Because of all of my teething issues last week, I wasn't playing up to my A game, so it was kind of a slow week.

Cailey, Jack & Cody Goofing Around!

I had never been to a baseball game so on Saturday morning we went to Tampa to watch our friend Lauren's softball game.  I sat right behind the catcher's mound fence to watch the game.  There were lots of people (most of them were kids) so there were plenty of distractions.

Hey Ump, that was a ball!

For the most part I behaved pretty well, but there were a few times where I got a little antsy and started barking.  Dad was pretty quick with the "no noise" command, however, I wasn't quite as quick with complying.  Mom took me for a couple of short walks to distract me.  I got to meet lots of new people, and a couple of puppies.

One of the puppies was a black lab mix (possibly a Goldador) named Carly.  Carly is about one month younger than me and I really had fun meeting her.  We were both on leashes so our "play" was kind of limited.

 The next puppy I met was Gizmo.  Gizmo is a 1 year old Shih Tzu.  He was chocolate colored with silver highlights - very cool!

 Mom & Dad were totally in love with Gizmo because their first dog was also a Shih Tzu named Gizmo, their 2nd one was Gadget.

Our Gizmo

Gadget

You probably think that I didn't pay any attention to the game, but I did.  Unfortunately, Lauren's team didn't win.  I hope a puppy hug helped to make Lauren feel better.  :-)

After leaving the ball game we went to Curtis Hixson Park in downtown Tampa to the Seafood Festival.  It's kind of hard to believe, but the Safety Harbor Seafood Festival a couple of weeks ago was much better.  There didn't seem to be nearly as many food vendors which disappointed Dad because he loves seafood.  The only cool things were that the festival was setup on a really nice grassy area instead of hot pavement, and the water fountains.  The rest of the day was pretty much a bust... we went home, took a nap, and hung out with Sneakers.


Sunday morning, we went to Bob Evans for breakfast.  It's really cool, most of the people that work there recognize me and are amazed at how big I'm getting (did I tell you that I weigh 31 lbs?!!!).  When we got done there we stopped at Home Depot because Mom needed to pickup a few things for the office.  We decided to take everything down to the office and drop it off (I couldn't believe I had to go to work on Sunday!  Do you think I can get paid overtime?).  Anyway, once we got there, we found out that we had to return a couple of things to Home Depot, so back we went, and got the right items this time.  Back to the office again.  By the time we got done there, I was kind of tired and my teeth were bothering me so we decided to head home for the day and just chill.  If you saw my previous note to the Tooth Fairy, then you know I ended up losing another tooth.  I'll be glad when this teething thing is over, it's kind of interfering with my exposure outings...


My Uncle Paul called last night to see what I had been up to this weekend, so Mom told him that I had made 2 trips to Home Depot (in the same day).  She said that I was trying to learn the store so that I could go shopping with him.  He and Aunt Lori are doing some remodeling to their house and spend a lot of time there (he had already been there 3 times this weekend).  I figure by the time I get to visit them in Atlanta, I'll have the store memorized and can help them pick out some really cool stuff.

I wanted to play with the kitty, I didn't realize I had just lost a tooth!

Tonight I lost another tooth!  Sorry Sneakers, I didn't mean to get you all bloody!  Oops, I think it might have been two, unfortunately, they haven't been found.

Peek-a-Boo!

Boy, I hope I don't get my head stuck!



Oops, I think I've been hog tied!

PS - You've probably heard of The Terrible Towel (Pittsburgh Steelers), well I have The Terrible Baby Blanket.  It's really Sneakers' blanket, but the past few days, it's helped me through my teething.  Sorry Sneaks, I'll try to return it to you in one piece.

Dear Tooth Fairy,

You've been really busy this week visitng our house...  Since losing my first tooth last week I've lost 5 more teeth (that includes the one I just lost a few minutes ago so I'll see you tonight!).

I don't how much Pixie Dust (is that what you use to travel with?) costs, but if it's anything like gas prices these days I'm concerned that at the rate I'm losing my puppy teeth that you won't be able to afford to visit and bring puppy biscuits.  I think it would be a good idea for you to come and stay in our guest room until I get through this stage.  I'll leave the light on (like Motel 6) and a chocolate on your pillow (like all of the best hotels) for when you get here tonight.

See you soon, and sweet dreams!

Gail

Gail here...


