11.09.09
Loyola’s Famous :)
Well at least in Tulare,CA! Here is an article about Loyola (now Lola) and her new partner: Tulare Woman Welcomes New Guide Dog
10.25.09
Jessa
This past weekend we had Jessa. She is what is considered a soft or sensitive puppy. She’s a really sweet dog, but has some issues that all the dogs we have puppy-sat before haven’t had. It takes her 10-20 minutes in a new situation to “calm” down and finally be able to relax. We usually are able to trust a dog enough to let them be downstairs not on tie down. After two episodes of keep away and putting her paws on the counter in the kitchen, she has been on tie down the whole weekend. I think she was trying to see what she could get away with. I promise we did have some fun outings (pictures below) so it wasn’t too rough for her. She’s great once she calms down but during her moments, it’s like someone gave her straight sugar for breakfast! Here she is working hard:
I couldn’t help but laugh when she was spread out like this: 
Saturday morning we met up with another club for a Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze outing. We actually left Jessa with another leader while we took their dog Lipton through the Corn Maze because we thought it might stress her out too much. In the other club, is her sister Joyful so of course, I had to get a picture of the two at the Pumpkin Patch! 
With that, I’m debating about switching back over to Blogspot. I originally had my blog there and am thinking about returning. For some reason though, I’m having problems importing from WordPress to Blogspot. I’m also thinking about separating to different blogs (one that isn’t about Guide Dogs and one that is). I would just like to post recipes and random things which I’m not sure people would like to read about! 
Any suggestions from my readers? Hope you all have a great week!
10.24.09
Simmons Graduation
I promise this is my last post of the evening Once I’m in the mood, it’s hard to stop me!
Shortly after Loyola graduated, I got word that Simmons was in class! He seemed to be hanging out in Phase 8 for what seemed like a REALLY long time. He is now living in Canada with a younger guy who is very active (which is great for Simmons). He has a special rain jacket and booties for the snow. How cool is that eh? I wasn’t able to attend his graduation either and I haven’t seen any pictures of him in harness. Hoepfully I’ll be able to upload one soon.
My next post will be about Jessa who is the sister of lovely Ms. Janda
Construction, Robots, & Topeka
The middle of September we decided it was time to redo the floors. Mr. Charming and I are not DIY people and our house has a lot of weird angles so we left the installation up to the professionals. We put in wood called Duraplank throughout the bottom floor and Duraceramic tile in all the bathrooms and laundry room. We didn’t replace the carpet upstairs or on the stairs because it really isn’t worn that much. Needless to say, we love it! The wood is a composite so the dogs can run every where and won’t scratch it. The tile is also warmer to walk on which is the biggest plus for me. Here are a couple of pictures of the final product.
Formal Living Room:
Dining Room:
Family Room:
Kitchen:
Downstairs Bathroom/Laundry Room:
Of course, when doing something on the house, there is always to be more to it than not. In this case, we ended up re-doing the tile around the fireplace in the living room (we have two fireplaces which I don’t know why, but we do!) We actually saved a lot of money by paying the installers direct instead of through the place where we bought the materials. There is my little frugal tip for you! We had planned on doing the floors but the Friday before the install was to begin, we ended up getting our roof replaced (no, that was not planned). We had a leak in our bathroom that kept getting worse even after Mr. Charming had tried to fix it numerous times. Our house is at the point where we probably would have had to replace it in the next couple of years so we just bit the bullet and did it. Now that all the construction work is done, it feels like a brand new house!
I also got a robot named Eva (like how Wall-E says it!) She does an amazing job especially on the new floors. She’s a little quirky, but I still love her.
After all of this, we got Topeka for a weekend while her raising family went to Hawaii. I think she didn’t know what she was missing out on. Here are a couple of pictures of her (she turned 1 year not too long ago). The first one is at work:
I don’t understand how that can be comfortable.
Topeka in her jacket.
Topeka will be the next puppy heading back from our club. 
Welcome Marlin!
The middle/end of September we welcomed a new member to our club! His name is Marlin and well, I think he is such an adorable little guy. He is being raised by the family who raised Lomita. Last Saturday we had him for the day and I think he was the youngest puppy we have ever puppy sat at 13 weeks old. Here he is at 8 weeks: 
How can you not love that face!!??!
