Tashi's Web Photo and Storybook

Another day this week while Stan was letting me "hurry" in the grass, we saw the same lady we had passed by on the walking path a few months ago that read my vest and signed to Stan "nice dog!". This time she stopped and came up to Stan and began asking in ASL and english, "What does a hearing dog do? How do they work?" Stan told her (both by speaking and signing, which is good practice for Stan) all about how I alert to specific sounds that Stan can't hear. The lady told Stan about her friend who is deaf that she works with and asked Stan about some specific sounds. She wanted to know if I alerted Stan to those sounds or if another CCI hearing dog like me could alert her friend to them. Stan explained that I don't alert him to all the sounds she asked about, but I could if we practiced them together and that a CCI hearing dog could alert her friend to them. Stan gave her a brochure about CCI from my vest and she was going to take it to show to her friend. She thought her friend could be helped by a CCI hearing dog, and she was going to encourage her to contact CCI about one.

Since today is mother's day, Stan and Becky did what has become their usual mother's day outing. Becky races in the Jay Benson Triathlon and Stan spectates. This year was my first time to join them, of course. They both saw some friends they hadn't seen in a while and enjoyed telling them about me. I got petted by them all, which I enjoyed a lot. While Becky was out on the run course during the race, one of the race volunteers came up to Stan and I and started a conversation with, "Oh, a Canine Companion dog, huh?" Stan answered yes and explained that I was his hearing dog from CCI. The man went on to explain that he lives in Colorado and works at a Target store there. He then went on to tell us the story about a friend of his who does Ironman® triathlons. He told us that about three years ago, during 2006, he helped his friend do eight Ironmans. He then said it was actually six in that year, but he did one at the end of 2005 and another at the beginning of 2007. Next he told us he did them to raise funds for CCI!!! According to this guy his friend raised a total of about $25,000 for CCI and got to name a puppy. He went on to tell us that the puppy he named was being raised in Colorado in the same area where he lived and that the local CCI puppy raisers sometimes bring in their puppies to the store where he works to help socialize and train them how to act in a retail store. He told us that he told this story to one of the puppy raisers one day and the puppy that was with them was the puppy that his friend had named, so he got to meet the puppy that his friend named. He seemed really happy to meet Stan and I as a working team.

I don't think I've really said a whole lot about how CCI works as far as breeding, raising, and placing us dogs with the people we help. The lastest figures I remember hearing are that it takes over $50,000 to breed, raise, train, place, and provide follow up support for one of us dogs with a partner. CCI does not charge our partners for these costs, nor do they require our partners to solicit any donations or do any kind of fundraising. They rely completely on everyday people and businesses who are willing to make donations, or raise a puppy.

May 19 -- Last Tuesday, May 12, was my third birthday. To celebrate Becky baked a cake and decorated it. Of course as you can see in the picture it wasn't a cake that I could eat. But since my birthday was right in the middle of the work week, Stan took the cake to work and sent out an e-mail to several of the people he works with. Several of them came by to wish me happy birthday and have a piece of cake. That means that whenever one of them knocked on the door, I got kibble and petting. So it turned out to be a good deal for me even though I couldn't eat the cake. Stan says that later this week he should get a chance to stop by the dog bakery and get a dog cake that I can eat. Sounds like fun especially since it involves eating. The other thing that Stan found out on my birthday was just how many brothers and sisters I have. We sure kept mom busy back three years ago. I have 13 brothers and sisters. Yep, mom gave birth to 14 of us puppies that day. One of my sisters, Tamika, is a breeder for CCI, three of us became Skilled Companion Dogs, Theda, Traisa, and Trieste, and three of us Thionie, Thyme, and me, of course, became hearing dogs. The other 7 chose to do other things. Tioga II, Tyzer, Tenzie, Tahla, Tawny II, Taryn and Tanith II. I heard that Tenzie is ready to become a Delta Pet Partner. Her person just has to do some paperwork or something.