First of all, I'd like to thank everyone that donated to, and/or participated in the Southeastern Guide Dog Walk-a-Thon, it was a huge success!  For anyone that's still interested in donating, SEGD will apply all donations received through March 31st to the Walk-a-Thon campaign.  You may make a donation at www.sitstaygive.org/gailscorner




Ok, now onto the fun stuff.  Last week was pretty typical... work with Mom, walk in the park with Dad, work, walk in the park, yeah, you get the picture.  Oh, I do have to fess us to something about going to work with Mom...  I have the biggest crush on Scott, our UPS Driver.  Lots of people come in and out of the office each day, but when Scott comes in, I fall apart.  I'll try to get Mom to take my picture with him so I can post it on here, of course, that's if I can stop wiggling long enough for her to get the picture.


I had been hearing that a visit to Chili's was in my future, and was wondering what would be on the floor menu.  Well, guess what, I found out on Thursday night when we had our semi-monthly Puppy Raisers meeting.  I had a little tummy problem before we went in, so Dad asked Carolyn if we should stay for the meeting or go home.  Carolyn said that we could stay, but to keep away from the other small puppies like me and to sit at the back corner of the room just in case I had a bug that I could pass on (talk about feeling like a leper).  My dinner companions were Jam (he's really big compared to me) and his raisers/parents, Cheryl and Fred, and Stephanie, who is currently waiting for her next puppy.  Things went pretty well except for the occasional flick of Jam's tail in my direction which got me a little excited - it reminded me of  Sneakers' tail, so I thought it was time to play!

I just can't resist Sneakers' tail!

Jam being the mature puppy that he is, ignored me - shucks!  Anyway, since we were in the back of the room and away from all of the good pickin's, I didn't get a chance to sample the floor menu.  Oh well, maybe next time...



Saturday morning we got up and went down to Sarasota to visit the SEGD Discovery Center.  It turns out that they were doing "hug-a-puppy" that morning.  They had brought some of the teeny, tiny puppies from the campus down for the morning to meet and play with the visitors.  You might think that with cute, adorable, 8-9 week old puppies in the house, that I would be treated like a 2nd class puppy - Wrong!  There were so many people there that I had more attention than any puppy could possibly hope to have in a 2 hour time period.  While people were waiting to see the baby puppies, they lavished their attention on me, which was absolute torture - yeah, right.  :-)

Can you believe it was only two months ago that I was this small???

Dylan is a 7 month old Golden Retriever  puppy in training.
Shouldn't he be a Blonde Retriever?

These are some of the kids that I got to play with at the Discovery Center (ok, so I wasn't having too much fun in this one picture)

This puppy was sitting inside the front door at the Discovery Center.  I wanted to be his friend, but for some reason, he only wanted to sit there....  Maybe he's one of those Super Heros that you see on the billboard - "Some Super Heros Fly, Others Sit & Stay"

When we got done at the Discovery Center, we stopped at an Applebee's for lunch.  It was St. Patty's Day so green beer was flowing freely throughout the restaurant, especially the table next to us.  After lunch, we went across the parking lot to Publix where the Lion's Club was collecting donations for the blind.  The LC donates to SEGD, so we decided to spend time helping them raise funds.  It was an interesting experience for us since we've never participated in that type of fund raising.  I truly believe that a large percentage of people that donated would not have done so if I hadn't been there.  Many people stopped to see the adorable puppy (that would be me), and once they did they were pretty much committed to making a donation, even if it was only $0.25 (every penny counts).  I truly believe that those people would have done the averted eyes, walk straight ahead thing if I hadn't been there.  I truly hope that I helped to raise extra funds.  By the way, don't forget, if you have old eyeglasses laying around your house, please drop them off at your local Lion's Club, or Optometrist/Opthomologist's office as they as used to provide "eyes" to visually impaired individuals.


Sunday morning we got up and decided to look for someplace new for breakfast.  After driving around for awhile, we stopped at Kelly's in downtown Dunedin.  We had never been there before and were surprised.  From the outside it looks just like your typical downtown renovated restaurant, but when we got inside we found out that they have a really, really, big outside patio in the back.  We had a very fun and animated server, and the food was pretty good, or so I'm told.  After breakfast, we went to Best Buy.  The new iPad had come out earlier last week, and Dad had been very patient about buying a new one (he had Gen 1 and Mom has iPad 2) - LOL!  It was kind of funny, it took about 2 minutes for Dad to tell the BB Sales Rep that he wanted the new iPad, and about 30 minutes to talk about me and SEGD.  Can you believe it, I was more interesting than an iPad (rest in peace Steve Jobs)!  When we were done there we stopped by the park for a leisurely stroll and to meet people.  The rest of the day was about setting up and playing with the new iPad (now there's a surprise - LOL!)

