NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

I am resting comfortably contemplating my bones, after watching the ball drop last night.  So I thought I should make some good resolutions for the New Year.

So here they are:

1.  I will respect all of the dogs at the dog park and on my walks.  (Especially when they are bigger than me!)

And when they have disabilities, like only three legs.

And even when they are shy.

2.  I will be good to all my Aunties, 'cuz Aunties take good care of you.  And sometimes Aunties need me to make them feel good too!

3.  I will work hard for the kids who depend on me to be a good Therapy Dog.

4.  I will go to the vet when I need to (even though I hate to go to the vet).

5.  I will do my yoga excercises so that I will be fit and trim (and the vet will not yell at me for weighing too much.)

6.  I will learn how to use the Doggie Door so Mom doesn't have to get up every ten minutes when I think I want to go out and then I come back in right away.  (That's frowned upon in our house.) 

7.  I will play and relax so that I can work hard for the little kids and do all my other resolutions. 

I think that's enough New Year's Resolutions.  I might have to pare it down.  Maybe I could put off #6 until next year? 

Hope you have some good resolutions.  And I hope you can keep them all.  Have a great 2017 and keep in touch!

Love, G

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukka & Everything Else!

It's actually the day after Christmas.   So I can tell you about all of it, including my lesson with the Elementary School kids.

We went to see them on Tuesday.  There were only four of them there 'cuz the 3rd grade was on a field trip.   So we had 4 fourth graders.  One of the boys came up and said hello to me, just the way he was taught.  He asked Mom first if it was OK, and when she said yes, he held out his hand to touch me under the chin.  It felt so good.  And he was really cute.  I couldn't help myself.  I kissed him on the nose.  He spent the rest of the session petting my back.  At the same time as he was doing the project Mom had for him.

They were all pretty stoked about decorating frames.  I was kinda worried, 'cuz they were all boys.  But Mom told them they could make something as a gift for someone they loved, since this was the giving season.  Then she told them that they could have a picture taken with ME in it.  Then they got really excited.  That made me feel good, that they would like to have me in their picture. 

I knew I had to do a good job for them.  So every time one of them came and sat down to be photographed.  I sat straight as an arrow and looked right at the camera (well, I guess I was looking at Mom who was standing right behind the camera).  I didn't move until the flash went off.  I'm a pro at posing for pictures, you know.

A good time was had by all!

Then we had Christmas at home.  Mom and Dad had their traditional holiday fare:  Steak and Grilled Lobster Tail.  That's what they had at Thanksgiving, too.  I don't really like that stuff, 'cuz nothing ever falls on the ground when they have it.  I like when they have things like pineapples and blueberries that fall off the counter. 

But I can't complain 'cuz they filled my stocking with lots of goodies and I ate them all and then tried to eat my stocking.  Mom took it away pretty quick.  She says we need to keep it for next year.  Why can't she just buy me a new stocking next year?  It was tasting pretty good since their were lots of crumbs left in the bottom of the toe. 

Well I'm tired.  It's been an exhausting Holiday.  I hope you all had good Christmases and are having a good Hannukka and if you celebrate different holidays, may they also be happy.

Love, G

Lesson Plan

I am going back to my Elementary children this week.  So Mom and I have to come up with a lesson plan.  We are supposed to do something to help these kids develop certain "Core Competencies".  There are 7 of them.  Attachment, Empathy, Self Regulation, Affiliation, Respect, Confidence and Tolerance.

We have a big tote bag full of fun things to do.  Mom set them all out to decide what we should do.

She asked me to come over and help her decide which of the activities we should do.

I wasn't having anything to do with that.  I was afraid that if I picked up any of those fun things, I would be in trouble.  You remember how I got into trouble when I picked up a book of Mom's and tried to read (eat) it?  And the golf glove that tasted so good going in (but not so fun coming out)?  I sure remember those things and I'm not about to do something like that with these things.  Not happenin'!

Instead, I sat down and talked to Mom about what would be good to do.  I reminded her it was almost Christmas.  So we decided to let the children decorate some fun frames.  Like the purple flower thing in this picture.  Then we would borrow the Polaroid Camera to take pictures of each of the kids.  They would have something nice to give to someone they love for Christmas.

