Vomit Comet

Today is a strange day. It is the exact middle of the program. 9 days have passed and in 9 days I go home. Yikes! Time is flying. I’m slowly feeling more like I’m ready for this…although I still have twinges of nervousness. I’ll probably be happy after aftercare is over. I’m a little nervous about that, even though now I know that instructor Tim is doing my aftercare.

God damn yesterday was embarrassing, forgot to mention that somehow, when putting the harness on, I got it all backwards. He must think I’m a dope. There I was with the harness looking more like a wide-brimmed hat than a harness. Arg! Oh well, he says the newbs all do something along those lines.

It’s such a habit to hand the handle back to him…but this handle is mine, all mine! Heeheehee! It hangs on my door. Must remember to bring it every time. We take the bus today. I’m excited. Who knew a city bus could be so exciting? And yea, no socks were stolen or coin purses were abducted. Today I hope to give Sharon and student tim the money for instructor Tim’s present. I really really really really hope van driver Mike happens to have two 10’s or a 10 and two fives. I’m gonna need more money soon, although I’ve done well on the 60 I brought, considering 20 of it just went straight to the puppy picture.

I can hardly wait for Saturday, I get to call Babs’s puppy walkers and talk to them on the phone.

In case you’re wondering, puppy walker is Ottawa’s term for puppy raiser.

They’re not coming because they’re all the way from B.C. I’m so jealous of Margery, Amy’s puppy walkers are coming, and only hers. The rest of us have to settle for a phone call. I wanna ask them if Babs liked peanut butter, what toys she liked to play with, what her personality was like as a puppy. Oh I have a million questions. I wish I could shake their hands.

Why are my eyes tearing up? That was unexpected. Just sorta happened. That was messed. Wasn’t even feeling really sad, but as soon as I started writing about them, I got all teary-eyed. It must be hard to have to see their puppy off.

Oh Babs and that moo of hers. She’s so cute. I don’t need an alarm clock. She wakes me up right on time. I somehow didn’t have my alarm on…and suddenly I get lick lick licked. I think, not yet. Then I hear a dish banging next door and look at my watch and by jove it’s time to get up! Like clockwork. And I noticed that she’ll sit faster when there’s food to be had. Oh then I can say door and she’ll plop her butt down. Driven by food I tell ya.

duh! that is all.

I really hope my legs don’t hurt as bad today. Oo I feel good. I just helped Margery with the laundry machine. I’m so proud of myself. Never touched the dials in my life and got it to go. Man oh man. That poor woman has so much trouble. And that little stool works like a dream. It feels so good to help someone else. She has such a rough time. Last night she couldn’t tell the difference between a toony and a quarter. Um, wow. Poor woman. Don’t let me lose the feeling in my fingers.

I should probably drag puppy down to do obedience…so Amy’s not out there having a wizz. I know Margery likes to take her early. Then I’ll take this one out for a pee. I wonder when we have to start scooping? I wanna start soon because I wanna get good before I have to do it at home.

We should have at least been feeling the leash. At this point, I had no idea at what times she’ll pee, poop, nothing.

Well I’ll let ya know how the bus went.

Ooo the bus. Heehee. Well the bus was cool. On a low floor bus they can actually guide you up to a seat. On the old buses, they have to follow behind because there isn’t room for 2 to walk. Oh well, there are more and more of these low floor buses all the time. It was a pretty flawless bus trip. But this one missed a few curbs so we had to drag her back and make her stand at the curb. ooo can’t do that in Guelph or we’ll be pancakes! Especially at the first corner. Jeepers Twist in Margery’s words.

Oh boy oh boy. Margery’s laundry got into a bit of a mess. Student Tim didn’t check where he was putting his laundry and double washed Margery’s jammies. Woops. so then she comes back and finds someone else’s stuff in there, so just leaves it in the wash and puts her stuff in the dryer. I think it’s Sharon so I find her and ask her…and it isn’t her. But poor unsuspecting student Tim just boots it right down to the lounge to eat, so I don’t get to tell him until I’m at lunch.