Peek-a-Boo!

Is this the way in?

This week started out as usual but today was a little different. I was kind of antsy at work today, and stretching Mom's patience a bit.  Fortunately Dad came and rescued me and we went to the park.  After Mom got home tonight she thought she saw me chewing on something so I got the "no, drop it" command.  I didn't drop "it", so Mom opened my mouth and much to her surprise, it was all bloody.  After a closer examination, she realized that I had just lost one of my lower baby fangs.  That probably explains my behavior today.  Unfortunately, she couldn't find it to leave for the Tooth Fairy.  By the way, the Tooth Fairy left me 2 puppy biscuits for the tooth I lost last week - I sure hope that's the average for a puppy molar...


I hope you find this next topic kind of fun...  Dad & Mom decided that I was starting to outgrow my cape so they ordered a new one.  It looks like I'm going to have to grow into this one...

PS:  This is a special note to Marianne... Mom and I are thinking about you and saying extra prayers!  We hope to talk to you soon!

Post Under Construction

Stay tuned...  the new post is ready, I'm just waiting for some pictures to be added.

Gail

***Special Post***

Does anyone know how much the Tooth Fairy leaves for a puppy molar?  Comments are welcome at michele_reese@verizon.net

Thanks!

This blog thing is pretty cool - I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.  Now, if I could just get Dad & Mom to be a little more timely at uploading photos and posting my notes I'd be able to keep you updated about my antics, um, I mean training progress each week.

Last week was pretty normal, so they'll be less writing and more pictures this week...  Of course, as you can tell, I really don't like having my picture taken - LOL!


Not the greatest picture, but I wanted to try to show you my big girl teeth that are coming in.  Last weekend I was missing 3 teeth and by this weekend, they were well on their way to filling in.

It's going to be a happy day for Mom when I finally get all of my big girl teeth so that I stop trying to use her arms as giant teething rings.

   One tired puppy! 

On my best behavior at work...

 

Learning how to feel comfortable in my travel kennel

 

Did I mention how cute I am?  Every girl wishes they had eyelashes like mine - eat your hearts out ladies!

On Saturday, we went to a seafood festival in Safety Harbor with our friends Bonnie & Phil and their ponies, oops, I mean dogs, Mozie & Chloe.  Everyone thought that the food was pretty awesome, of course, I can't confirm that since no one shared anything with me...

I didn't do quite so well at the festival.  It was hot out, and there were a lot of people, and I just didn't want to be walking and standing on the hot asphalt.  One thing that was kind of funny is that I'm usually the center of attention and this time, Mozie and Chloe were attracting everyone's attention - good thing since I wasn't playing my A game that day.

Since I was waiting to complete all of my vaccinations, this was the first time I got to meet Mozie & Chloe (they are Great Pyrenees).  I've never seen dogs that big before!  They make some of my fellow puppies in training look like toy dogs!  I have to admit, that even though they are really, really, big they are gentle giants.  They were pretty nice to me even though I was the new puppy on the block.

Mozie and me playing

Here I am getting a very important life lesson about respecting Chloe's space.  A good thing to learn, especially when she's so much bigger than me.

 

More pictures of Mozie and me playing.  I'm really not that submissive, I just didn't want to hurt the big guy's ego.

  

 

 Time to relax on the nice cool tile

Whew, all that playing makes me tired!

I had a great time playing with my new friends and can't wait to go back and visit them again!

Back at home I decided to give myself a much needed break under the stools in the kitchen.

Sorry we didn't get any more pictures (as if you needed to see more) this weekend, but we did go down to Ft. Myers on Sunday to visit Grandma.  I had my first P.F. Changs experience.  I have to admit, the rice noodle crumbs on the floor were pretty good - Yum, Yum!

Until next time... Gail

PS:  I heard that I'll be visiting a local Chili's.  I wonder what's on the floor menu???  I'll let you know how it is!

Hi!  It's Gail...


