Bus Riding Poodle!

Vivian added a new volunteer venue to her resume this past week. She is now an official Life Care Medical Center volunteer! Life Care is the hospital and nursing home in our neighboring city of Roseau, and we got interested in going there when we met Deb the RN at the health fair in Warroad last October. It took some time, a few emails and a call to the local bus to figure out the “How” and on Monday we had our volunteer orientation.

As some people know, I am visually impaired and no longer able to drive a car. I can see, but some things are distorted and other things may appear to be closer or farther away than they really are. I tend to trip over non-existent bumps in the road, walk into door jambs, and have given up on applying mascara, because the wand ends up in my eye more often than not. Technology is my friend, and I love my kindle, my 40 inch TV, my IPad, and my 32 inch computer monitor. I also love my chauffer, Mr. Puppyjackpot, who takes me wherever I need to go. Marvin flight at 5:30 AM on a Monday morning? No problem. The grocery store, the pharmacy, the bank, the Warroad Senior Living Center, he is on it. But asking him to take me to Roseau, to volunteer seemed just a bit over the top. Therapy Dog work is my dream, not his, and he already gives up an hour and a half each Saturday to take me to the Senior Living Center.

According to their website the FAR North Transit bus is GENERAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, and is for everyone. It is handicapped accessible transportation and anyone can ride regardless of age, race, sex, religion, or income. So did anyone include a black, standard poodle therapy dog? A few emails later and I had my answer; my therapy dog that was going to work at the hospital would be allowed to ride the bus as long as I was with her. Vivian is a really good and smart therapy dog, but so far she has only been allowed to work if I am with her, so no problem there!

Monday, I took the afternoon off, went home for lunch and picked up Vivian and her volunteer gear. Mr. Puppyjackpot dropped us at the parking lot at work where the Far North bus picked us up. As he opened the door the driver looked at us a little skeptically.
“Is that your therapy dog, the poodle?”
“Yes, this is Vivian” I replied.
“I thought she would be little”
“Is she too big to ride?” I asked.
“No, but they said she would ride on your lap.”
“She might, she fancies herself a lapdog and she has never been on a bus, so she might be a bit timid” I told him.
“OK, I got room, come on up”

Vivian walked up the steps with a little prodding, walked to the front seats, jumped up and took the window seat. I sat alongside her. As we headed down the road, Vivian sitting regally next to me, the driver kept shooting her looks in the rearview mirror. “I have never seen a dog like that!”

“A standard poodle?”
“No, a dog that thinks it’s a person”
“That my friend, is because you have never met a standard poodle!”

At the next stop Vivian watched as a man entered the bus, greeted the driver and sat across from us. Vivian leaning forward, turned her head and stared at the man, which I will admit was probably a little rude, but she is a dog.

“Tell your dog to quit looking at me”
“Vivian, stop looking at him,” at which point she turned forward and gazed out the window.
“Your dog understood that?” the driver asked.
“Apparently” I replied.
“What kind of dog is that again?”

And from the back of the bus, came the reply; “A very smart dog!”

Vivian is a therapy dog, volunteer, bus rider, poodle ambassador and yes a very smart dog!

Slow Down, You Move too Fast!

It is hard to believe that yet another year is winding down. My husband and I were born in the same year; me in January and he in December. So yes, he is an entire 11 months younger than I am. This weekend while celebrating his birth, we both commented on hard it is to wrap our heads around our age! I am not one to dislike birthdays, as they sure beat the alternative, and frankly I adore a day that is all about me, but still it surprises me to realize that I have probably celebrated more birthdays in the past then I will in the future. With our mutual birthdays comes the realization that another year has sped by and seemingly faster than any preceding it. I so clearly remember sitting in class at Elton Hills Elementary School thinking that the clock would never get to 3:30! Now I routinely yelp “Yikes!” when I realize that I have worked late and my husband is patiently waiting for me in the car to go home at the end of the day.

Which brings me to the dogs! I know they have some concept of time, as when I have been home with them they routinely know when to sit in the window and wait for Greg to come home from work, and at 9:45 AM everyday they want to go out (that is when Nana comes up to see them every day, but even on the weekends they head to the back door at 9:45). So what tips them off? The sun in the sky? Their bladders? My first poodle Anna headed to bed every night at 9 PM. A party could be in full swing and she would stand up, stretch and walk into the bedroom. Bedtime for her was 9 PM and no one kept her from it; not even Daylight Savings Time! Do the days seem endless until we get home, or do the awaken at 3:45, stretch and go to their watch stations (Ike in my recliner, Vivian in Greg’s) to await our arrival, thinking we just left?