Babs and Amy almost had a little fun. The lady who cleaned the runs didn’t shut the gate between the two dog runs…and well Amy was out there. All the way over to my run. She must have thought this was the biggest busy run of all time! Instructor Tim stopped me just in time. and Sharon and Tim almost swiched dogs again because of the dog run fiasco. I can just hear it all now. “What colour is my dog, Anka?” But Sharon knew her dog a little better and knew this wasn’t it. Man oh man.

I got Sharon all paid off for the instructor Tim gift. Then they just have to tell me how much I owe for the Anka gift and we’ll be all good. I almost fed the money to the dog. I felt something brush against my hand and I thought it was Sharon’s hand but then I realized it was Charity’s slimy mouth. Brings a whole new meaning to money hungry, doesn’t it?

Did I mention Willow tried to have a chomp on her leash again this morning? So we all started singing woe, here she comes. Watch out leash, she’ll chew you up, woe, here she comes, she’s a leash eater. God we’re corny.

I almost lost my reflective sleeve. I was carrying it under my coat and went through a door, and boom! Down she went! We may have to shorten it a bit because if not, it may be all rumply bumply.

I messed up my harness handle a bit when I was putting it back together last night. But instructor Tim fixed it pretty fast. He scared me today. I said, “I made a booboo.” He said, “What? AT this stage? No!” It sounded like we weren’t supposed to make mistakes anymore. But my only booboo was I dropped the sleeve. I’m happy my booboos have just been mild.

I guess Margery had a rough time with Amy. Amy was out of sorts. I wonder if mine will do that ever.

Ask the parking meter you kissed when you got home if she ever gets out of sorts.

Poor thing, instructor Tim thinks she might have a bit of the blues. He doesn’t know.

We will learn that there are a lot of things instructor Tim doesn’t know. He wasn’t aware that willow had a leash-chewing issue, he didn’t think Babs would resist me reaching into her mouth and he certainly didn’t expect her to clamp down harder, I don’t know. I really don’t know who was most responsible for training our dogs. I think he said an instructor named Jane trained Charity, and he said he did most of the training for Babs, but I don’t know.

Babs was barking this morning out in the busy run…arg had to tell her to be quiet. and I guess after I left, she did it again and tried to climb the door. Crazy puppy.

Man the time is passing slowly now that I don’t have a book to read. She’s flopped out on the floor…maybe I’ll pet her for a while. Yeah I’ve been speedy today…did her groomming and obedience already, aren’t I the quick whip?

So this afternoon we play with cars. Holy crap tomorrow’s Thursday. Wonder if Sharon needs any more Dove Soup. Hahahahaha. Oh poor Anka.

Man everybody’s got their cute little thing they do. Margery always says “jeepers twist”, “my land” and “damn sam”. She wacked her head off the van top. Ouch! I felt that from my seat. Bang! Just hard as you could go. And all she said was, “damn sam!” Student Tim has this funny laugh. There’s always a slight pause, and then he just laughs all out. Sharon has this high voice and says all her th’s like d’s. So it makes me laugh when I hear her say, “get off de bed.” And we say bedbug just so she’ll say it because we think it sounds so cute. And instructor Tim always says “this here”. I expect him to be in a western movie. He always says, “there are two exits from this here room”. “This here door leads to”…”we’ll go down this here street.” But he has no accent whatsoever. And that’s what makes it funny. And Anka. When you finish one glass of something, you feel like the cup is bottomless, because quick as a wink, there she is filling it again. She seems tired these days. I worry about her. Her doctor is making her get blood tests done, don’t know why. Really hope she’s ok.

