We received our first report today on Ansel in advanced training.
He's doing well, has adjusted to his new home and seems to be showing his skills as expected. He has shown some insecurity in new situations, but looks to the trainers for confidence and responds well. He made it through the temperament tests and the initial medical tests, but the more in depth tests are still to come since he's a potential breeder.
The vomiting and abnormal scratching that we dealt with has magically disappeared and we are quite surprised AND thankful about that! The trainer said that he knows his commands and walks nicely on a loose leash and has done well with grooming.
As we well know, advanced training is a day to day ride that could end at any moment, but for the time being, our little man is hanging in there.
Since Ansel is now in advanced training and unable to secure internet access, we (Deb and I) will be adding updates. I apologize up front if the stories are not quite up to Ansel's vivid imagination!
We have heard from our sources that Ansel has seemed to adapt well to his new home and work environment. Here is a picture of Ansel with his kennel mate Dembre.
Deb, myself and Lassiter attended the monthly meeting in Kansas City and had a great time. We got to see new pup Feldon:
and new pup Carlton:
Who is being raised by new first time puppy raisers!!
Here's a pic of Lassiter working with the hula hoop while being distracted with the toy. He did pretty good!
and last but not least, Putnam doing what he does best :^)
We left Lassiter in Kansas City so he would be there when his VPR arrives back in town. I'm sure it will be a great time when Lassiter sees his Mom again! Thanks to her for allowing us to keep him. He was a joy to have in the house and was also a great buddy to Ansel.
Just thought I'd chime in and give you the K-9 version of the last few days.
Ansel and I loaded up into a much nicer vehicle and went for a ridiculously LONG ride. It seemed to go on forever. Sure, we would stop every few hours and get to stretch, but we would always end up back in the car again.
After what seemed like an eternity (how long can you really play "you're it"), we finally stopped for the night in Sunbury, Ohio. It's well known to us pups what resides there. Only the greatest party spot in Ohio that's what! Where else can you go, get fed 2 squares, sleep on a clean floor, AND get to play with 20 other buds?
On Friday, we got to hang in the outdoor party cubes while the humans were working inside the building. Raj would bark everytime a human would come out so we could all look sad. Let me tell you though, when the humans were not around, it was party time baby!! I mean, we were having so much fun in those cubes, we were all drooling. It was quite funny when someone would come check on us and make comments about the drooling and how stressed the dogs looked. That my friends, was all a ruse so they wouldn't catch on to how much fun we were having!
The things we learned that day...parties at midnight, the secret paw shake, and who was the kennel wetter :^) I can't wait till February to get to experience all the fun!
So, Saturday comes and we get to attend the graduation ceremony. It was fun watching all of the "big" dogs get placed with their forever humans and it was fun to see the turn in pups up on stage. I was going to bark out some verbal jabs at Ansel, but thought better of it. Time to start acting my age you know. There seemed to be a lot of laughing and a lot of tears by the humans. Not sure about that since I was just scoping out all the potential friends for a later date.
After graduation, we went back to CCI and I got to say goodbye to Ansel. He was really looking forward to his new digs and when he learned he was rooming with Dembre, that made it even better! I can only imagine the things those guys are doing right now.
After that sad time for the humans, we got back into the car and made that ridiculously LONG ride home. Not sure why we don't fly, seems like it'd be a lot faster and much more comfortable!
Made a pit stop in Indianapolis to see some of Deb's family. I had a ton of fun and got to meet some new young friends and a couple older dog friends.
I found out that I'll be going home Thursday night, back to MY human, so I talked TBG and Deb into taking me swimming one last time. I've really enjoyed the lake while I've been here. I'm still not fond of dock diving, I'll leave that one for the crazy dogs like Ansel.
NO WAY I'm jumping from this
I do like to swim though!
Deb took some video of my impersonation of Michael Phelps!
Ansel after the ceremony...looking ahead to his future
Dear Readers,
Thank you so much to all who responded to the $5.00 challenge. CCI has received many wonderful gifts in Ansel's name. It means a lot to us. For those of you who are just tuning in but would like to donate, the links are posted in the right-hand pane.
Mark and I debated about what to do with this post...should we attempt to give a moment-to-moment description of the entire experience? Should we try to make it funny? (Talk about a challenge!) Should we include a list of all those whom we would like to thank for taking part and helping us with this journey?
We finally decided that the best we could do would be to share our core sentiment. Surprisingly (especially for those of you who know both of us), that core is the same.
It was just as hard as we thought it would be...walking him to the kennel, taking off his collar, locking him in, and turning and walking away...well, although we might have 240 posts on this blog, we don't have adequate words to describe that kind of sorrow. And yet, even with all of that, there was still an underlying sense of having contributed, done our "job" as it were, and finally paying back, in some small measure, all of the good that Jeb created during his working career.
We think too, that having Lassiter helped eased the way, and we marvel yet again how the stars align, and how out of great sadness comes hope and comfort.
Questions for us? Leave a comment and we'll respond. We'll keep posting about Lassiter's adventures and we should receive monthly progress reports on Ansel--first one is due August 31! We'll certainly post those too!
The time is drawing near...and all that crud. Anywho!
All this talk of graduation, turn-in and the good work that CCI does got me to thinking...that along with the fact that I noticed that we now have had more than 5000 "new" visitors to this site! Awesome!
So, I have a challenge for all of my readers. IF you have enjoyed reading this blog even a little bit over the past 17 months, would you consider sending $5.00 in my name (that's Ansel III in case you've forgotten) to CCI? Wouldn't it be so EXCELLENT (think Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure) if every one of you 5000 people sent just $5.00? I mean, $5.00--that's just 2 cents per post! A total of $25,000 for CCI!
If you are feeling frisky, and would like to donate $25 (or more) visit my own personal gift registry at CCI (go check it out in any event. It really is cute):
Obedience classes that were supposed to start today have been moved to September when it's cooler. It was just a little too hot for us indoor spoiled pups today!
So, I got talking to Lassiter and decided I'd try to convince TBG to go swimming at the lake. I thought for sure I would be irresistible, but sadly, it didn't work.
TBG is still recuperating from his barefoot'n Sunday and was in no mood to go to the lake. Maybe later this week!