What is a Polaroid Camera?, I asked my Mom.  She told me that long long ago before I was ever born, they had cameras that printed out pictures right on the spot.  She said she didn't even know they existed still, but apparently they have become quite popular.  They even sell them on Amazon.com, that's how popular they are.    I think my students are going to have a good time when we go see them. 

But I asked Mom, how this was going to develop some of those Core Competencies?  She said, "Well there are a number of things.  First they'll have to decide who gets which frames so they will have to be Tolerant of each other.  Then they'll make a pretty frame for their pictures and hopefully develop more Confidence.  Then we'll let them take a picture with you, G, so they will have to Respect you or you won't sit with them, will you?  And finally, I have some Christmas stories about a puppy dog that will teach them about Empathy.  What do you think, G?"

I told her I thought it would work very well.  I think my students will have a good time and learn lots of good stuff.  I can't wait to go.

Love, G

PS  I'll tell you all about it later.

Thanksgiving

I got to spend Thanksgiving with Mrs. J and 3 other pets.  And then I got to spend Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad!  That's a lot to be thankful for, don't you think?

Here's how it happened.  Mom and Dad left to go to basketball games in Las Vegas on Monday morning.  They told me Mrs. J was coming to get me and sure enough, just after they left, there she was.  She never forgets me. 

We went to her home and she told me ThomCat and Kona would be there to play with me.  I didn't know Kona, but I like any dog who will play with me.  And I liked Kona.  He's smaller than me, but we all know how much I like small dogs.

We played some and had a good time and then came Struthers.  He was pretty cool. 

He's like 91 years old, so he couldn't play with us.  But he's a very wise doggie.  He told Kona and I lots of interesting things.  Someday I'll tell you what they were. 

I got to sleep in the big bed with Mrs. J and Mr. T.  Just like at home.  But then on Thursday, Mom and Dad picked me up and we went home and had our own Thanksgiving.  Which is steak and lobster on the grill and I got to supervise!

It was a good Thanksgiving for me.  How was yours?

Love, G

What's a Gambit?

You all know I love little dogs.  (That's why I got voted off the dog park two weeks ago.  Remember?)  Well today I met the neatest little dog.  His name is Gambit.  Like a swear word with a G.  (His dad said that, I didn't say it.  I just retweeted it! I know I'm not supposed to use swear words. 

I didn't know what a Gambit is, so I looked it up.  His dad said Gambit was a cartoon character, and this is what I found in Wikipedia.

Gambit is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Gambit belongs to a subspecies of humans called mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. Gambit has the ability to mentally create, control, and manipulate pure kinetic energy to his desire. He is also incredibly knowledgeable and skilled in hand-to-hand combat. 

Well, if that didn't describe this little tough guy, I don't know what else could.  He came right up to me and started wrestling just the way I like to.  We ran and dodged and dodged and ran and ducked and jumped and twisted and ran some more.

Then he did that thing that Mom tells me not to do with some dogs 'cuz they don't like it.

But, since he was doing it to me, I figured I could do it back, and mom wouldn't care. 

 

Then we really started dancing:

He didn't even want to stop to let me have a drink.  He had soooo much energy.  Like the Wikipedia thing said.

Gambit and me had a really really really fun time.  I hope I see him again. 

This week is Thanksgiving and I'm going to Mrs. J's to stay for a few days while Mom and Dad go to some place called Las Vegas where they play lots of basketball.  Mom and Dad like to watch basketball.  I'd rather go to Mrs. J's and play with TomCat and sometimes there are other dogs there too.  I wonder if Gambit will be there.  That would be just great.  I would like to play with Gambit at Mrs. J's.  But we would probably break things if we played in the house.  Maybe I'll wait and see Gambit at the Dog Park again.  I hope so.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.  I'm thankful for all my animal friends and my human friends.  And my Aunties and my Day Care ladies and guys and my little humans at the school.  I hope you have lots to be thankful for too.