Our driver’s very patient. Don’t know who’s driving us this afternoon. Maybe it will be Peter. Guess it was last Wednesday that we had our very first walk. Holy wow. It is Wednesday today? Right? Yeah that’s right. In the words of Margery, Jeepers Twist. I think the transition is starting to happen in my head. I’m starting to not think of my cane. There were moments where I’d still think of myself walking with the cane. And I had to say consciously, “no, with my dog. Dog!” And sometimes i’d go to leave and think, “Where’s my cane?” It’s starting to change. The apprehension is starting to go…although the curb-missing makes me a little twitchy. But we’ll get it going. At least my legs didn’t hurt so much today. I should ask him if yesterday’s walk was up a steep incline or something. I feel like an old woman. But I think Margery is finding this a hell of a lot more draining than I am. She looks so tired in the mornings and sounds so haggard when she talks to Amy. Maybe I should go pet Babs and then we’ll go down and sneak an email check. Heehee. and then maybe it’ll be time to take her out for a poop. And then off we go again.

Well today was an interesting day. I headed out for the van..and it wasn’t there. So Margery and I waited close to the building. Then the dude who drives pulled up and we thought it was Peter. So we called him Peter the whole time. Turns out it was Marol or however ya spell it. But it sure wasn’t Peter.

Now was the time to play with cars. At every road crossing, Sue would drive in front of us with her car and when Tim tapped me on the shoulder, I was to urge the dog forward, and gently encourage…and praise the dog for waiting when I said to go. My dog was an angel. Tried to go crooked, but that’s about it. Would not move if there was a car. Then we came back and Sue said that we were all doing well, congratulated us and told us to remember we’ve only had the dogs for a week. Only a week, and we’ve progressed this much. Of course she had to remind us that our dogs have limitations and we still have to be smart. Duh. But ya have to say it or we’ll have some nimrod crossing the street willie nillie saying, “oh my dog’ll stop, I don’t have to think.” Sue’s really nice.

We came back and fed, etc. and Tim helped me put the reflective sleeve on the harness so we can be seen bettter at night. We were afraid it would be too big because we had to make the harness tighter for my little woof, but it seems to be fitting. Then student Tim started giggling about some commercial we all hear while waiting our turns for our walks. It’s for this farmboy grocery store. And this kebab or however ya spell it. These salmon shish kebabs and chicken shishkehooq or something. Don’t ask, it’s a radio commercial. So he starts saying that he’s going to say to Anka, “it’s my birthday next week, can we have chicken shishkahooq?” Just to see what she’d do. He did it, but we were all laughing too hard for her to take us seriously. Plus, she knew when his birthday was, I guess it’s in our files, so knew he was pulling some kind of prank.

Anka keeps calling Sharon cheesecake because every dinner, she asks, “Are we having cheesecake for dessert?” So every dessert she serves, she says, “cheesecake” when she gives Sharon hers.

We don’t know what Anka lives on. It looks like she doesn’t eat anything…just smokes and drinks coffee. She and Sue Hawkins too. Very strange.

After dinner, we watch Margery get all lost while looking for the bathroom, or Mrs. Minnifer as she calls it. So Tim and Sharon and I all just get talking and laughing and then I slip to the bathroom, come back, and then Sharon has Charity loose. Charity who’s real name apparently was Varity but they had to change it because they had another Varity. Anyway so we’re all petting Charity. Then just as I go to get Babs for a poop, Tim and Sharon both decide to be bad and let their dogs loose. So Sharon puts Charitty’s play collar on with bells and the race is on. I try to come through the mayhem with Babs, and she breaks
free! Now all 3 dogs end up in tim’s room, having a grand old time. We finally get things back in order and Babs and I go to the room where her run is, laughing so hard. Now she’s exhausted, she’s had a chew of her bone and she’s snoring like a baby.

So tomorrow morning we do more playing with cars, only the playing will be made more natural. Then tomorrow afternoon we try our first tandom work! Ooo! That means two of us with woofs. Two woofs without instructor Tim holding a leash! ooo!

Check the day number on this. It’s day 10 of training, and this first walk without an instructor holding onto a leash didn’t happen until day 11! We have less than half to go, because there’s a day of rest in there, and one of those days we’ll be heading home, and just now we’ve been given some freedom?

And then tomorrow night is a hangout night again and then Friday night we go out for dessert and coffee at Timmy Ho’s. And then we come back and do doggy store shopping. Sniffle sniffle, I don’t get to talk to my puppy walkers until Monday! Sniffle sniffle whine! Oh well, it’ll be worth the wait.