This past Thursday, Stan took me over to visit one of the local puppy raisers at their house. It was Cadence's house. Another CCI released dog lives there, too. Her name is Lori. Stan ended up leaving me there all weekend. At first I wasn't too sure what to think. Stan had left me at home in my kennel occasionally so it wasn't completely new for us to be apart. But when I got up the next morning and Stan still wasn't around I wondered about that a bit. When I got my usual breakfast and had a chance to play with Cadence and Lori, I decided that this "vacation" that I had heard Stan mention when we got to their house wasn't such a bad thing.

Stan says he and Becky went to a place called Carlsbad Caverns. They went through several of the tours inside the caves. Just as Stan had thought before they left, he told me the tours they went on weren't appropriate or safe for him to bring a dog like me along. There were some parts that would have been OK, but they did a lot of other stuff. I had fun at Cadence and Lori's house, so it's OK with me that I got a vacation at a different place. Cadence and Lori played a game with a ball that I didn't understand, but they also had a small pool. I don't remember seeing anything exactly like this before, so I was a bit cautious at first, but then discovered it was great fun to splash around in and play with the toys in the water. Here are some pictures of me playing with Cadence in the pool.

The other thing that Cadence's foster mom noticed while I was staying with them was how well I do things like "heel" and "let's go". They had one of their regular CCI puppy classes this past weekend while I was there so I got to show all of the other CCI puppies and their raisers how well I can do those commands.

May 25 -- This past Wednesday Stan noticed my right eye started discharging more "gunk" than normal. By Thursday morning it was discharging not only a lot more stuff, but it was also watery from tears and I was trying to wipe it myself with my paw. When we got to work, Stan called the vet and they made an appointment for me for that day. After Dr. Janeen finished examining my eye, she determined that it was conjunctivitus or a case of doggie pink eye. Kind of a normal eye infection for us dogs to get according to her. She gave Stan some medicine to put on my eye three times a day for five days. My eye already seems normal again, but Stan has to keep putting the medicine on until Tuesday. While we were there, Stan asked her to put a microchip in me. That stung a little bit, but I didn't cry or anything. It mostly just surprised me when she stuck me. Stan has all the paperwork for registering my chip number ready to put in the mail when they pick it up tomorrow. Then Dr. Janeen decided that I needed to have another heartworm test since I hadn't had one since Dr. Ruth at CCI did one when Cindy and Jenny brought me back there in November 2007. So, I got stuck again for Dr. Janeen to draw a little bit of blood. Dr. Janeen had one of her assistants there to help hold me still and keep me from jumping when I got stuck. That wasn't necessary, the little stick from that wasn't a surprise to me this time, and I held nice and still while Dr. Janeen did what she needed. Dr. Janeen and Stan were both really surprised at how good I was. Stan gave Dr. Janeen a treat to give me for being so good. The heartworm test was negative, so I don't have to worry about that. Also Stan asked Dr. Janeen to get some medicine for me to keep fleas, ticks, and parasites (including heartworms) from bothering or biting me.

Just like Stan said, I got some dog cake for my birthday. Here are some pictures of me having my dog cake. Don't worry about the stuff that looks like chocolate on the cake. It's actually carob, which looks like chocolate but it is safe for us dogs. It was peanut butter flavored and I really like it.

May 29 -- Today Stan and I went to welcome a new CCI puppy to Albuquerque. Her name is Norma. Amy is her puppy raiser. Norma is her second puppy. Her first puppy, Samantha was turned in to CCI back on the 16th of this month. Norma seems like a very sweet girl. She is very calm and likes to snuggle and chew on things. While we were all together with Norma, I was laying on the grass and wagged my tail a little bit. Norma was interested in it and when I stopped wagging it, Norma grabbed a hold of it and started chewing. Little puppy teeth are sharp, but it didn't hurt. I just pulled my tail away from her and stood up and turned around toward her. Here is a picture of me saying hi to Norma shortly after Amy let her out of her kennel for the first time. Also here is a picture of Amy and Karen (who I stayed with a couple of weeks ago) saying hi to Norma.

The other thing Stan and I did today was buy me a pool. Stan let me play in it a while this afternoon after we got back home. The water gets kind of muddy pretty quick when I jump in and out chasing the ball or just splash a time or two and then jump out and play zoom butt.