I'm fat. Kate is skinny.
Then we stopped for lunch at this wicked awesome taco joint and I had the BEST taco of my life. It had mango and all sorts of other things on it, but mostly mango. The boys got water. Typically when I eat at a restaurant I polity refuse anyone who offers to get water for my service dog. The restaurant is not obligated in anyway to provide water for my dog and I don't really want there to be a mess. But it was hot out, there were not to many other patrons and Billy was clearly thirsty so I allowed it.
Notice how so far I haven't said a word about Billy's behavior or training? The reason why is because I have nothing to say! He is completely over his fear of the car. He showed no hesitation getting in our out at all the whole trip. He went places he had never been and showed no worry at all. It's like he suddenly realized that he has a job to do and nothing was going to eat him.
The next day (Friday) we went out to meet up with someone we only knew through face book service dog groups. She has a Standard Poodle service dog named Bravo.
We went to an aquarium that was so much fun. And as usual, a picture of the dogs:
Billy was a little more reserved this day. He has a problem with the noise made by refrigerators and other low hum noises. We are working on it, but an aquarium is basically one big hum noise. He did good and followed all commands and had moments of relaxation, but he did tremble and shake a bit whenever we stopped moving.
We visited the Lemurs first. Dixon was fascinated by them.
We watched them for a while until it became clear they were becoming agitated by the dogs and we moved on. I feel conflicted about bringing my service dog around caged wild animals in a setting like this. So I do my best to observe everyone's stress levels and create distance when it's called for.
There was a bald eagle that watched us walk by but barely moved.
And, of course, lots of people that were curious about the service dogs. We all try to be good ambassadors, but sometimes . . .
The otters were curious,
and the gators didn't even notice we were there.
All in all it was a lovely day with lots of challenges and successes. Billy and I worked on some of his basic positioning skills and he gave a wonderful alert while we were watching them feed the fish in the big tank. We sat there for a while and he snuggled in my lap, let out a deep breath and chilled.
Saturday morning at o-dark-early I rolled out of bed and packed my bag and set off for Billy's first plane ride. I would tell you all about it here, but I think this post is long enough.
For the continuing adventures of Kit and Billy (and Gypsy too) please tune in sometime later today or tomorrow.