Still no word about the lump! I just want to hear, yes, or no! please! Pronto! move! come on! hop up! Ok enough. Not really much else going on. Should probably go send this off and come back here. Babs is exhausted, chewed on her bone and now snores. Can’t remember if I already said that.

Wow, I’m up early. It’s 7:15 and I’m all done.

I found out Babs likes socks. I’ve been leaving my socks out by my shoes…and well one of my socks ran away, to her bed, and inherited some dog slime. I had to go find it and bring it back. At least she didn’t chew a hole in it. That’s really funny…and the whole time I’m looking for the sock she stole, she’s just rolling around all innocent and stuff.

It seems today was the day all the dogs, well most of them, revealed hidden tallents. Amy stole Margery’s whole coin purse…and that thing doesn’t look easy to steal, and Willow revealed that she likes to chew leather, specifically her leash! Chewed it so badly that he needs a new one! I think this morning instructor Tim speaks to upper management about the vet thing with Babs’s lump on her
chest. Really worried about what the news will be. I’m so attached to
her that I couldn’t get another dog if it was that bad, but I’m afraid of
how much it will all cost…and what it is. God I should stop thinking about
it. It can’t be that serious because I press on it and she doesn’t
flinch so it can’t be that sore.

But then I learned Babs didn’t let me know when she hurt.

Anyway, maybe I should start the journey to the breakfast table. then we all have to scoot like crazy people to take our dogs to busy, we all get in the big van and we get our I.d’s done. me and my woof. Together in a passport picture.

Sometimes we have the funniest conversations at the breakfast table. Student Tim says that there was a student in the class he was in the first time that swore that a dog got named Goodscrew. We just laugh and say “come, goodscrew” and all fall over laughing at how funny that would sound. And there was this other guy who always would repeat things that student Tim rides with on the handi-transit in Winnipeg. Apparently one day he just kept saying, “clean it Bill.” and singing about sugardaddies. So now all we have to say is “Clean it Bill!” and we all start laughing.

There was a reason I opened this. Oh yeah, we finally put our own harnesses on the dogs. We’ve been using his harness because it was nice and soft and stuff, but today we get the pictures taken and then we put the reflective sleeves on the harnesses and from now on we bring our own harnesses to the walks. Wow, heehee. One step closer to Babs being my guide woof!

And that was weird too. Why wouldn’t we want to work in our own harnesses for as long as possible before we went home?

Today we get our pictures taken, then we do a short walk, come back for lunch, and then in the afternoon we go out again and then we have dinner and then we go out to a pub. Should be interesting. Got my money…money to pay instructor Tim back for the battery and then money for my photo. Don’t know if we’ll get a colour picture or black and white. It’s just an ID. but should I go colour? I dunno. Later.

Oh boy. What a day. Went out in the morning with our own harnesses, and got our pictures done. We got on this bench so you and the dog sat together. Then you put your arm around the dog and they snapped the picture so your head and the dog’s head are both in the picture. That was the cutest thing. We had to take two of Babs because she tried to look away. Camera shy I see.

Then we sit in the van, and one by one we all go on this walk. It goes well, pretty flawlessly…except my legs hurt like a mo fo and I don’t know why. I had to keep focused on the dog to just keep going so I didn’t feel the pain as much. I don’t know why. That was kinda weird. But the walk ended in a really neat way. At the end of the walk, he let me keep the handle! heehee! I have a complete harness now. Complete with handle! Wow! Coolness right there.

So we come back for lunch, and then I groom her. Then I read for a while and take her out to busy and then we go on our afternoon walk, suburban walks…in the places with no sidewalks so you have to walk in the street. Eek that was scary. You have to keep checking to make sure you are actually close to the side curb. Then we came back and did the usual routine and ate supper.

At supper, I found out that this dude who my parents know who has a dog actually called to say hi to me. That’s way cool!

