Hidden Talent

I had to work two half days while my family was visiting and while I was gone, I left Morey at home to keep them company. This picture was sent to me by Grandma after they had left saying that Morey was making a list of all the fun things he wants to do on Grandma's next visit.
Now, I know Morey is a very talented dog, but he has never shared with me that writing is one of his skills. Maybe he thought I would shamelessly exploit that task. I have not seen the list, so I guess I will have to wait until next time to see what fun things he has planned to do with Grandma.

Hmm, if he can write, I wonder if he can type...?

Sleepy Morey

After all this excitement, Morey was worn out at the end of the day. We were watching a movie when all of a sudden I look over at Morey. He had carefully positioned himself so his head was cradled on a pillow that had ended up on the floor. I asked my mom and sister if they had posed him that way and they both said no. Morey is a creature of comfort who has gotten spoiled by sleeping in my bed and apparently he now requires a pillow as well!

Since we were still up with the lights on and Morey was obviously trying to sleep, my sister was generous and decided to let Morey use her sleep mask. He seemed to appreciate the darkness and I could just imagine him asking for ear plugs or asking us if we wouldn't mind keeping the noise level down since he was trying to sleep.

Fishing

Morey demonstrated a new skill during one of our swimming trips. He was retrieving the ball from the water when all of a sudden he stopped in the shallow water, dropped the ball, and began tracking something under the water. I can only assume he was following a fish because he was putting his nose under the water and walking in crazy patterns with his tail wagging madly. I had never seen him do this before and at first I was concerned. I called him out of the water, got him refocused on the ball and tossed it in the water. The same thing happened; he got the ball and got distracted again once he was in shallow water. Morey likes his ball A LOT and for something to be even more exciting than a tennis ball is a big deal. I couldn't see what he was trying to track or catch, but he was was very focused on catching whatever it was! It will be interesting to see if this is a new habit when we go to the water the next time.

Wiggle

One command that Morey knows is "wiggle". This basically means to shake off and it comes in very handy after swimming or a bath. I can tell Morey to wiggle while he is several feet away and that way I don't get sprayed with too much water. When he isn't wet he likes to cheat by only shaking his head when I ask him, but he can get some good wiggles going when he is wet!

Down and Dirty

Grandma and Aunt Natalie wanted to see Morey's favorite places and so he got to go swimming twice during their visit. The first day we went to Town Lake, the more "civilized" place to swim. This is an off-leash dog area just south of downtown and there are always other dogs running, playing, and swimming. Morey enjoyed showing off his swimming and fetching skills and he enjoyed having someone there who can throw the ball farther than I can!

Our other swimming hole is a more secluded area. We usually have the place entirely to ourselves (apart for people who are fishing and we obviously stay far away from them). There is also a great trail near the water and it's a great place to let Morey swim and then dry off while we take a stroll.

Snow Cones

One of our adventures was going to visit a food truck park. This basically consists of a parking lot with several different food trucks in it. Each truck has its own specialty food so you can get an entire meal by visiting several trucks. We got bratwurst, fried pickles, snow cones, and cupcakes (a very nutritious and well-balanced meal).

The truck selling snow cones also catered to their canine clientele. Grandma wanted to spoil her granddog and so a chicken/bacon snow cone was purchased for Morey. After posing for the required picture, I released Morey to eat it. At first he just stared at me, unsure if I had really released him. I repeated the command and he carefully tasted it, then looked up at me as if to say "Really, I'm allowed to eat this?" Once he realized that yes, he really was allowed to eat the entire thing, he started gulping it down. He loves eating ice and so even once the topping was gone, he kept licking and chewing at the compacted ice. I think he might have gotten brain freeze because he did take a short break at one point before going right back at it. It was hot and sunny that day and we all enjoyed our snow cones!

And We're Back!

It has been a very busy few weeks in the life of Emily and Morey! I hope the many pictures in the following posts (courtesy of "Grandma") will serve as our apology for keeping all of our loyal fans waiting for news of our latest adventures.

Over Spring Break, Morey and I were very excited to spend part of the week with Grandma and Aunt Natalie (aka my mom and sister) visiting from Indiana. Although when they arrived it was in the 40s and raining, the weather did cooperate later in the week to allow us to enjoy some outdoor adventures in Austin. Thanks to Grandma's dutiful efforts to capture our visit in photo and video form I can share the highlights of our visit on our blog.

CROP Walk

Each year my church participates in the Austin CROP Walk. This is a national campaign/fundraiser to raise money to end hunger in the U.S. and internationally. The CROP Walk is an interfaith event and is held at a park on the outskirts of Austin and Morey and I were happy to be recruited as "walkers". Since dogs were welcome, I invited my friend who has Maggie and Ace to join us.

Morey was very excited to see Maggie and Ace and when they loaded up in my van, all the dogs were anticipating going swimming or running at the off-leash dog park since that is the only place we have ever taken them together. I think they were disappointed when they realized they were going to have to stay on leash and behave themselves. There were other dogs at the event and, for the most part, Morey did a very good job of controlling himself. We did have to do a lot of "stop and go"s until he realized that he was supposed to be walking next to me, not next to Maggie and Ace, but he soon he remembered that the key to moving forward was keeping the leash loose. Which was good because the path was not entirely paved and I had to do some "off-roading" up and down some slopes that had rocks and tree roots running through them. It was a challenge and the last thing I needed was Morey pulling on the leash at an inopportune time.

It's fun to take Morey places where he can interact with people and other dogs without his formal "service dog" rules. Yet there are some rules that are absolutes, whether he is "on duty" or "off duty". Pulling on the leash is one of those things. That is dangerous for me under any circumstances. Service dogs have a very high standard and "code of conduct" to live by.

When we had completed the walk the dogs were still very energetic and ready to play. The park required dogs to be on leash so my friend and I went back to our church and let the dogs run. (Our church has a large open area in the back with trees, grass, and an outdoor chapel. It's a great place to sit and let the dogs run and play). With only two tennis balls between the three dogs it was a race each time to see who would get it, but they are all so easy going that whoever didn't end up with a ball just followed the others back to try again next time. It took about an hour and a half before they were ready to call it quits and settle down to chew on the balls instead of chase them. Morey and I both slept well that night!

Explore UT

Every year in March, UT hosts "the biggest open house in Texas" called Explore UT. It's a chance for kids and families to come to UT and explore what college is all about. Each department and college has some fun activity to engage and give kids an idea of what their role is on campus. My office was teaching the American Sign Language alphabet along with some simple signs and were also printing kid's names in Braille (printed Braille, not raised Braille). By default Morey became another "activity" and we did a lot of educating about how to appropriately interact with a service dog, as well as demonstrating how he helps me.

We had printed our names in Braille and were wearing them as name tags. Morey had one too, of course, and kids had fun trying to figure out what his name was by identifying each of the Braille letters. One precocious girl looked at his name tag for about a minute and said "His name is Morey". I was impressed by how quickly she had figured it out and told her so. "Well, it's on his collar. And your name is Emily Shryock." She was looking at the ID tag on his collar that does indeed have his name and mine on it. Smart kid!