Tashi's Web Photo and Storybook

January 6 -- Hey Guess What??!?!? One of the family members that my sister, Theda, works for got in touch with Stan. Stan told me that my sister also has her very own blog. Theda works as a skilled companion for a boy named Sam. Sam and Theda graduated from CCI's Northeast region in May of 2008, just after our second birthday. That's my sister in the top picture. This picture was taken during her team training. While I was reading my sister's blog I found out she had some pictures of our mom, Beth, and all of us pups when we just newborn puppies before our eyes even opened. That's our family in the second picture. Theda says on her blog that her puppy collar color was blue, so that means that she was the second pup born in our litter. I asked her what her CCI tatto number is, so then I should be able to figure out what my collar color was. I also heard that my sister Tamika, who is a breeder for CCI just recently had her second litter of pups. She had 12 puppies this time. Way to go, sis!! It sure is fun to be able to catch up on the rest of the family and see some old pictures of when I was little.

Stan says we are going to go see his parents soon and while we are there he is going to take me to play with another CCI graduate dog, a skilled companion named Karis. It will be so much fun to play with another CCI dog, I'm sure Karis and I will have a blast. I'll have to tell you about it when we get back.

January 20 -- Theda told me her tatto number, and based on that and my tatto number my collar color would have been light pink. Stan and I are back from visiting his parents last week. Our first night there was very exciting. Stan and I went to his parent's church and did a CCI presentation. There were about two dozen people there, half of them elementary school age kids and the rest were adults who normally help out and some who were interested in seeing me and hearing about CCI and what I do for Stan. They came especially for that. Stan showed them the "Making Miracles Happen" DVD from CCI and told them all about my orange leash and how it means that the person who is with a dog and using a leash like that is either deaf or has some kind of trouble hearing, just like someone using a white cane means they have trouble seeing. Stan also brought my timer along so I could show everyone how I alert Stan. Then after Stan was finished talking he took my vest off and gave me a "release" so I was able to go visit with all the kids and get lots of petting. There were supposed to be some deaf people that wanted to come and see us, but we found out about an hour before we went over that they had caught some kind of virus and had just come back from the doctor so they couldn't come see our presentation. After all the kids (and adults) had a chance to pet me, Stan put my vest back on and one of the girls who was there took a picture of me and Stan, and also some pictures of me with some of the other kids and finally Stan took a picture of me and her together.

As if the pets from the kids wasn't good enough, on Friday Stan took me to Karis' house to play. We had great fun running around in Karis' yard and playing Labrador games. While we were there I got to meet Karis' partner, a very nice boy named Wyatt. The other thing I found out is that Karis and I are half-sisters!! We both have the same mom, Beth. Karis is about a year older than I am, and she graduated in August of 2007. Karis works hard for her boy just like I do for Stan, but we both had a great time just running around the yard and being Labradors. Some other news I just found out is that one of my sister Tamika's pups is going to get to grow up in Colorado in the same city where she grew up.