Then after supper, instructor Tim took us out to a little pub place. That was fun. But we had to keep our dogs in check because they all wanted to lick the floor, especially mine! And who shows up to sit with us? Scary Jane! I don’t know, but tonight she seemed extra scary. In my head I kept hearing her saying, “off ya go! Off ya go! Chop chop!” like she used to say when she was my instructor. Gave me the chills. Man she’s busy, she has 2 retired dogs and one career change dog, that’s the flowery way of saying they didn’t make it.

At least at GDB, career change does mean they may do a different career. It didn’t seem that way in Ottawa.

Tomorrow should be really interesting. We get to ride the bus in the morning, and then the afternoon, we get to play with cars as Sharon says..so they drive at you and you see what the dog does, or something. Something along those lines. And guess who’s apprenticing for this school to be a trainer? Ben Francis. That name ring any bells to anyone? Bryan Francis? Yup. He used to work for Ottawa, and now he’s gone to San Rafael, and now his son is apprenticing here!

So yeah that’s tomorrow. My poor thing is flopped out on her bed…and I didn’t get to her obedience. Well crap. I meant to, but ran out of time. Oh well, I guess I’ll just do it tomorrow.

I’m still waiting for news about the lump. Student Tim said something really scary. What if they say I cannot finish training with her? What then? What if I have to wait for another dog? Oh it will break my heart in two. But this is coming from student Tim, who appears to be the eternal pessimist. Cross your fingers, please?

Well, he was right. What if? It would have been better to leave training than to have what happened happen.

Well I should probably get going, must run down and check email. It’s late and I don’t want to be at the computer long. My poor beast is dead to the world. I don’t want to drag her down there. Poor thing.

Hmm let’s fill in the gaps. After I finished up that post yesterday, some funny stuff happened. First off, while trying to let Babs out to free busy, she escaped! She ran straight for Willow, leashless! I got her back and then put her out, fed her, and she was good. Then I came out to the patio, and Anka came out and said, “Who left laundry in room?” I’m like, “Uh it was me…had a little trouble reaching the buttons.” She said, “After I finish cigarette, we go in and do laundry.” I was so scared, thought she was right ticked at me, and she’s someone I don’t want to tick off.

So we go into the room, and Anka’s reaction was priceless. She went to show me…and then she’s like, “Oh…you no reach.” I’m like, “yup, that’s why I didn’t do it before.” Oh she had a good laugh and said, “Oh I help, don’t worry, it’s ok.”

I came back out on the patio and told Sharon and Tim and they just laughed. Then we had supper, which was…hmmm…ok I guess. Oh well, can’t win ’em all.

Was that the night Anka made us fish and chips? I think so. Her idea of fish and chips was to cook fish and serve potato chips beside it. Ah, the fun of a language barrier.

After dinner, we came back and I tried to make a couple calls. Got a hold of my neighbour and told him about Babs. Then I took her for busy and did her obedience. Getting better. Then I went to see Sharon cause she said she wasn’t feeling well…asked her if she needed an aspirin. Then Margery helped me with my laundry, but she kinda messed it up. It ran for a half hour but the clothes didn’t dry. Anka saved the day once again, and Sharon helped me get the clothes out at the end. I gave Babs her bone again and she seemed to be having fun. Gotta go now. gotta meet up for lectures on fund raising and dog language??

Fund-raising when we’re not even done? Should have been a red flag! red flag!

Well that was interesting…now I understand why they tell me to stand tall. Dogs rely on dog posture to figure out the dominance/submissive positions. So if I’m always bending over, I don’t seem like the dominant one.

We talked about straight line. So you always walk to a downcurb and then say left or right…you don’t just take the path around the corner. Easy enough.

Babs is so cute. Her breathing almost sounds like a person breathing. If I closed my eyes I swear people would think I was asleep by the way she breathes. Loud loud loud.

She loves Sue. She came straight at her when we came through the door.

Margery…oh dear dear. She’s not getting it. Her hearing’s bad. I swear that’s the cause. She’s saying things that have no relevance whatsoever. And I think she’s mad at me. She’s awful quiet. Have to sorta check on her a bit later.

I talked to mom and dad last night. I think they’re surprised at how well things are going, although I can’t blame them. I was nervous as hell coming here, so I think they’re waiting for something to go wrong.

