Hi everyone, it's Gail!



I've been watching Dad and Mom (I hope they don't mind me calling them that) work on this blog thing so I thought I'd try my paw at it and give you an update from my point of view.


Monday was a quiet day at work, but Tuesday was pretty exciting.  I started out the morning with a walk before Mom took me into the office and I got to see my first squirrel - Wow, what a cool start to the day!  The little guy ran across the sidewalk about 10 feet in front of me and up a tree next to the sidewalk.   He only went up the tree a few feet and then hung upside down by his back paws and looked at me while munching on an acorn.  I briefly pulled at my leash to see him, but then I decided to sit down on the sidewalk to watch him watching me.  Mom let me stay there for a couple of minutes before telling me it was time to go to work.


After everyone got to the office I attended my first office meeting.  I felt really important about being invited to the meeting and couldn't wait to start contributing to the team and sharing my ideas!  I hate to admit it, but it did take me about 10 minutes to completely calm down and stay in my under/down.  I guess it must have been the excitement about all of the great ideas I had bouncing around in my head (an ice cube fountain, Kong toys for everyone, mandatory squirrel hunting walks every few hours, etc.).  Unfortunately by the time it was my turn to share my ideas, I was sound asleep under the table.  Oh well, I'll guess they'll have to wait for the next meeting.  The rest of the day was pretty quiet, but I did get to walk past the "squirrel tree" again, and hesitated briefly to see if he was still there, which he wasn't - maybe next time...


Wednesday started out a little different...  Mom took me out at 4:00 a.m. but she didn't make me get back in my kennel like she normally does.  Instead, she started getting dressed and the next thing I knew there was a funny bag on wheels that she laid on the bed and started putting her clothes in.  When she got done with that she started gathering up my toys and food & water bowls and carried everything out to the car.  I was really confused, my toys were one thing, but my food & water bowls???  I hadn't even had breakfast yet!  But wait, it gets worse, she and Dad carried my kennel down the stairs and put it in the car too!  I kept wondering if they were tired of me and sending me back to Birmingham.  They finally got done loading everything into the car, and then Mom came and got me.  She had me say goodbye to Dad and Sneakers (I promise I won't chase him anymore, just don't send me away!) and then put me in the car with her.


I laid down and stayed really quiet for what seemed like forever, but Mom finally stopped the car and took me out at a house I had never seen before.  Come to find out, I was in Ft. Myers, and the house belonged to my new Grandma.  Apparently Grandma needed to have to have eye surgery (something about cataracts and a corneal stem cell transplant - whatever that means) and Mom came down to take care of her for a few days.  Whew!!!  I was really relieved to find out I was just going on a short trip and not being sent back to Birmingham.  After we got to Grandma's I had my breakfast (good thing, my tummy was starting to rumble) and then a few hours later we got in Grandma's car and headed for St Mark's Surgery Center.  A guide dog in training going to an eye surgery center, how cool is that???!!!


I did really well at the surgery center and stayed under the chair and slept while we were waiting for Grandma's surgery to be completed.  A really nice nurse finally came out and said it was time to go home (she really wanted to pet me, but I had my cape on).  It was the end of the day and no one else was in the waiting room except us.  Mom needed to throw away her drink container so she put me in a sit stay and walked to the trash can which was probably at least 40 feet away (no joking), and believe it or not, I stayed!  Mom was really proud of me!!!  By the way, I know this is off the subject, but I'm getting really good at staying calm and waiting for my food and not eating it until I'm told to "take a break".  Anyway, we went and got the car and waited for the nurse to bring Grandma out.  Mom took my cape off when she put me in the car, so the nurse was able to pet me after she helped Grandma get in the car.


Grandma's surgery requires that she lay flat on her back for the first 24-48 hours so we got her back home and settled in for a long winter's nap.  After awhile, Mom took me to Publix to pick up something for dinner (for her, not me - I just had my puppy kibble) and again, I got to meet a lot of really nice people that wanted to know about me and the SEGD program.  We headed back to Grandma's and hung out for the rest of the evening.


This morning, we were up at 6 a.m., had breakfast, went for a walk and then took Grandma back to Dr. Palmon's office (Southwest Florida Eye Care) for a post-surgery checkup.  Dr. Palmon told Grandma that everything looked good so far, but that she would still need to lay flat on her back again today.  After lots of attention from the really nice staff members at SWFEC we headed back home to hang out and start working on the blog.  We have to go back to SWFEC tomorrow morning because Mom has a checkup, so I'll get to see all of those nice ladies again - I can't wait!


Have a great day, and I hope you enjoyed my post!


Next time I'll try to figure out how to include pictures...


P.S.  I know this will probably sound like a broken record, but please remember to check out my SEGD Walk-a-Thon fund raising page at www.sitstaygive.org/gailscorner


Visaully impaired people that receive puppies like me depend on every dollar raised at the Walk-a-Thon.  Remember, you can bring your dog and walk with us.  Thank you!!!