Happy Birthday Rocky!!!

So the little guy is now a whole year old! I can’t believe he grew up so fast. He had a packed full birthday including attending a training meeting with me for my job this morning and a puppy meeting in the afternoon. I will give details later of today’s events when I have not been up since 5 in the morning.

Rocky enjoyed his chocolate peanut butter cupcakes, his presents and all of his birthday cards. He has another surprise coming tomorrow which I know he will love. I also got something in the mail today, which I can’t wait to do with Rocky, but you guys will have to wait till I am able to think straight to find out what it is.

Happy 1^st birthday to the sweetest, smartest, most handsome, lovable dog in the world! Rocky you will never know just how special you are! Hopefully by this time next year he will be with his forever owner enjoying whatever job he decides.

A glimpse of the future

My class got out early today, so we took the longer way around to the parking garage since it was so nice out and Rocky need a chance to go busy. Rocky was walking along beside me, out of coat. As we passed a building we saw a yellow lab staring at us. I saw that there was a harness on the ground and since the dog was not really listening to his owner, I told him what his dog was looking at. He wanted to come meet Rocky and myself so he picked up the harness and walked over. Rocky was so good and just sat down, while Otto, the other dog was trying to say hi to Rocky. Otto was about 20 lbs smaller than Rocky and just a little bit darker, a gorgeous lab. He was 4 years old and I found out that I had actually met the man about 3 years ago when my sister was cleaning out her stuff at the ceramic studio at school. It was right before he was leaving to get his new dog. He has had 2 other guide dogs that both lived to be 15 years old; he said the secret was to not let them get fat. As we left, Otto got his harness put on and was a totally different dog.

I never get tired of watching service animals work; it is truly amazing how smart they are. I have seen several guide dog teams and assistance dog teams at school and love to watch to see what Rocky will be doing in a few more months.

Our little encounter made me realize just how ready Rocky is to continue on with his journey in the coming weeks.

Rocky’s weekend with the girls

Rocky enjoyed house sitting for another raiser with me this weekend. She has two career changed dogs and 3 cats. Rocky was a little interested in the cats to begin with, but learned to ignore them. He did try to get them to play and found out that cats just don’t play like dogs.

Rocky did enjoy playing with Missy and Siggy and was pretty tired once he got home; then he had all of his friends come over which just made him even more tired. Rocky is really good at separating himself from other dogs to take a rest, which means he has some awesome self control when it comes to playing. Rocky and the girls got along so well together. Rocky would of love if Bingo (her PIT) was there to play with too, but she is at puppy camp right now.