All of that comes later.

They definitely want to see me next Sunday. Should be fun. I’m a bit nervous about this afternoon’s walk. Off-curb obstacles. Yeesh. well I should probably scoot to the john and then head to lunch. Please don’t be a sandwich, please? Please?

Aww doh, it was a sandwich. Oh well, I was hungry so it was ok.

Did you ever hear me complain about GDB food? Maybe once the day I messed up my knee, but that’s it! And people talked about how much blathering I did about the food. Now you understand why.

This girl seems to really like cheesies. Don’t know why. I’ve never let her have any, but whenever I open the cheesies bag, there she is…and god she wants to lick my hands clean. My hands, my jeans, anything that has any trace of cheesy on it. Won’t even take her bone if offered.

Instructor Tim got my watch fixed. he’s a miracle man. And I won two more super seven tickets. Two more! One with encore and one without. Maybe I’m actually gonna win! heehee!

She’s sniffing my room like crazy looking for traces of…cheesy I think. I don’t know. Silly sniffer.

I thought the coolest thing I heard today though was a thing in a video that said that guide dogs are the hardest working dogs there are. Think about it. It’s dogs’ natural instinct to protect. So making a guard dog isn’t really that much of a stretch. Dogs herd each other and circle in packs,so making a sheepdog is not much of a stretch. A hearing ear dog’s job primarily is retrieval, or at least so I heard. You bring things to the person to tell them what’s happening, That’s another instinct. A dog that does work for people in wheelchairs does retrieval, pick up the keys, turn on the lights, etc. Police dogs follow their noses, natural instinct. But guide dogs must do purely learned behaviour and suppress all their natural instincts. Don’t be protectiv in the vicious sense, don’t sniff, don’t fetch. They’re the hardest working dogs. Poor things. But I thought that was the neatest perspective. And they also said that with guide dogs, the position of power is constantly shifting. I’m the boss to tell it where to go but it’s the boss as far as leading me around things, etc. Neat idea. Other than that, not much else new.

Tonight I get to buy doggy things. Doggy boots for my puppy and something for my neighbour.

Ah, the thing for my neighbour, which I now have, because he died not long after I got home and his family gave it back to me. Sometimes I look at it and think of him.

Oh, must remember to ask mom and dad if they’d be willing to empty the guider collection dog that’s set up at Walmart…apparently it doesn’t get emptied enough. I have to see where the collections are set up at Guelph and see what I can do about emptying it once a month. At least one of them or something.

Good thing I didn’t get embroiled in that mess. That would have been ugly supreme!

Wonder what we’ll have for supper tonight since it’s Anka’s night off. Well I should probably take this one for some grooming and obedience. maybe in a few. Grooming and obedience. Then busy. Then off for the walk…wherever it is. I’m still a little nervous walking with her…don’t know when we’ll fall into a complete comfortable place yet, but I guess we’re getting there.

Oh, if only, if only you knew!

Maybe I’ll read a wee bit and then head out there. Later.

Well I’m back. Something’s happening. Sometimes when I head out for walks on the streets, I feel a sense of apprehension. I guess since she’s being a bit of a loser with me when I ask her to sit at doors etc. I don’t quite trust her yet with my life. As I wait for my turn, my stomach spins. And rightfully so, the little scoundrel missed a couple curbs. Would have just walked me clean across the street. They say that’s just testing. Testing level 2. Or is it 3? Oh I don’t know.

Had a bit of a rough moment with instructor Tim, but that’s straightened out now. Don’t know if I wrote about how Babs got a bonk on the head with a door. I was opening it towards me and she didn’t move in time…and it got her. And he gave me hell about “if this happens a lot she might be afraid to face doors or she’ll start to rush through them.” But I showed him what happened. and he says that isn’t my fault. So that’s good.

We did off-curb obstacles…they take a bit of getting used to. She escaped on me again and tried to run at Amy. But I got her before Margery and Amy came through.

Arg we don’t get to shop tonight, apparently the boxes are all in disarray. So maybe Friday. Sue’s staying over tonight. Should be interesting.