Here is another picture of him at 13 weeks (last weekend): 
I can’t wait to see him grow up
First Graduation-Loyola
This post is so far overdue! It seems like this past month has gone by way too fast. Loyola graduated over a month ago and here I am FINALLY posting. I ended up not going to the graduation. We were in the middle of getting new floors installed and it would have been a 3 hour drive each way. Plus, I wasn’t sure how much I would even be able to see Loyola since I hadn’t helped raise her. Thankfully, I was able to get some pictures from Anna (THANK YOU!) and Loyola’s raisers. She was placed with a wonderful lady who is 89 years old. Yes, you read that right! She has been in contact with the raising family since then about all the wonder things they are doing together. Here are some pictures of the girl in her harness:
I’m so proud of her for becoming a working guide!
09.03.09
She’s Graduating!!
I got the email this afternoon that Loyola is IN CLASS!! I have to admit, I had a HUGE smile on my face and feel so proud of her!! She’s graduating on the 19th of September which is a really bad weekend for us. I feel if I don’t go though, I’ll regret it even more as it might be my last time to see her.
What to do…
08.28.09
California Fun Days ‘09
It was my first time down at the California Campus and I’ve decided I’m moving down there. Okay, not really but I loved it down there. I was able to meet Taelor and Pilaf and Elizabeth and Peyton! It’s always wonderful to meet the people (and the dogs) that you have read so much about. I also picked up a tee-shirt from Cabana’s club. I was amazed at how many people were there and how many more puppies were passed out than at the Oregon Fun Days. Here are a bunch of pictures I took. Let’s start at the entrance:
Looking to your left once entering.
Vender Booths which were actually in the back right hand corner of the campus.
Time to enter the place where all the fun happens!
First stop is the newly rennovated kennels.
Their outside playground.
This dog LOVED having his picture taken.
Then we move on to grooming and food prep.
Next up we have the Vet’s Office. They have nice reception area and a couple of exam rooms though the most interesting part is where they do the operations.
At the back is where the whelping kennel is at. We weren’t allowed to go in there, but they did have a live feed of some LITTLE puppies. They are kind of hard to see because they are yellow, but so small and cute.
Next up, we have some 8 week old puppies out playing and hanging out in their kennels.
At this point I almost took a puppy home
Once outside, we talked to one of the head trainers where we saw the back of one of the training vans they would take down town. It’s fully equipped with air conditioning so while the dogs are waiting for their turn, they don’t get hot.
Finally was the littermate meetings! I was able to meet ALL of Topekas’ siblings. Too bad Topeka wasn’t there or it would have been a total sibling reunion. I have no idea what order they are in but we have Tallulah, Tara, Toledo, Trevor, Trishna, Tropic, and Tulsa.
I found it kind of interesting that almost all her siblings were in haltis. Also, a little hint for next year and littermate pictures. Try and line them up fron left to right by name order. That way when going back through pictures, you know who is who!
Next up we have a couple of more Donatas’ siblings. There is Dexter in Blue (M), Dot in Yellow (F), and Dubai in Pink (F).
I also got to meet Donata’s mom, Petal. She’s a beautiful Golden.
As you can see, we had a wonderful time and can’t wait to go next year!
08.27.09
Hanging Out
Loyola is still hangin’ in Phase 10 and Simmons in Phase 8. They must really like college I’ve decided.
I still need to update about San Francisco and Fun Days in California. I have both posts typed up, but my Flickr account is almost to the limit and I was too lazy tonight to re-size my pictures. I promise I’ll get to them posted soon.
08.24.09
Oregon Fun Days ‘09
There is a reason they call it Fun Days! I was able to meet Anna and Avani which was super fun! I had a few people ask me what the Oregon Campus looks like because they have never been so I tried to get some picture this year. It’s apparently a smaller campus, but more spread out than California so it feels bigger. First off we have the famous wall.
The play area between kennels:
Inside the kennels:
The area they bathe the dogs. Don’t mind the cat (I think his name is Chester)
I was also happy to see Loyola’s name up on the board. I am not sure why they have her as a male though. I miss that girl.
Here are two other pictures from the day. Here is Donata on the left sporting her lei and Topeka on the right. 
Finally we have some of Donatas’ sisters! From L to R: Damara, Dotty, Donata 
And just for Poppy, your brothers Pacifico on the left and Pronto on the right.
Ohhh and Mr. Charming and I made it on the Oregon Campus Fun Day pictures with Donata. We are pretty much famous now.