I thought I'd give Mom & Dad a break and write my own post tonight.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were the same 'ol, same 'ol as far as days go, work with Mom, trips to Publix, etc., but Thursday was a whole new adventure, or misadventure as the case may be...

On Thursday I had to call into work for my first sick day...  When I woke up Mom went to take me out, but unfortunately, I didn't quite make it...  it turns out that I had an upset tummy.  I never made a noise in my kennel to let anyone know that I didn't feel well and by the time Mom came to get me it was too late.  I  spent the day at home with Dad to try to recuperate.  The worst part of the day was when they made me drink this icky bright pink cherry flavored stuff called Pepto Bismol - yuck!  I ended up with more on my face than in my mouth (ha, ha!).  By about 8 p.m. it looked like things were starting to clear up.

Friday Mom told me I still had to stay home.  I guess she was afraid that we'd have a few emergency trips outside and figured it was better to be safe than sorry.  As it turns out, Friday was fine so we chalked it up to something I probably ate (mulch, grass, gravel, etc.) and started planning our trip to St. Pete on Saturday for the Southeastern Guide Dogs Walk-a-Thon and celebration dinner.

Uh-oh, Saturday morning we were packing up to leave for the SEGD events and I let Mom know that I needed to go out...Now!  It turns out that I wasn't out of the woods yet.  We came back in, called Carolyn, our Area Coordinator and SEGD to let them know that I had a little problem and that we would be contacting the puppy doctor and wouldn't be able to make it to the events planned for the day.  Fortunately we were able to get an appointment so off we went for a check-up.  By the time we left the doctor's office, they had checked my temperature and other things (ouch!), had given me a syringe of some more icky stuff in case I had a parasite, and a couple of prescriptions to help with the other stuff, as well as, some special food.  We spent the rest of the day hanging out and crossing our paws that it would be a quiet, uneventful day.

By Sunday, we were all going stir crazy!  Since the rest of the day Saturday and Sunday morning passed without any more emergencies we decided to head out for breakfast, and yes, we made our weekly trip past the eagles nest... the 2 baby eagles were sitting up in the nest where you could see them, but unfortunately, we forgot to take the camera with us.

Later in the day we took a trip to the mall and walked through the main concourse and the food court (Yum!).  There is an ice skating rink (yes, I know, we live in Florida) at the mall, but I wasn't really able to see anything from ground level so we got into an elevator and went to the second level where I could look out through the glass railing to watch down below.  The glass elevator wasn't necessarily my favorite thing.  As it turns out, the skating didn't really excite me so I laid down and waited until Mom & Dad were ready to go.  As we walked through the mall we kept getting followed by a miniature train that was giving rides to kids.  It freaked me out a little bit, but after having it pass us about a dozen times I started to calm down.  Maybe next time we'll try to take a ride...  not!  As we walked around we decided to take a stroll through the food court area.  You won't believe it, but I did really well!  I didn't snarf one bit of food and was actually pretty calm walking through there - woohoo!

Oh yeah, did I mention that I met Mickey Mouse at the mall?  Wow, he's one big mouse!

On the way home from the mall we drove through the quaint little town of Dunedin.  We passed by some condos that Mom & Dad had always found fascinating since they moved here and there just happened to be an open house so we decided to stop.  The condos are three stories and let me tell you, more stairs than anyone needs to see in one day.  Although I go up and down our hardwood stairs at home everyday without a problem, I kind of freaked out with these stairs!  The first part was ok, but when I got to the landing I didn't want to go any further.  I think it was because they were enclosed.  After some coaxing I finally made it up.  Oops, I guess I've never heard the saying about what goes up, must come down - yikes!  Yep, you guessed it, I didn't want to go back down.  Some more coaxing and I finally made it, whew!  What they didn't tell me is that we were going to check out a few more models and they had just as many stairs.  After a few more tries, I got pretty good at going up and down, I just hope I can remember the next time I encounter a different type of staircase that I really can do it.

I was starting to get tired from all of the exercise and excitement so it was time to head home and hang out with the kitty, well not really... I wasn't so tired that I didn't try at least a few times to chase him (ear-to-ear grin).

Anyway, that was my week.  I can't wait to see what this week has in store for me!!!  Take care, and see you soon!


PS:  Sorry it took so long for this to be posted, there was a little glitch trying to upload pictures...