Tree dedication ceremony

Yesterday we had a puppy meeting at a local park. Our group was asked to attend by some Lion Clubs in the area. In honor of Helen Keller’s birthday in June and national deaf blind month, they had a tree dedication ceremony that they wanted some guide dog puppies to attend.  I enjoyed it since I knew several people from my days of taking sign language. There was a lady who came up and was telling another raiser and I how horrible she thought it was that guide dogs were not allowed to be petted by the general public. I explained to her why you can’t pet them and that when they are not working they are spoiled normal dogs. I also mentioned how much these dogs love to work and how even at just a few months of age, they know what the coat means. She seemed to better understand why you can’t pet working dogs and accepted that the dogs are loved.  After I finished talking to her she wanted to know if I went to **** college which just so happened to be the college I graduated from in December. She had seen me around campus with Joe. There was another man who heard that I went there and said that he used to see several puppies in training around campus a lot over the last few years, but had not seen one in a while. These were most likely Joe, Rocky and Sherman! 

Is it just me or does Joe look older in harness?!?!

I learned a lot about Helen Keller that I didn’t know and also learned about the deaf-blind community.  It was especially interesting seeing the deaf-blind interpreters at work. There was a little girl who was around 9 or 10 months old who LOVED all the puppies!  (She was the daughter of one of the Lions.) After Rocky’s experience, I have made sure that Joe doesn’t have any problems with babies, toddlers, kids, teenagers, elderly, or people with disabilities (got to cover all the bases!). Joe totally ignored the little girl even when she was right beside him. All the puppies did really well sitting still and being cute. 

“if I wasn’t working right now I would give you a BIG kiss!”

After it was over, Joe and I walked around the park where we saw lots of geese, ducks and dogs. There were geese walking down the sidewalk in front of us and Joe walked right past them with only a small glance to see what one of them was hissing about.  

“just keep walking, just keep walking”

Joe came home ate dinner and then took a nap after an afternoon in the heat.