This week at work was pretty uneventful except for a few days where Gail decided to test the waters and bark whenever I had to leave my desk to grab something off the copier, etc. I tried a few different things such as giving her a small Kong with a puppy treat inside when I had to leave, especially if I was going to be gone for a couple of minutes, but the thing that seemed to work best were ice cubes. In addition to keeping her occupied, it also helped with her desire to chew on things. Kind of like giving a baby a frozen teething ring. To help break up the monotony of the day, Roger would come pick up Gail in the afternoon and take her to the park or some other outing. It's good for them to have some bonding time too.
Saturday morning (2/4/12) started out with a visit to Dr. Woodman's office. Gail was due for another series of vaccinations (4) and a general checkup. Unfortunately, Dr. Woodman found a flea (ugghhh) so he went ahead and ran a flea comb through her fur. He found no evidence of a flea infestation, but to be cautious he gave her an extra dose of flea & tick prevention medication. It's possible that she picked it up on the way into his office while she was busying outside as the area around his office has a lot trees, leaves, etc. Gail also got her first pedicure (it sounds so much more sophisticated than nail trimming) while she was there. Our little girl is growing up fast - at 13 weeks she is already 18 lbs. 13 oz. and I think about 20" long (shoulder to butt) and 16" tall (top of back to paws), of course trying to measure her is a little difficult since she won't stand still.
When we got done at the vet's office we decided to head down to Sarasota and check out the Southeastern Guide Dog Discovery Center.
Before going to the DC we stopped by Critical Care & Veterinary Specialists of Sarasota to visit Dr. Anne Chauvet (sorry, we forgot to get a picture) and introduce Gail to her. Dr. Anne is a veterinary neurosurgeon and she and her staff were terrific to us when our Shih Tzu, Gadget had to undergo 4 major back surgeries several years ago. Dr. Anne is very active with animal not-for-profits and fund raising in Sarasota, and for those of you that live there, you've probably seen her picture in the paper more than once.
Anyway, back to the DC... When we arrived all of the staff and volunteers were excited to see Gail. Besides being an adorable puppy, she has a somewhat unique honor of being one of the few pure bred Golden Retrievers in the program at this time, so she tends to generate a lot of attention.
We spent about 45 minutes visiting, and Gail stood inside the front door for most of that time greeting people.
While she was visiting with this cute little girl she started to go into attention overload so we decided to go around the corner to a lounge area and take a time out for a little while.
Before we left, we made sure that we picked up a few items, a hat for Roger, a set of Kong keys for Gail, and believe it or not, a catnip toy for Sneakers (Gail decided to take home a peace offering for him). It had been a busy day, and with all of the vaccinations, it was time to head home and let Gail get some beauty rest.
The rest of the day went by pretty peacefully. We may have had a small breakthrough with Gail and Sneakers (maybe it was the catnip toy). Somehow, Gail managed to get Sneakers to chase her around the dining room table for several minutes without any hissing on Sneakers' part, or tail grabbing on Gail's part. Fortunately Gail is still small enough to make it under the chairs as they ran around the table, but at the rate she's growing, she won't be able to do it for much longer.
Sunday (2/5/12) began with a trip to Rodie's for breakfast. Our server was amazed at how much Gail has grown since we were there two weeks ago. Today we sat a table not too far away from the hostess station and front door, so there were a lot of people going by. Since we were at a table and not a booth, Gail was much more exposed to all of the activity, but she handled it like a pro. She only tried to get up a couple of times, but was easily put back into a down position. The biggest problem she had was that her tail kept sticking out from under the chair; fortunately, no one stepped on it!
We left Rodie's and decided to go to Bed Bath & Beyond and Sports Authority. We didn't need anything at either store, but with the tight aisles at BB&B and the variety of items at SA we thought it would be a good exposure for her. We also stopped at Dick's Sporting Goods on the way back home. The most exciting thing that she encountered there was a man that was trying out putters and hitting golf balls on the little putting green. She sat there and kept watching the balls go from one end to the other.
The rest of the day hasn't been very exciting, sleep, sleep, and more sleep. She's probably storing up her energy to watch the SuperBowl! She hasn't let the cat out of the bag yet who she's rooting for, but for some reason, I think it might be the Patriots - we'll have to see...
By the way, during our outings, it's been amazing the number of people that have seen the new SEGD billboards. Many people will say things like, "oh, she's wearing her cape" in reference to the it's not a coat, it's a cape billboard. The other billboard that's really cute is the one that says "some superheros fly, others sit and stay". The billboards are all over town, so keep an eye out for them as your driving around.
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