Love,  G

First Day of School

Finally.  I had my first day on the job at the Elementary School in Phoenix.  It's been how long coming?  Let's see, Mom had the idea when that Brad Jaffe came over to help me not bark every time the phone rang.  That was, let me check my calendar, yes, that was December 17, 2014.  (By the way, that's my Uncle Billy's birthday.  He lives in Washington State with my Aunt Jill and two cousins, Kyle and Kate.  Uh, oh, I'm doing that digressing thing again.)

Where was I, December 17, 2014 and now it's November 15, 2016.  So that's 365 days from December 17 until December 17 of 2015.  And 30 days has September, April, June and November, when short February's done (except we need to count an extra day for leap year) all the rest have 31.  So that's a total of 670 days from start to start.  Way to go Mom!  Good thing you're retired or we would never have made it. 

We should have made it a week sooner.  I was scheduled to go last Tuesday.  But the night before my foot hurt.  I went into the living room with my left paw in the air.  Mom checked me out and put me to bed, but in the morning I was still limping so she called in to tell the School that she could still come but I couldn't.  They told her to stay home.  They didn't want her to come without me.  I'm the important one.

But we finally made it this week.  And it was fun.  First Mom took me outside to take a picture with my vest.  She says her Mom used to do that every time the kids had a first day of school.  How can there be more than one first day of school?  So here I am.  In all my glory.  Mom liked these two shots 'cuz they show off my pretty face. (Hmmmmm)

 Then we drove to the school.  There were 7 little tigers in my class.  3rd, 4th and 5th graders.  They were so cute.  They introduced themselves.  One little girl, Anna, was really really quiet.  And her friend Toby said, "She's shy.  Anna are you scared?"  But she gave us her name and told us her dog just had 8 puppies.  I was thinking that Toby was being really nice to her.  He seemed to really care about Anna.  I liked that.  Later on, I went over and gave Toby a big kiss on the nose.

One boy, Juan, said he was really afraid of dogs.  So Mom and me stayed a little away from him.  But I could see him watching me all the time and thinking maybe he could like me.  I could tell what he was thinking.

Mom shared some of my pictures with the kids and told them all about how I was adopted and they asked a lot of questions.  She told them I was from St. Louis, Missouri and asked if anyone knew where Missouri was.  Toby said yes, but when Mom asked him to tell the rest of the class, he said he forgot.  So she told them it was a two day drive to the east.  She showed them the picture when I was driving out for the first time and I stuck my tongue out at her from the back seat of the car.  That wasn't very flattering.  But then, she didn't ask my opinion of the pictures she chose.

Then they practiced how to greet a dog for the first time.  That's so if they were to ever go up to a dog who is not as nice as me, they wouldn't get bit.  I kinda liked it, 'cuz they all gave me pets.

When we left, Juan came up to me and scratched me under the chin like he was supposed to and then patted my side.  I told you he was thinking he could like me.

I was glad to get back to the car later.  I was thirsty and tired.  But I'll remember my first day of school.  And I'm going to share with you the pose I liked better than the ones Mom picked for my FDOS.  This one has my red Therapy heart showing quite nicely, and I think I struck a stately pose.

Can't wait to go back in two weeks.  I'll tell you all about it!

Love, G

I got voted off the dog park!

We went to the dog park in Horizon Park again.  There were a lot of fun dogs there.  I played with lots of dogs my own size and we had fun.  This was Astor.  He's a really really big huskie german shepherd mix.  He was really pretty.

Then there were dogs more like me and we all romped and ran.

After awhile some really tiny dogs came in.  Of course I went to greet them.  I'm the Official Greeter of the Park as you know.  There was one that was sooo small.  She could fit right between my paws.  So I kept trying to capture her right between my paws.  I chased after her and captured her and chased after her again.  She was soooo much fun.  Her name was Lou.

But her mom didn't like it much.  I don't know why.  She kept telling me to go away.  Even my mom kept trying to pull me away.  I wasn't hurting Lou.  I just really really liked her.

After awhile, Mom said, OK, enough, we're going home.  She apologized to Lou's mom and we left the park.  It was OK, 'cuz by then I was tired.  But I hope I see Lou again soon. 

Love, G

PS.  Do you think Mom should have taken me out of the Dog Park, just 'cuz I liked Little Lou?