Oh, and they’ve remedied the laundry situation. They put a stool in there. Yee ha, I don’t have to ask for help and have more embarrassing situations. Hahah.

I’m tired. My feet hurt. My legs were bothering me a bit when we were walking. Student Tim’s getting interviewed by the CBC. Some kind of series where he did something with his old dog and getting his new dog. Yea student Tim and Willow are celebrities.

Hmm I should busy her. Then I should hog…er, um, use the computer. Actually Sharon’s doing that.

O the phohne ringeth. Damn, missed it. But got Margery to figure out the phone. So that was cool. She’s on the phone now.

And Babs had better not be a crap-eater. I just brought her back from busy, and her mouth was full of some slobber that got on my hands and my jeans. That had better not be crap. Didn’t smell bad, but oy if she’s eating her own crap, we’re gonna have to cure her of that real real real fast. She’s chewing on her bone. Did I mention that? I’m full, and tired, and should probably send out emails. Poor lonely mom and dad.

Well it’s our day of rest. And resting we’re doing. Anka even didn’t make breakfast until 9. That poor woman seems exhausted. That’s the first time I’ve seen her sort of cranky. But her version of cranky is mild compared to what it could be. We had french toast for breakfast and then I gave Anka my sheets and towels to wash. She washed our sheets and towels! She deserves an award. Then I took Babs to busy and groomed her, and after that I gave her her bone. They said she might just take it away and chew it…but she chewed it for a minute or two, very happily, and then wanted to do something else. So we went to find Margery and we couldn’t. Then we went looking for Sharon and couldn’t find her either. Gees! Tim was at the computer reading the paper. I eventually found Sharon and then we went out on the patio. That was nice. Our dogs got all warm from the sun, especially Charity cause she’s black. Then Margery came out and joined us and then we all came back in for lunch. Then after lunch, we sorta were bad and let three of our dogs, while on leash, play together. Oh they were so happy. Then I took Babs into Sharon’s room and she and Charity played together until Babs barked, which is not allowed, so we had to stop the game. But that tired them out, which was good, because Babs was being a real jerk to me, refusing to sit, etc. After the game, she was better.

Then I went and tried to do laundry…but both machines were in use. Damn I hate being short. What they’ve done is the dryer sits on top of the washer and the controls for both machines are up at dryer level…which is just about out of my reach. But Sharon’s nice and is going to help me wash my clothes. Glad she’s helping, but arg I hate being dependent on someone else for something like laundry. So I haven’t done laundry yet. Haven’t done much else. Just hangin’ out.

Man I could have slept forever this morning. Will have to sleep with the clock radio in my covers so I can press it without making big movements that will make Babs think, “Ooo, Mommy’s up! Come and sniff/lick her!” before I want to get up. I want my watch back! sniffle sniffle!

I love the way Babs moos, and sighs. She always sounds like she’s deep in thought when she sighs. The dogs are all getting nicknames. I call Amy fuzzball cause she’s the fuzziest of them all, Sharon calls Charity bedbug because she’s always climbing into Sharon’s bed and Sharon’s had to set up an elaborate apparatus of a chair and her can78 machine on the bed to keep Charity off it, and I call mine moo-cow because she’s always mooing…and I haven’t come up with a nickname for Willow yet.

My parents are acting all sad and lonesome. They’re saying, “We know you can’t have visitors today, but can we call? Is that even a good idea?” I told them gees of course call.

That was stupid. I mean, even if we couldn’t leave campus, we should have been allowed to have visitors in to see us. That’s dumb to keep us like inmates, not even inmates. Inmates get visitors!

I’m starting to think I should be sending them this daily scoop too. I thought it might bore them, and I’m still not sure if I want to expose them to my inside thoughts on the bad days…which I’m sure will come. Still debating.

Well I should probably get going, should see if Sharon will help this shrimp do laundry. And maybe do obedience…although Babs is pretty dead here. Maybe I’ll do obedience a bit later. That’s the only thing I hate doing. And babs says moo. and Amy has a deep bark. and margery isn’t getting her in trouble. Later dudes.