I probably will never understand the concept of dog time, I just know that this is the time of year for reflection. 2013 was a good year. Vivian matured, as two year old dogs will do, and Ike has settled into his role of big brother/put-upon Golden with grace and dignity. He growled at Vivian once this year, and that was over a stuffed duck. Don’t mess with Ike’s stuffed toys. I think he could growl a bit more, but he is a gentle giant and will probably continue to put up with Vivian’s playful and not so playful ankle biting for the rest of his time with us. “Vivian, leave Ike alone!” is a daily statement at our house. Ike, Ikey, Iker is a lover, not a fighter and makes us smile every day. People ask me why Ike isn’t a therapy dog and I tell them, “He is, he just has enough private duty work at home to keep him busy”.

Despite her need to pester her big bro, Vivian really did mature. She has taken her responsibility as a therapy dog to heart and seems to revel in her work. Together we truly have become a therapy dog “team” and it has been such fulfilling work. As will happen when you volunteer at a nursing home, some of our residents have died, but then we meet new residents who want to talk to Vivian. I knew we had made an impact when one day a nurse tracked us down on our rounds and asked us visit a new resident. She told me that Vivian was just what he needed, and after we visited commented that his smile when petting Vivian was the first she had seen since he had moved in a few days prior.

In 2014 I hope to add some more responsibilities to our repertoire, and perhaps work with kids who have trouble reading. I have no doubt Vivian would be good at it, I just need to figure out how to fit it in. To get her ready to venture out into a more public arena with different kinds of people we have volunteered at our Company Health Fair, and at the Library Holiday Open House. We not only get to educate people about therapy dog work, but also do some breed education and dog citizenship education too.

As for the people of Puppyjackpot, we had a good year as well. We continue to work for a great company and are surrounded by great friends; are able to enjoy the beauty of Northern Minnesota, travel when the mood hits us, and have our wonderful moms and siblings in our life while reveling in the accomplishments of adorable kids we didn’t raise but love as our own; our nieces, nephews and now great nephews! We also celebrated 14 years together and six years of marriage this year.

In the interest of time I should really wrap this up, so as the clock heads toward 2014 I wish you a happy new year, filled with love, laughter and puppy licks!

Time for a flu shot!

August, September, October; how time flies when you are having fun and then recuperating from having fun!

August found me and Mr. Puppyjackpot flying to Europe on a long- planned and much- anticipated Baltic Cruise. Since this is not a travelogue, I will not bore you with details but suffice it to say we had a fabulous time and the hardest part of the trip was leaving the puppies!

I often hear from other dog owners that they have never left their pups in a kennel, AND NEVER WILL!! They always say that last part quite adamantly as though a stay in a boarding facility is akin to a prison sentence. Then they ask me, “What do you do with your dogs when you travel?”

Guess what? We leave them at the kennel. I strongly believe that you should get your dogs accustomed to boarding from the time they are young. Get recommendations, find a kennel that you think you might like, visit it a few times prior to leaving your dogs, and then leave them overnight for just one night the first time. See how it goes. Once they get use to it, and realize that when they go to the kennel, you always come back for them, it will be fine. The kennel we go to is clean (probably cleaner than my house), spacious, and the owner keeps track of eating, peeing and pooping. What more can you ask for? The puppies arrive wagging their tails, and when they leave they always pause to give Mrs. Kennel Owner a good bye lick. I love my dogs, but frankly I am not going to give up traveling for the next 15 years. Not to mention, if every dog in my extended family showed up for Christmas there would be no room for the people.

Vivian has been somewhat lax on her therapy dog visits, although through no fault of her own. August was a busy travel month and so we only were able to visit once. Upon our return from Europe both Vivian and I were excited to get back to work and we had fun reuniting with all of our friends. Vivian got lots of pets and I got lots of reprimands for being gone for so long. Shortly after that visit I came down with bronchitis, which quickly morphed into pneumonia and thus ended our visits for several weeks. But Vivian, ever the therapy dog, simply transferred her work to home, and became a home health therapy dog!

Earlier this summer I mentioned that I have been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. While unhappy with the diagnosis, and not thrilled with the treatment, I am happy to know the devil I am dealing with now. I am not an RA blogger and don’t intend to become one, but if you want to know more, RAWarrior.com is a great source of information. What I do know is that the dogs have been a great source of comfort, cheer and reason to move this summer and fall. When my depressed immune system decided not to fight the nasty European bug I caught, I could have easily fallen into “woe is me” syndrome; however the dogs wouldn’t let me do that. They have to be fed, they have to potty and they require a certain amount of petting everyday or they get crabby. Mr. Puppyjackpot would say that sounds a lot like his wife!

So with a little lovin’ from Therapy Dog Vivian, her big bro Ike and the fabulous Mr. Puppyjackpot, I am feeling better, back to work and looking forward to our visit to the Warroad Senior Living Center tomorrow. To all of our local fans, visit the Marvin Windows and Doors Health Fair and the Warroad Senior Living booth October 28th and 29th. Vivian will be there from 2-5 PM for petting, photo opportunities and some emotional support before you get your flu shot!